For the second consecutive year, we celebrate the Passion and Death of Jesus in our homes. The celebrations, closed to the public, reflect the reality we are living in Brazil today, with the death of almost four thousand people per day due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The entire country suffers this pain.

To aid in reflection on this day, the Canonization Cause team found excerpts from a homily given by Father Eustáquio during Holy Week in 1943. Despite being written 78 years ago, the text seems to have been written for the time we live in today, a time of so much suffering and pain.

Check out what Father Eustáquio wrote:

“"The world is going through a time of bloodshed, a time of tears. Children weep for their parents and parents weep for their children. How much pain, how much suffering in the hearts of men!"

And what remedies are there for these pains? Will worldly pleasures be able to provide the missing solace? Will entertainment—cinema, dances, concerts—be able to alleviate them? They only make us forget for a moment, but console us? No! A thousand times no! There is no balm in this world that can soothe us, that can take away the pain of our soul, even for a single moment.

But let us not despair! There is a very capable source of abundant balm that not only alleviates our sorrows but transforms them into joys. This source is our religion, and in particular, meditation on the passion and death of Our Lord.

Have you never tasted how sweet it is to meditate on the Passion of the Lord? Do you know what it means to mingle your tears with the tears of Jesus? Let us unite our sorrows with those of Jesus! Let us compare our sorrows with his! In the time of our suffering, we should imagine Jesus hanging on the cross, exclaiming: "O you who pass by here, look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow!"

Meditating on the sufferings of Jesus not only alleviates our own, but removes them and replaces them with joy. In this time of Passion, let us frequent the Holy Sacraments more often and more frequently. Above all, let us draw closer to the table of communion, for the presence of Jesus cleanses our hearts of all faults.

What better explains the reason for suffering in the world than the very passion and death of our Lord? He wanted to be like us, to whom Divine Providence sends suffering for our own good.

Let us convert to God with all our hearts, the Church prays so many times in the breviary. May the true King, Christ Jesus, reign in your hearts, reign in your families! Renounce the wickedness of our times, which have so provoked God's wrath!

Far be it from us to have a worldly spirit, and "Today, when you hear the voice of God, do not harden your hearts."“

Excerpts taken from the "Bulletin of the Sacred Hearts Parish," published on April 7, 1946.