Pope Francis is in St. Peter's Square for the general audience.
Before starting the catechesis he took a long ride in the popemobile, picking up some children and greeting the faithful.
Arriving in the churchyard, the Pontiff then moved towards his chair with the help of a stick.
Starting tomorrow, Pope Francis will preside over the Easter triduum with two appointments tomorrow, two Fridays, the Easter Vigil on Saturday and Mass and Urbi et Orbi on Sunday.
"One cannot live without hope": the Pope said this in the general audience, emphasizing that there are so many "sad people".
"When I could have gone on the streets, now I can't because they won't let me, when I went to the other diocese, how many sad people", "people who walked, alone, with cell phones" but "without peace and without hope", "it takes hope to be healed of the sadness we are sick with, of the bitterness with which we pollute the church and the world", Pope Francis underlined.
"Look at the wardrobe of the soul: how many useless things, how many stupid things".
The Pope said this at the general audience when he recounted that at Casa Santa Marta, the hotel inside the Vatican where he lives, "fifteen days ago word got out, for this Holy Week, to look in the cloakroom and send away the things we have and don't use", "you don't imagine useless things" and "this went to poor people in need".
"Look at your wardrobe and clean up", "look at the wardrobe of the soul", was the Pope's invitation.
In this holy week, the Pope invites us to look at the crucifix to rediscover hope.
"Jesus is alone: betrayed, handed over and denied by him, by his friends, by his disciples, condemned by the religious and civil powers, excommunicated, he even feels abandoned by God".
"In this way - said the Pontiff in the general audience - he converts evil into good, in this way he transforms pain into love. So the point is not to be hurt a little or a lot by life, but what to do with these wounds. I can let them infect resentment and in sadness or I can unite them to those of Jesus, so that my wounds also become luminous".
"Think of how many young people who cannot tolerate their own wounds and seek a way of salvation in suicide today, in our cities, many young people who see no way out,
they have no hope and prefer to go further, with drugs" and "you, what is your drug to cover the wounds?". So let us ask God for "the gift of hope, which the world needs so much". "In these holy days let us approach the Crucifix.
Let us place ourselves before Him, stripped, to make truth about ourselves, removing something superfluous.
Let Jesus regenerate hope in us", concluded the Pope.
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