The Holy Week of Jubilee 2025 has ended. Christ is risen — Alleluia! The shadows of Golgotha have given way to the radiant dawn of Easter. The Passion has passed, but the call to compassion, especially in this Jubilee Year, echoes louder than ever.
As I prepare to return home to Thailand, I carry not just souvenirs or photographs, but a heart transformed.
I came as a pilgrim to Rome with the weight of questions and longings, and I leave with the quiet certainty that Christ is no longer on the Cross — He is risen and walks beside us.
This pilgrimage has been more than a physical journey; it has been a passage of the soul.
Like many pilgrims from Asia, I arrived with a foundation of faith, and I now return with renewed hope, wrapped in the mercy and grace I encountered in sacred spaces and quiet prayers.
The Holy Year theme, Pilgrims of Hope, now lives in me — more than a motto, it is a mission.
Rome, the heart of our Catholic faith, continues to draw seekers like magnets to its timeless treasures. The basilicas, the tombs of saints, the cobbled streets echoing with centuries of prayer — they speak to something deep in us all.I was moved to see not only the great shrines but also quiet corners of devotion: the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone off Piazza Navona, and Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew in San Luigi dei Francesi — the same painting where Pope Francis, then just Jorge Mario Bergoglio, often sought God’s voice in discernment.
The crowds were immense, but even more striking was the presence of youth.
I saw so many young people — prayerful, joyful, alive with faith. Their presence is a hopeful sign, a fruit of Pope Francis’ loving invitation to the margins and to the future.
Thanks to the Holy Father for giving the Church a face that radiates mercy and speaks to the hearts of the young.
Though convalescing, Pope Francis gave us his words — rich, raw, and real.
In his Good Friday meditation, he reminded us that in a world dominated by cold calculations and relentless interests, there is only one path of healing: to turn to the Savior.
He asked us to embrace God’s economy — one that “does not kill, discard, or crush.”
On Easter Vigil, he wrote that the Resurrection “illumines our path,” and on Easter Sunday, he implored us to “seek the risen Christ” not among the tombs of the past, but “in the faces of our brothers and sisters.”
Then came the moment we had all hoped for. After the Easter Eucharistic Liturgy, Pope Francis appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica — frail, yet radiant — blessing the world with a gentle smile.
Then, in a gesture of immense love, he descended to St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile, waving gently to pilgrims, some of whom had tears in their eyes. It was not just a sighting of the Pope — it was a meeting of hearts.
The Triduum structured our reflection: the Last Supper’s humility, the Cross’s sorrow, and the empty tomb’s surprise.
And with it, the Church invited us into the grace of plenary indulgence — not as a ritual reward, but as a profound release, for ourselves and for our loved ones who have gone before us.
One scene remains in my mind: the steps of St. Peter’s, adorned with a breathtaking garden of flowers from the Netherlands — a living symbol of life after death, of beauty born from the darkness of Holy Saturday.
Easter is not a day but a movement — one that propels us forward.
Pilgrimage, I now understand, is not just travel. It is transformation.
For me, it has been a mirror — reflecting my beliefs, my questions, my hopes.
It has been a lamp — illuminating paths I had not yet seen.
It has been a voice — reminding me that to be Christian is to be constantly rising.
I return home knowing that Christ is no longer nailed to wood. He is alive — in the friend we forgive, in the hungry we feed, in the refugee we welcome, in the lonely we visit.
And as Pope Francis urged us, we must go — we must seek Him, carry His light, and hasten to share our Easter joy with the world.
Chainarong Monthienvichienchai is the former president of Unda – International Catholic Association for Radio and Television – and Thailand’s first Knight Grand Cross of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great.
