The crowd, who just a little earlier had acclaimed him, now changes their praise into a cry of accusation, even to the point of preferring that a murderer be released in his place.  And so the hour of death on the cross arrives, that most painful form of shame reserved for traitors, slaves and the worst kind of criminals.  But isolation, defamation and pain are not yet the full extent of his deprivation.  To be totally in solidarity with us, he also experiences on the Cross the mysterious abandonment of the Father.  In his abandonment, however, he prays and entrusts himself: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46).  Hanging from the wood of the cross, beside derision he now confronts the last temptation: to come down from the Cross, to conquer evil by might and to show the face of a powerful and invincible God.  Jesus, however, even here at the height of his annihilation, reveals the true face of God, which is mercy.  He forgives those who are crucifying him, he opens the gates of paradise to the repentant thief and he touches the heart of the centurion.  If the mystery of evil is unfathomable, then the reality of Love poured out through him is infinite, reaching even to the tomb and to hell.  He takes upon himself all our pain that he may redeem it, bringing light to darkness, life to death, love to hatred.

--Pope Francis, Palm Sunday homily, March 20, 2016