“Worldly hopes” crumble “before the Cross, but new hopes are reborn, different hopes”, Pope Francis said in his General Audience catechesis today. Referring to Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, that we celebrated last Sunday, the Pontiff recalled that “those people placed many hopes in Jesus: many expected miracles and great signs of Him, as well as displays of power, or even freedom from hostile invaders”. “Who would have thought that Jesus would soon be humiliated instead, that He would be condemned and sentenced to death on a Cross?”, Pope Francis continued. “The worldly hopes of those people crumbled before the Cross, but we believe that it is in the Crucified that our hope was reborn”. “It is a different hope from that of the world”, the Pope pointed out. “What is this hope all about? This hope that is born of the Cross?”. “What Jesus said after entering Jerusalem may help us understand that”, the Pontiff answered: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit”. “Let us think of a grain, a small seed that falls to the ground”, Pope Francis told the 10,000 faithful present in St Peter’s Square today: “if it remains closed in on itself, nothing happens; but if it breaks, if it opens up, then it gives life to a ear of grain, a bud, then a plant, and the plant will then bear fruit”. “Jesus brought new hope to the world, He did it as a seed does”, the Pope remarked: “He became small, very small, like a seed of wheat; He left His heavenly glory to come among us: He fell to the ground. But that was not enough. In order to bear fruit, Jesus lived love to the full, He allowed Himself to be broken by death as a seed in the ground. And it was from there, in his extreme humiliation – which was also His highest love – that hope sprang forth”.