Marking another in a series of recent surprise public appearances, Pope Francis on Sunday briefly greeted thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square to celebrate Palm Sunday.

“Happy Palm Sunday and beginning of Holy Week!” the Holy Father said with some difficulty to the cheers of the large crowd that filled the square and spilled out along the Via della Conciliazione.

Unable to participate in the Palm Sunday Mass, the 88-year-old Pontiff, still convalescing after a serious bout of double pneumonia that kept him hospitalized for weeks, arrived in a wheelchair toward the end of the outdoor liturgy, smiling and without nasal tubes as he passed by clergy, religious men and women, and laypeople standing near the altar.

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, vice dean of the College of Cardinals, presided over the Mass as the Pope’s delegate and read the Holy Father’s written homily to crowds of people waving palms and olive branches under overcast skies.

In his prepared homily, the Pope exhorted Christians to “experience the great miracle of mercy” by accompanying Jesus in his journey to the cross.

“Let us decide how we are meant to carry our own cross during this Holy Week: if not on our shoulders, in our hearts,” the Pope shared. “And not only our cross, but also the cross of those who suffer all around us.”

Pope Francis’ homily focused on Simon of Cyrene, who, in St. Luke‘s Gospel, “unexpectedly found himself caught up in a drama” of Christ’s crucifixion.

“As we make our own way towards Calvary, let us reflect for a moment on Simon’s actions, try to look into his heart, and follow in his footsteps at the side of Jesus,” the Pope observed.

Though the man from Cyrene did not take up Jesus’ cross and follow him out of “conviction” but, rather, of “coercion,” the Holy Father praised him for being present to help the suffering Jesus and, in an “unexpected and astonishing way,” becomes “part of the history of salvation.”

“Between him and Jesus, there is no dialogue; not a single word is spoken. Between him and Jesus, there is only the wood of the cross,” the Pope wrote.

“When we think of what Simon did for Jesus, we should also think of what Jesus did for Simon — what he did for me, for you, for each of us: He redeemed the world,” he added.

Placing emphasis on Christ’s infinite love, which, “in obedience to the Father,” bore the sins of all humanity, the Pope highlighted that Christians believe in a God who “suffered with us and for us.”

“Let us remember that God has made this road a place of redemption, for he walked it himself, giving his life for us,” the Pope urged.

Pope’ Angelus Message

In his Palm Sunday Angelus address released by the Vatican, the Holy Father asked Christians to continue to pray for those who are suffering in the world because of war, poverty and disasters.

“The 15th of April will mark the second sad anniversary of the beginning of the conflict in Sudan, in which thousands have been killed and millions of families have been forced to flee their homes,” he said in his message.

“The suffering of children, women and vulnerable people cries out to heaven and begs us to act,” he added.

On Friday, Sudanese paramilitaries killed the entire nine-member staff of the last medical clinic in a refugee camp in the western region of Darfur, Sudan, according to a report in The New York Times, citing aid groups and the United Nations. In all, at least 100 people were killed in an assault on the camp, which is populated by a half-million people displaced by the country's civil war, the report said.

Noting other ongoing civil wars affecting populations in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, the Pope asked people to pray for peace in Congo, South Sudan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Myanmar.

In his address, the Holy Father also asked people to remember the victims and families of the Santo Domingo disaster, in the Dominican Republic, which killed more than 200 people after a nightclub roof collapsed on April 8.

Pope Francis said, “May Mary, Mother of Sorrows, obtain this grace for us and help us to live this Holy Week with faith.”