Pope Leo XIV used his final public event in the Vatican before a short retreat in Castel Gandolfo to offer a message of hope, reminding the faithful that sincere sorrow—when welcomed with openness—can be the very doorway to conversion and joy.
According to Vatican News, the Holy Father reflected on Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me” (Mk 14:18). He explained that Christ’s purpose was “not to condemn, but to show how love, when it is true, cannot do without the truth.” Rather than shaming Judas publicly, Jesus spoke in a way that prompted every disciple to ask in distress, “Surely it is not I?”
Pope Leo noted that this question is not one of the innocent but of the follower who knows his own fragility. “It is in this awareness,” he said, “that the journey of salvation begins” because Christ “tells the truth because He wants to save” (Vatican News). Recognizing the capacity to fail is not cause for despair, he stressed, but the starting point for returning to God.
This sorrow, he continued, must be genuine. If we allow ourselves to feel involved, to know we are loved despite our faults, and to see that evil does not have the last word, then sorrow becomes “a place for conversion.” Even Jesus’ warning—“Woe to that man… it would be better for that man if he had never been born” (Mk 14:21)—should be heard not as a curse but “a cry of pain… an exclamation of sincere and deep compassion.”
The Pope reminded the faithful that “even if we fail, God will never fail us. Even if we betray Him, He never stops loving us.” Conversion, he said, is always possible when we let ourselves be touched by this “humble, wounded, but always faithful” love. In this way, we can move from living as traitors to living as “children who are always loved.”
Concluding, Pope Leo invited all Catholics to ask with sincerity, “Surely it is not I?”—not in accusation, but to open a space for truth in our hearts where salvation can begin. He also called on Polish pilgrims, through the intercession of St. Maximilian Kolbe, to “implore God for peace for all nations experiencing the tragedy of war” (Vatican News).
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