June 05, 2013: Lamenting one’s suffering to God is not a sin, but a prayer of the
heart that reaches the Lord: this was Pope Francis’ reflection at Mass Wednesday morning
in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence at the Vatican, with the presence
of some members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and of the Vatican Apostolic
Library. Among others, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Archbishop. Cesare Pasini
and Msgr. Joseph Di Noia concelebrated.
The story of Tobit and Sarah, reported
in the first reading of the day, was the focus of the Pope’s homily: Two just people
who live dramatic situations. The first is blinded despite his performing good works,
even risking his life, and the second marries seven men in turn, each of whom dies
before their wedding night. Both, in their great sorrow, pray to God to let them die.
“They are people in extreme situations,” explained Pope Francis, “and they seek a
way out.” He said, “They complain,” but, “they do not blaspheme.”:
“To lament
before God is not a sin. A priest I know once said to a woman who lamented to God
about her misfortune: ‘But, madam, that is a form of prayer. Go ahead [with it].’
The Lord hears, He listens to our complaints. Think of the greats, of Job, when in
chapter III (he says): ‘Cursed be the day I came into the world,’ and Jeremiah, in
the twentieth chapter: ‘Cursed be the day’ – they complain even cursing, not the Lord,
but the situation, right? It is only human.”
The Holy Father also reflected
on the many people who live borderline cases: malnourished children, refugees, the
terminally ill. He went on to observe that, in the Gospel of the day, there are the
Sadducees who present to Jesus the difficult case of a woman, who is the widow of
seven men. Their question, however, was not posed with sincerity:
“The Sadducees
were talking about this woman as if she were a laboratory, all aseptic - hers was
an [abstract] moral [problem]. When we think of the people who suffer so much, do
we think of them as though they were an [abstract moral conundrum], pure ideas, ‘but
in this case ... this case ...’, or do we think about them with our hearts, with our
flesh, too? I do not like it when people speak about tough situations in an academic
and not a human manner, sometimes with statistics ... and that’s it. In the Church
there are many such people in this situation.”
The Pope said that in these
cases, we must do what Jesus says, pray:
“Pray for them. They must come into
my heart, they must be a [cause of] restlessness for me: my brother is suffering,
my sister suffers. Here [is] the mystery of the communion of saints: pray to the Lord,
‘But, Lord, look at that person: he cries, he is suffering. Pray, let me say, with
the flesh: that our flesh pray. Not with ideas. Praying with the heart.”
And
the prayers of Tobit and Sarah, which they offer up to the Lord even despite their
asking to die, give us hope, because they are accepted by God in His own way, who
does not let them die, but heals Tobit and finally gives a husband to Sara. Prayer,
he explained, always reaches God, [so long as] it is prayer from the heart.” Instead,
“when it is [an abstract exercise], such as that the Sadducees were discussing, never
reaches him, because it never goes out of ourselves: we do not care. It is an intellectual
game.” In conclusion, Pope Francis called on the faithful to pray for those who live
dramatic situations and who suffer as much as Jesus on the cross, who cry, “Father,
Father, why have you forsaken me?” Let us pray - he concluded – “so that our prayer
reaches [heaven] and let it be [a source of] hope for all of us.”