Pope Francis at Mass: crying out to God for succour
(Vatican Radio) 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 the Discipline of the Sacraments
and of the Vatican Apostolic Library. Among others, the Prefect of the Congregation,
Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera; Archbishop Joseph DiNoia, secretary of the same
Congregation; and Monsignor Cesare Pasini, Prefect of the Library. Listen:
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 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.”