Pope at Audience: Sincere sorrow can open door to conversion and joy

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Sorrow, if welcomed with sincerity, can be an opportunity for conversion and joy, for God never stops loving us: Pope Leo XIV offered this comforting reminder during his weekly General Audience on Wednesday morning—his last public event in the Vatican before departing for a few days at Castel Gandolfo later in the afternoon.

Due to the intense Roman heat, the audience took place inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. Regardless, the Holy Father still stopped over to greet faithful who were not able to fit into the Hall and were instead were in other locations nearby to stay out of the extreme temperatures.

Not to condemn, but to make reflect and express love

Continuing his series of catecheses on the Jubilee theme of Christ our Hope, the Holy Father focused this week on Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection by reflecting on the moment at the Last Supper when Jesus reveals that one of his disciples will betray Him.

In particular, the Pope explored the passage in which, during the Passover supper, Jesus says: “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 

“Strong words,” the Pope said. “Jesus does not utter them to condemn, but to show how love, when it is true, cannot do without the truth.”

And yet, Pope Leo observed, the way Jesus speaks about what is about to happen is surprising. He does not raise His voice, nor point His finger, nor utter the name of Judas.

Rather, he recalled, the Lord speaks in such a way that each person can reflect personally. The Pope said, “This is exactly what happens: ‘They began to be distressed and to say to Him, one by one, ‘Surely it is not I?’”

Journey of salvation begins with opportunity for conversion

This question—“Surely it is not I?”—Pope Leo said, is perhaps one of the most sincere we can ask ourselves.

“It is not,” he explained, “the question of the innocent, but of the disciple who discovers himself to be fragile—not the cry of the guilty, but the whisper of one who, while wanting to love, is aware of being capable of doing harm.”

Yet this realization, Pope Leo suggested, should not make us melancholy, for “it is in this awareness that the journey of salvation begins.” “Jesus does not denounce in order to humiliate. He tells the truth because He wants to save.”

Place for conversion

In order to be saved, the Pope added, one must be able to feel: “to feel that one is involved, to feel that one is beloved despite everything, to feel that evil is real but that it does not have the last word.”

Only those who have known the truth of deep love, he reminded, can also accept the wound of betrayal.

“The disciples’ reaction is not anger, but sadness. They are not indignant; they are sorrowful. It is a pain that arises from the real possibility of being involved.”

“Precisely this sorrow, if welcomed with sincerity,” the Pope said, “becomes a place for conversion.”

Painful opportunity for rebirth

The Gospel, he explained, does not teach us to deny evil, but to recognize it as a painful opportunity for rebirth.

“Jesus then adds a phrase that troubles us and makes us think: ‘But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born (Mk 14:21).’”

“They are harsh words, certainly,” the Pope said, “but they must be understood well: it is not a curse, but rather a cry of pain. In Greek, that ‘woe’ sounds like a lamentation, an ‘alas,’ an exclamation of sincere and deep compassion. . . . We are used to judging. Instead, God accepts suffering.”

Let’s not exclude ourselves from salvation

When the Lord sees evil, Pope Leo explained, He does not avenge it but grieves.

“And that ‘better if he had never been born,’” Pope Leo XIV explained, “is not a condemnation imposed a priori, but a truth that any of us can recognize: if we deny the love that has generated us—if, by betraying, we become unfaithful to ourselves—then we truly lose the meaning of our coming into the world, and we exclude ourselves from salvation.”

Light begins to shine in the darkness

And yet, even at the darkest point, the Holy Father observed, the light is not extinguished, but “on the contrary, it begins to shine.”

This is because, Pope Leo said, “if we recognize our limit, if we let ourselves be touched by the pain of Christ, then we can finally be born again,” since “faith does not spare us from the possibility of sin, but it always offers us a way out of it: that of mercy.”

Jesus is not scandalized by our fragility, the Pope said, for “He knows well” that no friendship is immune from the risk of betrayal.

“But,” Pope Leo reiterated, “He continues to trust, to sit at the table with His followers, and does not give up breaking bread, even for those who will betray Him.”

This, the Holy Father underscored, “is the silent power of God: He never abandons the table of love, even when He knows He will be left alone.”

Pursuing salvation

The Holy Father then issued an invitation to the faithful.

“Dear brothers and sisters, we too can ask ourselves today, with sincerity: ‘Surely it is not I?’” the Pope said—clarifying that this should be understood not in the sense of feeling accused, but in opening a space for truth in our hearts.

This, the Pope said, is where salvation begins—with the awareness that we may be the ones who break our trust in God, but that we can also be the ones who gather it, protect it, and renew it.

Even if we betray God, we can be converted by His love for His children

Pope Leo stressed that this gives us great hope.

“Ultimately, this is hope,” he said, “knowing that even if we fail, God will never fail us. Even if we betray Him, He never stops loving us. And if we allow ourselves to be touched by this love—humble, wounded, but always faithful—then we can truly be reborn.”

This, the Pope concluded, enables us to “live no longer as traitors, but as children who are always loved.”