When anyone cries out to God for healing or help, God always listens, Pope Leo XIV said yesterday. Source: CNS.
“There is no cry that God does not hear, even when we are not aware we are addressing him,” the Pope told thousands of people gathered under a hot sun in St Peter’s Square.
At his weekly general audience, the Pope spoke about the Gospel story of the healing of Bartimaeus as he continued a series of talks about how the life and ministry of Jesus is a source of hope.
And, noting that June is the month devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Leo invited people “to bring before the heart of Christ your most painful and fragile parts, those places in your life where you feel stuck and blocked. Let us trustfully ask the Lord to listen to our cry, and to heal us!”
In the Gospel story, the Pope said, Bartimaeus’ cry, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me,” is an act of faith. And even though the crowds tried to silence the blind man, he continued to cry out to Jesus.
“He is a beggar, he knows how to ask, indeed, he can shout,” the Pope said. “If you truly want something, you do everything in order to be able to reach it, even when others reproach you, humiliate you and tell you to let it be.”
“If you really desire it, you keep on shouting,” he said.
Pope Leo also said the Gospel story makes clear that Jesus does not go and lift Bartimaeus up, but encourages him to stand on his own, knowing that “he can rise from the throes of death.”
“But in order to do this, he must perform a very meaningful gesture: he must throw away his cloak,” the Pope said. And “for a beggar, the cloak is everything: it is his safety, it is his house, it is the defence that protects him.”
Christians today can learn from Bartimaeus, he said.
“To go to Jesus and let himself be healed, Bartimaeus must show himself to him in all his vulnerability. This is the fundamental step in any journey of healing.”
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Call out to Jesus for healing; he will hear you, Pope says (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
