Crying out to God during moments of extreme trial does not mark a crisis of faith but can reflect an act of total surrender to and enduring trust in God, Pope Leo XIV said yesterday. Source: CNS.
“In the journey of life, there are moments in which keeping something inside can slowly consume us,” the Pope told thousands of people huddled under umbrellas or dressed in rain gear in St Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience.
“Jesus teaches us not to be afraid to cry out, as long as it is sincere, humble, addressed to the Father,” he said.
“A cry is never pointless if it is born of love, and it is never ignored if it is delivered to God,” he said. “It is a way to not give in to cynicism, to continue to believe that another world is possible.”
The Pope offered special greetings to Arabic-speaking faithful, especially those from the Holy Land.
“I invite you to transform your cry in times of trial and tribulation into a prayer of trust, because God always listens to his children and responds at the moment he deems best for us,” he said.
Pope Leo also asked the faithful to find inspiration in Sts Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, the two young men he canonised on Sunday, and, like them, “learn from Christ the cry of hope and the desire to open our hearts to the will of the Father who wants our salvation.”
The Pope continued his series of reflections on lessons of hope from the Gospel stories of Jesus’s last days, focusing on the crucified Christ’s cry to God and his death on the cross.
Before he cried out on the cross, Pope Leo said, Jesus asked “one of the most heart-rending” questions that could ever be uttered: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“The Son, who always lived in intimate communion with the Father, now experiences silence, absence, the abyss. It is not a crisis of faith, but the final stage of a love that is given up to the very end,” the Pope said. “Jesus’s cry is not desperation, but sincerity, truth taken to the limit, trust that endures even when all is silent.”
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Crying out to God can be sign of hope, not crisis of faith, Pope says (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
