Now, at a moment of terrible rumblings of worldly powers and further threats to those who are already oppressed, exhausted, and deserving of human solidarity, Pope Francis accompanies the poor with what might be the last breaths of the final days of his life (though we pray otherwise).
This morning, I came across a text from a talk Pope Francis gave last year. The excerpts quoted below seem worth citing today. No matter what we face today, or may face in days to come, we must never lose hope in Christ:
"In suffering, God’s first answer is not a discourse or a theory, but it is to walk with us, to stay next to us. Jesus lets Himself be touched by our pain; He travels the same road as us and does not leave us alone, but rather frees us from the burden that oppresses us by carrying it for us and with us...
"Pain, especially when it is so agonizing and without explanation, needs only to cling to the thread of a prayer that cries out to God, day and night, that sometimes expresses itself in the absence of words, that does not attempt to resolve the drama but, on the contrary, inhabits questions that always recur: 'Why, Lord? Why did it happen to me? Why did you not intervene? Where are you, while humanity suffers and my heart mourns an unfathomable loss?'
"Brothers and sisters, these questions, which burn within, trouble the heart; at the same time, though, if we set out, with such courage and also with hardship as you do, it is precisely these same pained questions that open up glimmers of light, that give the strength to keep going. Indeed, there is nothing worse than silencing pain, suppressing suffering, removing trauma without coming to terms with it, as our world often induces us to do, in haste and in a daze. The question that one lifts up to God as a cry is, instead, salutary. It is prayer. Although it forces us to dig into a painful memory and to mourn the loss, at the same time it becomes the first step of invocation and opens one up to receive the consolation and inner peace that the Lord does not fail to give.
"Jesus who walks with you, Jesus who enters your home and lets Himself be touched by pain and death, Jesus who takes you by the hand to lift you up again. He wants to dry your tears and He wants to reassure you: death does not have the last word. The Lord does not leave us without consolation."
~Pope Francis, March 2, 2024
