Oct 3 Fri
Is it right to cry?
Pope Leo XIV explained that Jesus’ cry from the cross reveals the final stage of a love that is given up to the very end, and he encouraged us to view crying not as a weakness, but rather as an act of intense prayer.
Jesus shows us that crying out is not a weakness but an act of hope.
Jesus did not die in silence. He did not fade away gradually, like a light that burns out, but rather He left life with a cry.
That cry was more than the body surrendering, but the final sign of a life being offered. Before this, Jesus said: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Thus, the Son, who had always been in communion with the Father, experienced silence, absence, and solitude in the difficult moments of His Passion. Yet, it was not a crisis of faith, but the final stage of a love that gives itself to the very end.
Jesus cried out on the cross, not in desperation, but with sincerity; it was the truth taken to the limit, and trust that endures even when all is silent.
Then, the sky darkened and the veil in the temple was torn in two—as if all of creation was participating in Jesus’ pain. But this moment of darkness also revealed something new: God no longer dwells behind a veil—His face can be seen now in the Crucified One.
That image of Jesus’ broken body on the cross manifests the greatest love. We see that God is not distant from us, but giving all He had left, He joins us in our pain, in our life journey to the very end.
At the foot of the cross, one man understood this. The centurion—a pagan—came to believe after witnessing how Jesus died. His first statement of faith after Jesus' death was not a momentary profession, but one that truly touched and changed his heart.
At times, what we are unable to say in words, we express with voice. When the heart is bursting, it cries. This does not signify weakness, but rather is a deep act of humanity.
Our cries become a prayer when words do not suffice.
Crying out does not mean giving up or resigning to one’s fate. A person cries out because they believe someone can still hear them.
Jesus did not cry out against the Father, but to Him.
In that act of faith, Jesus shows us that we, too, can cry out with trust and hope, even when things seem lost.
Crying out is a human gesture, the first gesture we make when we are born, and it is a means of staying alive.
A cry born of love, addressed to God, will not be ignored. Crying means rejecting cynicism and carrying on the belief that a different world is possible.
A cry can be the threshold of a new light, of a new birth for us.