During the Wednesday morning Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae, Pope Francis reflected on tears as “glasses to see Jesus.”
A group of policemen of the Vatican gendarmerie was among the congregation for the early morning Mass.
During the homily, the Holy Father referred to the day’s Gospel, which recounts Mary Magdalene’s meeting with the Risen One. The Pope mentioned her previous condition of “sinful woman,” who is redeemed by anointing Jesus’ feet and drying them with her hair.
Mary Magdalene is the emblem of an “abused woman also held in contempt by those who thought themselves just,” before Jesus forgave her many sins, as she “loved much.”
The new object of love of the repentant sinner is Jesus himself, whose death dismayed her as it meant “the failure of all her hopes.” Thus she bursts out crying, as is normal for one who mourns.
“Sometimes in our life tears are the glasses to see Jesus,” said Pope Francis. And it was in fact with her weeping, then, that Mary Magdalene transmitted this message: “I have seen the Lord.”
The grief of this woman, whose life was changed by her personal encounter with Jesus, is the grief of us all, in our “darkest moments.”
Hence it is right, the Pope said, to ask ourselves: “Have we had that goodness of tears that prepare our eyes to look at, to see the Lord?”
One can weep for many reasons, he continued: “out of goodness, for our sins, for graces, out of joy” and, like Magdalene, we can also ask the Lord for the “beautiful grace” of tears to prepare ourselves to see Him.
To see the Lord, does not mean to perceive Him with our sight but “within our heart,” explained the Holy Father. Only in this way can we give the witness of our life: “I live this way because I have seen the Lord.”
