Following is Zenit’s translation of the Holy Father’s March 29, 2020, homily during Mass at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.
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Jesus had friends, He loved all, but He had friends with whom He had a special relationship, as happens with friends — more love, more confidence. . . . And many, many times he stayed at the home of these brethren: Lazarus, Martha, Mary . . . And Jesus felt grief over the sickness and death of His friend. He reached the sepulcher and, profoundly moved and very troubled, He asked: “Where have you laid him?” And Jesus wept. Jesus, God, but man, wept. The Gospel tells us that Jesus wept one other time: when He wept over Jerusalem. And with how much tenderness Jesus weeps! He weeps from the heart, He weeps with love, He weeps with His own who weep. Jesus’ weeping; perhaps He wept at other times in His life — we don’t know –, no doubt in the Garden of Olives. But Jesus weeps out of love — always.
Profoundly moved and very troubled, He weeps. How many times we have heard in the Gospel this emotion of Jesus, with that phrase that is repeated: seeing, He felt compassion.” Jesus can’t see the people and not feel compassion. His eyes are with His heart; Jesus sees with the eyes, but He also sees with the heart and is capable of weeping.
Today, in face of a world that is suffering so much, of so many people suffering the consequences of this pandemic, I ask myself: are they capable of weeping, as Jesus would surely have done and as Jesus does now? Is my heart like Jesus’? And if it’s too hard, (even if) I am capable of speaking, of doing good, of helping, but <my> heart doesn’t enter in it, I’m not capable of weeping, ask the Lord for this grace: Lord, that I may weep with You, weep with Your people that is suffering at this moment. So many are weeping today. And we, from this altar, from the sacrifice of Jesus, of Jesus who was not ashamed to weep, let us ask for the grace to weep. May today be for all of us the Sunday of weeping.
Finally, the Pope ended the celebration with Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction, inviting <the faithful> to make a Spiritual Communion.
Here is the Prayer Recited by the Pope
My Jesus, I believe that You are really present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar. I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul. As I cannot receive you sacramentally now, come at least spiritually into my heart As You have now come, I embrace you and unite myself wholly to You. Do not permit me to be ever separated from You.
Before leaving the Chapel dedicated to the Holy Spirit, the Marian antiphon Ave Regina Caelorum (Hail Queen of Heaven”) was intoned.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
