This is the fifth in a new series of posts sharing Pope Leo XIV’s words each Wednesday in his Weekly Audience, a time when he teaches, encourages, and shapes the mission of the Church around the world. Check back here each Wednesday to get to know Pope Leo!
“Hope cries out, even when all seems lost.”
In this week’s Wednesday audience, Pope Leo XIV contemplates the culmination of Jesus’ life in this world: his death on the cross.
On the cross, Jesus does not die in silence—he leaves life with a cry that contains his pain and abandonment, his surrender and hope. His cry is not a cry of desperation, but of trust—that even in the silence, he was being heard.
Jesus’ cry from the cross reminds us that our own cry is never ignored by God.
“Let us learn the cry of hope. . . . Not to hurt, but to entrust ourselves. Not to shout at someone, but to open our hearts. If our cry is genuine, it can be the threshold of a new light, a new birth. As with Jesus: when everything seemed to be over, in reality, salvation was about to begin.”
