- 14 August, 2025
Vatican, August 14, 2025: At his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, August 13, Pope Leo XIV reminded the faithful that “even if we betray Him, He never stops loving us,” stressing that sincere sorrow can open the door to conversion and joy.
Reflecting on the Last Supper, the Pope recalled Jesus’ words: “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” “Strong words,” he said, “not to condemn, but to show how love, when it is true, cannot do without the truth.” Jesus did not raise His voice or name Judas, but spoke so that “each person can reflect personally.”
The disciples’ question—“Surely it is not I?”—the Pope noted, is not from the innocent but from “the disciple who discovers himself to be fragile.” This awareness, he said, “is where the journey of salvation begins. Jesus does not denounce in order to humiliate. He tells the truth because He wants to save.”
To be saved, the Pope explained, one must “feel that one is involved, to feel that one is beloved despite everything, to feel that evil is real but that it does not have the last word.” Sincere sorrow, he added, “becomes a place for conversion.”
Commenting on Jesus’ words about Judas—“It would be better for that man if he had never been born”—the Pope said this is “not a curse, but… an exclamation of sincere and deep compassion.”
Faith, he reminded, “always offers us a way out… mercy.” Jesus, knowing His followers’ fragility, “never abandons the table of love, even when He knows He will be left alone.”
Pope Leo invited all to ask sincerely: “Surely it is not I?”—not as self-accusation, but as an opening to truth and rebirth.
Addressing Polish pilgrims, he urged them to “implore God for peace for all nations experiencing the tragedy of war.”
Courtesy: Vatican News
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