- 04 September, 2025
Vatican City, Sept. 4, 2025 — Pope Leo XIV reflected on Jesus’ final words from the Cross — “I thirst” and “It is finished” — during his Wednesday General Audience on September 3. Delivering his catechesis to thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope explained that these two phrases reveal Jesus’ desire for love, relationship, and communion.
“As He hung upon the Cross and humanity faced our most luminous yet darkest moment,” noted the Pope, “Jesus spoke those two sentences filled with an entire lifetime, which reveal the entire existence of the Son of God.”
“Jesus appears on the Cross as a ‘supplicant for love’, not as a victorious hero,” he said. “He humbly asks for what He, alone, cannot give to Himself in any way.”
The Pope pointed out that Jesus’ thirst on the Cross was not only the physiological need of a tortured body but also “an expression of a profound desire: that of love, of relationship, of communion.”
“It is the silent cry of a God who, having wished to share everything of our human condition, also lets Himself be overcome by this thirst,” said the Pope. “Our God is not ashamed to beg for a sip, because in that gesture He tells us that love, in order to be true, must also learn to ask and not only to give.”
“In expressing His thirst,” noted Pope Leo, “Jesus shows that we cannot be self-sufficient or save ourselves, since His next words—‘It is finished’—come after He receives a sponge soaked with vinegar.”
“Love has made itself needy,” the Pope said, “and precisely for this reason it has accomplished its work.”
“The Christian paradox is that God saves ‘not by doing but by letting Himself be done unto; not defeating evil with force but by accepting the weakness of love to the very end,’” the Holy Father added.
“Salvation is not found in autonomy but in humbly recognising one’s own need and in being able to express it freely,” the Pope stated.
“Humanity finds fulfilment in trust,” added Pope Leo, “which opens us up to true hope since even the Son of God could not be self-sufficient, thirsting as He did for love, meaning, and justice.”
“Jesus saves us by showing us that asking is not unworthy but liberating,” he said. “It is the way out of the hiddenness of sin to re-enter the space of communion. Ever since the beginning, sin has begotten shame. But forgiveness – real forgiveness – is born when we can face up to our needs and no longer fear rejection.”
As He thirsted on the Cross, said the Pope, Jesus expressed all of wounded humanity’s cry for living water in such a way that it leads us to God and unites us to Him.
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV invited Christians to find joy and true fulfilment in fraternity, the simple life, the art of asking without shame, and offering what we can without ulterior motives.
“Let us not be afraid to ask, especially when it seems to us that we do not deserve it,” he said. “Let us not be ashamed to reach out our hand. It is right there, in that humble gesture, that salvation hides.”
Courtesy: Vatican News
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