Lord Jesus, our gaze is turned to you, full of shame, remorse and hope.
Before your supreme love
shame pervades us for having left you alone to suffer for our sins:
shame for having fled when tested despite having said to you a thousand times: “even if all leave you, I will never leave you”;
shame for having chosen Barabbas and not you, power and not you, appearances and not you, the god of money and not you, worldliness and not eternity;
shame for having tempted you with mouth and heart, each time that we faced a trial, saying to you: “you are the Messiah, save yourself and we will believe!”;
shame because many people, and even some of your ministers, have allowed themselves to be deceived by ambition and vainglory, losing their dignity and the love they had at first;
shame because our generations are leaving young people a world fractured by divisions and war; a world devoured by selfishness in which the young, the children, the sick, the elderly are marginalized;
shame for having lost our shame;
Lord Jesus, grant us always the grace of holy shame!
(Pope Francis Contemplation of the Way of the Cross 2018)
Leave a Reply