Day 7: Jesus, allow me to see you praying for me before the Father. Jesus, thank you for praying for me before the Father.
“[It is important] to carefully consider this truth, this reality: In this moment Jesus is praying for me. I can go forward in life because I have a lawyer who defends me. If I am guilty, [if] I have many sins.” Jesus “is a good defense attorney and will speak about me to the Father.” And just “to highlight that he is the first lawyer, he tells us: I will send you another Paraclete, another lawyer. But he is the first. And he prays for me …
In this way, “when — [whether] at church, at home with our families — we are in need or have problems, we say ‘pray for me,’ we have to say the same to Jesus: ‘Lord, pray for me.’”
And today how does Jesus pray? “I believe that he does not talk too much with the Father — he loves,” the Pope responded. He then added: “But there is one thing that Jesus does today, I am certain that he does: He shows his wounds to the Father. And Jesus, with his wounds, prays for us as if to say ‘Father, this is the price! Help them, protect them, they are your children whom I have saved.’”
Otherwise, advised Pope Francis, “one would not understand why Jesus, after the Resurrection, had this glorious, beautiful body: there were no bruises, there were no cuts from the scourging — all were healed, but the five wounds were there.”
And “Jesus wanted to take them to heaven to pray for us, to show the Father the price,” as if to say: “This is the price, do not leave them alone now, help them!”
We are used to praying to Jesus so that He might give us one grace or another, that He might help us, but we are not accustomed to contemplating Jesus who shows the Father His wounds, Jesus the intercessor, the mediator, Jesus who prays for us. …
Let us think about this a little, and let us turn to Jesus, grateful that He prays for us. Jesus prays for every one of us. Jesus is the intercessor. Jesus wanted to take His wounds with Him to show His Father the price of our salvation. We need to have more confidence; more than in our own prayers, in Jesus’ prayer.
Santa Marta homily, April 23, 2020
Conclude by praying five Our Fathers, as you contemplate each of Jesus’ five wounds. This is the invitation of Pope Francis:
Do not forget this: look at the crucifix, but to look within it. There is this beautiful devotion to pray an Our Father for each one of the five wounds: when we pray that Our Father, we seek to enter through Jesus’ wounds inside, inside, right to His heart. And there we will learn the great wisdom of Christ’s mystery, the great wisdom of the cross.
Read more:
What is Jesus doing in the tabernacle? The Bible’s answer
Background on Pope Francis’ devotion to the Five Wounds:
With repeated references in homilies and meditations, Pope Francis has revealed his special devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus.
The Holy Father sees in this devotion a path to arrive to the Sacred Heart, and there to find that this heart is the beating heart of Divine Mercy.
He also sees it as a path to draw close to suffering humanity, and to recognize that Jesus has taken his wounds to the Father in order to pray for his wounded brothers and sisters.
Let us meditate on the Five Wounds with Pope Francis as a novena in preparation for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which this year falls on June 11.
Previous days
Here: Day 1,Day 2,Day 3,Day 4, Day 5, Day 6
Join us for the following petitions in the coming days.
That I may behold your wounded beauty
That I may commit myself to you as my God
And today we celebrate...