The word “prepare,” central in the Gospel narrative just before the Last Supper, holds a secret of Christian life, Pope Leo XIV said in his Aug. 6 General Audience.
Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus where He wants them to prepare for Him to eat the Passover, and His response “seems almost to be a riddle,” Pope Leo said in the address, which is the first of a series of the Pontiff’s reflections on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus tells them to go into the city where they will meet a man carrying a jar of water, whom they must follow until he enters a house; there, the master of the house will show them a furnished upper room ready for Jesus and His disciples for the Passover, as the Gospel of Mark in chapter 14 reads. Jesus tells the disciples to make the preparations there.
The details of this instruction seem “as if everything has been arranged in advance,” Pope Leo said. “In fact, this is exactly the case. In this episode, the Gospel shows that love is not the result of chance, but of a conscious choice.”
“It is not a simple reaction, but a decision that requires preparation,” he continued. “Jesus does not face his passion out of fatalism, but out of fidelity to a path freely and carefully accepted and followed. This is what comforts us: knowing that the gift of his life stems from conscious intention, not a sudden impulse.”
The upper room, prepared for Christ and His disciples, shows “that God always precedes us,” the Pope said. “Even before we realize we need to be welcomed, the Lord has already prepared a space for us where we can recognize ourselves and feel we are his friends. This place is, fundamentally, our heart: a ‘room’ that may seem empty, but which awaits only to be recognized, filled and cherished.”
Further, this intersection of choice and God’s will is an opportunity for true freedom, according to the Pope. While Jesus has already arranged and thought of everything, He asks the disciples “to their part.”
“This teaches us something essential for our spiritual life: grace does not eliminate our freedom, but rather awakens it,” Pope Leo said. “God’s gift does not eliminate our responsibility, but makes it fruitful.”
Further, the faithful today are called to prepare for God both liturgically and in daily life, he said.
“The Eucharist is not celebrated only at the altar, but also in daily life, where it is possible to experience everything as an offering and giving of thanks. To prepare to celebrate this thanksgiving does not mean doing more, but leaving room,” he explained. “It means removing what encumbers us, reducing our demands and ceasing to hold unrealistic expectations.”
In previous addresses and meditations, the Pope has spoken frequently on the importance of “encounter,” of Christ and of others. In this meditation, he emphasized that “preparations make an encounter possible.” Thus, because of this anticipatory gift of self, love “is given before it is reciprocated,” the Pope said.
The faithful today are invited to prepare a place for God to dwell, liturgically and in daily life, and the Pope emphasized that anticipatory charitable efforts are a means to prepare.
“We can ask ourselves, then: what spaces in my life do I need to put in order so that they are ready to receive the Lord? What does it mean for me today to ‘prepare’? Perhaps to renounce a demand, to stop waiting for others to change, to take the first step,” Pope Leo said. “Perhaps to listen more, to act less, or to learn how to trust in what has already been prepared.”
Encounter and relationship with God will lead to true freedom in life, he said.
“If we accept the invitation to prepare the place of communion with God and among ourselves, we will discover we are surrounded by signs, encounters and words that guide us towards that room, spacious and already prepared, in which the mystery of an infinite love, sustaining us and always preceding us, is celebrated unceasingly,” he said. “May the Lord grant us to be humble preparers of His presence. And, in this daily readiness, may that serene trust also grow in us, allowing us to face everything with a free heart. Because where love has been prepared, life can truly flourish.”
At the end of the audience, Pope Leo greeted the English-speaking pilgrims from South Africa, Vietnam, Canada, and the US, encouraging them to participate actively in the Eucharist and engage in works of charity even amid the summer period of holiday and recreation.
Concluding, Pope Leo reiterated an appeal against the use of nuclear weapons, acknowledging how this week marks the 80th anniversary of when the US dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He also emphasized that he is praying for the victims who suffer from the bombs’ physical, social, and psychological effects.
“Despite the passing of the years, those tragic events constitute a universal warning against the devastation caused by wars and, in particular, by nuclear weapons,” Pope Leo said. “I hope that in the contemporary world, marked by strong tensions and bloody conflicts, the illusory security based on the threat of mutual destruction may give way to the tools of justice, to the practice of dialogue, and to trust in fraternity.”