The Surrender (General Audience)

"He surrenders. Not out of weakness, but out of love."

This is an English translation of the speech given by Pope Leo XIV during his weekly General Audience on 27 August 2025.

Transcript

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today we focus on a scene that marks the beginning of Jesus' Passion: the moment of his arrest in the Garden of Olives. The evangelist John, with his customary depth, does not present a frightened Jesus, one who flees or hides. Instead, he shows us a free man, who steps forward and speaks, facing head-on the hour when the light of the greatest love can be revealed.

"Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, came forward and said to them, 'Whom do you seek?'" Jesus knows. Yet he decides not to retreat. He surrenders. Not out of weakness, but out of love. A love so full, so mature, that it does not fear rejection. Jesus is not captured: he lets himself be captured. He is not the victim of an arrest, but the author of a gift. This gesture embodies a hope of salvation for our humanity: knowing that, even in the darkest hour, we can remain free to love to the fullest.

When Jesus responds, "I am," the soldiers fall to the ground. This is a mysterious passage, since this expression, in biblical revelation, recalls the very name of God: "I am." Jesus reveals that God's presence manifests itself precisely where humanity experiences injustice, fear, and loneliness. Precisely there, the true light is willing to shine without fear of being overwhelmed by the advancing darkness.

In the heart of the night, when everything seems to be crumbling, Jesus shows that Christian hope is not evasion, but decision. This attitude is the fruit of a profound prayer in which we do not ask God to spare us from suffering, but to have the strength to persevere in love, knowing that life freely offered for love cannot be taken from us by anyone.

"If you seek me, let these men go their way". At the moment of his arrest, Jesus isn't concerned with saving himself: he only wants his friends to be free. This demonstrates that his sacrifice is a true act of love. Jesus allows himself to be captured and imprisoned by the guards only so that they can free his disciples.

Jesus has lived every day of his life in preparation for this dramatic and sublime hour. Therefore, when it arrives, he has the strength not to seek an escape. His heart knows well that losing one's life for love is not a failure, but possesses a mysterious fruitfulness. Like the grain of wheat that, falling to the ground, is not left alone, but dies and becomes fruitful.

Jesus, too, is troubled by a path that seems to lead only to death and the end. But he is equally convinced that only a life lost for love is ultimately found. This is where true hope lies: not in trying to avoid pain, but in believing that, even in the heart of the most unjust suffering, the seed of a new life lies hidden.

And us? How often do we defend our lives, our plans, our certainties, without realizing that, in doing so, we remain alone. The logic of the Gospel is different: only what is given flourishes; only love that becomes gratuitous can restore trust even where all seems lost.

The Gospel of Mark also tells us of a young man who, when Jesus is arrested, runs away naked. It is an enigmatic yet profoundly evocative image. We too, in our attempt to follow Jesus, experience moments when we are caught off guard and stripped of our certainties. These are the most difficult moments, when we are tempted to abandon the path of the Gospel because love seems an impossible journey. Yet, it is a young man himself, at the end of the Gospel, who announces the resurrection to the women, no longer naked, but clothed in a white robe.

This is the hope of our faith: our sins and our hesitations do not prevent God from forgiving us and restoring our desire to resume our following, to enable us to give our lives for others.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us too learn to surrender ourselves to the good will of the Father, allowing our lives to be a response to the good we have received. In life, there's no point in having everything under control. It's enough to choose each day to love freely. This is true hope: knowing that, even in the darkness of trial, God's love sustains us and allows the fruit of eternal life to mature within us.