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Jesus looks upon us with compassion, Pope tells pilgrims
June 15, 2026
During his June 14 Angelus address (video), Pope Leo XIV emphasized that Jesus looks upon the world with compassion.
“Today’s Gospel (Mt 9:36–10:8) brings us a great gift, for it draws all who hear it into Jesus’ gaze: it is a story that bears witness to the attentiveness of this gaze, as well as telling us what the Lord sees,” Pope Leo told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “We read, in fact, that Christ, ‘when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless’“ (v. 36).
“Having become our brother, the Son of God looks at the people, he looks at humanity: he sees the oppression that burdens and the violence that causes strength to fade,” the Pope continued. “He sees the wounds of war and the emptiness of consumerism. He sees faces reduced to masks, families torn apart by evil, and young people misled by false ideals.”
“Jesus sees and loves,” the Pope added. “He loves and suffers for and with us: his compassion expresses not only fraternal closeness, but his desire to redeem.”
Pope Leo said that Christ sends out workers whose task is to “offer God’s comfort to those who suffer by bringing charity where there is misery, hope where there is affliction, faith where there is distrust.”
“In Jesus Christ, God draws near to every man and woman, to every people and nation,” the Pope said. “When this Gospel is proclaimed and lived out, evil crumbles like a disease that passes away, like a night giving way to dawn, like death conquered by the risen One.”
Pope Leo concluded:
Dear friends, the task of evangelization springs from God’s gift, which in Christ becomes forgiveness for the world, service to the least and the poor, and a commitment to justice. Let us invoke the help of the Virgin Mary, full of grace, so that we may respond with joy and courage to the mission to which Jesus calls us.
The Pontiff then recited, in Latin, the Angelus, the Minor Doxology (three times), and the prayer for the faithful departed, before imparting his blessing.
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