One must start from one's own misery and in it seek how to achieve forgiveness. (…)
I thought about this this morning when we arrived in L’Aquila and could not land: thick fog, everything was dark, it was impossible. The helicopter pilot circled, circled, circled... and finally saw a small opening and managed to fly into it: he is a master. And in that situation, I thought to myself: the same happens with misery, with our own misery. So often we look and see that we are nothing, that we are less than nothing; and we circle, we circle..., but sometimes the Lord creates a small opening: “Enter there, those are the Lord's wounds.” Mercy exists, but it is in your misery. It is the opening that the Lord makes in your misery to allow you to enter. Mercy that comes in your, in my, in our misery.
(Pope Francis, speech in L’Aquila, August 28, 2022)
