"But he has the freedom to say things as they are," he said.
"We too, with the Lord, must have the freedom to say things as they are," he continued. "Lord, I am in sin: help me."
He said God "forgives us when we are concrete. The spiritual life is so simple, so simple; but we make it complicated with these nuances, and in the end we never get there."
"Let's ask the Lord for the grace of simplicity and that he gives us this grace he gives to the simple, to children, to youths who say what they feel, who do not hide what they feel," he concluded.
After Mass, the pope presided at adoration and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Afterward, the congregation sang the Easter Marian antiphon "Regina caeli."
At the start of Mass, Pope Francis noted the day's feast of St. Catherine of Siena, who is the patroness of Italy and of Europe.
"Let us pray for Europe, for the unity of Europe, for the unity of the European Union, so that we can all go forward together as brothers," he said.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.