Full text of the catechesis of Pope Leo XIV during the Jubilee Audience of the Sports Jubilee

Pope Leo XIV presided on Saturday the Jubilee Audience on the occasion of the Jubileo de la Esperanza, being in the Basilica of San Pedro with thousands of pilgrim athletes who participate in the jubilee of sport.

This is the full text of catechesis that Leo XIV taught to the pilgrims:

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. May peace be with you!

Dear brothers and sisters:

The special hearings of the jubilee that Pope Francis began in January resume this morning, proposing each time a particular aspect of the theological virtue of hope and a spiritual figure that testifies to it. Let us continue, then, the path initiated, as pilgrims of hope!

We are united by the Apostles from the beginning. The Apostles saw in Jesus the earth united to heaven: with their eyes, ears and hands welcomed the word of life. The jubilee is an open door to this mystery. The jubilee year connects the world of God with ours in a more radical way. He invites us to take seriously what we pray every day: “On earth as in heaven.” This is our hope. This is the aspect that we would like to explore today: waiting is connect .

One of the greatest Christian theologians, Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, will help us recognize the beauty and news of this hope. Irenaeus was born in Asia Minor and was educated among those who knew the apostles directly. Then he came to Europe, because in Lyon a community of Christians of his land had already formed. How good it makes us remember this here, in Rome, in Europe!

The Gospel reached this continent from outside. And even today, migrant communities are presences that revive faith in the countries that host them. The Gospel comes from outside. Irenaeus connects east and west. This is already a sign of hope, because it reminds us of how peoples enrich each other.

Irenaeus, however, has an even greater treasure to offer us. The doctrinal divisions he found within the Christian community, internal conflicts and external persecutions did not discourage him. On the contrary, in a fragmented world, he learned to think better, focusing his attention more and more in Jesus.

He became a singer of his person, even his flesh. He recognized, in fact, that in him what seems opposed to us is recomposed in unity. Jesus is not a wall that separates, but a door that unites us. We must remain in it and distinguish reality from ideologies.

Dear brothers and sisters, even today ideas can go crazy and words can kill. However, the meat is what we are all made; It is what unites us to the earth and the other creatures. The flesh of Jesus must be welcomed and contemplated in each brother and sister, in each creature.

Let’s listen to the cry of the flesh, let’s listen to what the pain of others calls us. The commandment we have received from the beginning is that of mutual love. It is written in our flesh, before any law.

Irenaeus, unit’s teacher, teaches us not to oppose, but to connect. There is intelligence not where it separates, but where it connects. Distinguish is useful, but never divide. Jesus is eternal life among us: it brings together opposites and makes communion possible.

We are pilgrims of hope, because among people, peoples and creatures there must be someone who decides to walk towards communion. Others will follow us. As Irenaeus in Lyon in the second century, so in each of our cities we will hold bridges where there are walls. Let’s open doors, we connect worlds and there will be hope.