Homily of Pope Leo XIV at Mass for the Jubilee of the Holy See

Pope Leo XIV presided on June 9, memory of the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of the Church, the Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Holy See, in the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano.

Next, the full text of the homily he pronounced:

Dear brothers and sisters:

Today we have the joy and grace of celebrating the jubilee of the Holy See in the liturgical memory of Mary, mother of the Church. This happy coincidence is a source of light and inner inspiration in the Holy Spirit, which yesterday, Pentecost, has shed in abundance over the people of God. And in this spiritual climate we today enjoy a special day, in the first place, with the meditation we have heard and now, here, at the table of the word and the Eucharist.

The Word of God in this celebration makes us understand the mystery of the Church, and in it that of the Holy See, in the light of two biblical icons written by the Spirit on the page of the Acts of the Apostles (1,12-14) and in that of the Gospel of St. John (19,25-34).

We start from the most fundamental, which is the story of the death of Jesus. Juan, of the twelve the only one present in Calvary, saw and gave testimony that, at the foot of the cross, along with other women, there was the mother of Jesus (v. 25). And he heard with his own ears the last words of the teacher, among which, these: “Woman, here are your son”, and then addressing him: “Here are your mother” (vv. 26-27).

The motherhood of Mary, through the mystery of the Cross, took a unthinkable leap. The mother of Jesus became the new Eva, because the Son associated her with her redeeming death, a new and eternal source of life for every human being who comes to this world. The issue of fertility is very present in this liturgy. The prayer “Collection” shows it by making us ask the Father to the Church, sustained by the love of Christ, be “more fruitful in the Spirit” (Italian missal, collection of memory).

The fertility of the Church is the same fertility of Mary; And it is done in the existence of its members to the extent that they revive, “in little”, what the mother lived, that is, they love with the love of Jesus. All the fertility of the Church and the Holy See depends on the Cross of Christ. Otherwise, it is appearance, if not something worse. A great contemporary theologian wrote: «If she (the church) is the tree that leaves the mustard grain, this tree is in turn destined to carry mustard beans; Fruits, therefore, that repeat the shape of the cross, because they are due to it ”(Hu von Balthasar, the seriousness of things, Salamanca 1967, 44).

In the collection we also ask that the church “rejoice for the holiness of their children.” In fact, this fertility of Mary and the Church is inseparably linked to their holiness, that is, to its conformation with Christ. The Holy See is Holy as is the Church, in its original nucleus, in the fiber of which it is woven. Thus, the Apostolic Headquarters custody the holiness of its roots while it is guarded by it. But it is no less true that it also lives on the holiness of each of its members. Therefore, the best way to serve the Holy See is to try to be saints, each according to their state of life and the task entrusted to him.

For example, a priest who personally carries a heavy cross because of his ministry, and yet every day he goes to the office and tries to do his job as well as possible, with love and faith, that priest participates and contributes to the fertility of the Church. And the same a father or a mother, who lives a difficult situation – a son who gives concerns, a sick father – and carries out his work with effort: that man and that woman are fertile with the fertility of Mary and the Church.

Let us now move to the second icon, the one who writes St. Luke at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, where he represents the Mother of Jesus with the apostles and disciples in the Cenacle (1,12-14). It shows us the motherhood of Mary to the nascent church, a “archetypal” motherhood, which remains current at all times and place. And, above all, it is always the result of the Pascual Mystery, of the gift of the crucified and risen Lord.

The Holy Spirit, which descends with power over the first community, is the same as Jesus delivered with his last breath (cf. Jn 19,30). This biblical icon is inseparable from the first: the fertility of the Church is always linked to the grace that springs from the transfer of Jesus, along with the blood and water, symbol of the sacraments (cf. Jn 19,34).

Mary, in the Cenacle, thanks to the maternal mission she received at the foot of the cross, is at the service of the nascent community: it is the living memory of Jesus and, as such, is the attraction pole, so to speak, that harmonizes the differences and makes the prayer of the disciples unanimous. The apostles, also in this text, are listed by name, and as always, the first is Peter (cf. v. 13). But he himself, in fact, first, is sustained by Maria in his ministry. Similarly, the Mother Church holds the Ministry of Pedro’s successors with the Marian charism. The Holy See lives in a very particular way the co-pressence of both poles: the Marian and the Petrino. And it is the Marian Pole that ensures the fertility and holiness of Petrino, with his motherhood, Don of Christ and the Spirit.

Dear friends, we praise God for his word, a lamp that illuminates our steps and also our daily life at the service of the Holy See. Thus, illuminated by this word, we renew our prayer: “I grant, oh Father, that your Church, sustained by the love of Christ, is increasingly fruitful in the Spirit, rejoiced for the holiness of their children and welcomes the entire human family in its bosom” (Italian missal, collection of memory).