Homily of Pope Leo XIV in the solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Pope Leo XIV celebrated this Friday, August 15, solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, a Mass in the Parish of San Tommaso da Villanova, in Castel Gandolfo, where he will remain until next Tuesday.

Next, the homily of the Holy Father:

Dear brothers and sisters:

Today is not Sunday, but in a different way we celebrate the Easter of Jesus that changes the story. In María de Nazaret is our history, the history of the church immersed in common humanity. Embodied in it, the god of life and freedom has defeated death. Yes, today we contemplate how God expires death, but not without us. His is the kingdom, but ours is the “yes” to his love that everything can change.

On the cross, Jesus freely pronounced the “yes” that he should empty from power to death, that death that still spreads when our crucified hands and our hearts are prisoners of fear and distrust. On the cross, confidence overcame; Love defeated, which is able to see what it still does not arrive; Forgiveness overcame.

And Maria was; I was there, together with the son. Today we can intuit that Maria is we when we do not flee, it is we when we respond with our “yes” to her “yes.” In the martyrs of our time, in witnesses of faith and justice, meekness and peace, that “yes” continues to live and continue to face death. In this way, this day of joy is a day that commits us to decide how and for whom we live.

The liturgy has proposed for the solemnity of the assumption the evangelical passage of visitation. San Lucas transmits on this page the memory of a crucial moment in Maria’s vocation. It is beautiful to return to that moment on the day we celebrate the final goal of its existence. Every story on earth, even that of the Mother of God, is brief and ends. But nothing is lost. In this way, when a life concludes, the unity of its existence shines more clearly.

The Magnificat, which the Gospel puts on the lips of the young Mary, now radiates a light that illuminates its history. On this day, the meeting with his cousin Isabel, the secret of any other day, of any other era is contained. And words are not enough; A song is necessary, which the Church continues to sing every day, at sunset, “from generation to generation” (Lk 1,50).

The surprising fertility of the sterile Isabel confirmed Maria in her trust; He anticipated the fertility of his “yes”, which extends in the fertility of the Church and of all humanity, when the renewal word of God is welcomed. That day two women found themselves in faith, then three months came together to help themselves, not only in practical things, but in a new way of reading the story.

In that way, sisters and brothers, the resurrection also enters our world. Death words and decisions seem to prevail, but the life of God truncated despair through concrete experiences of fraternity, through new gestures of solidarity. The resurrection, before even being our ultimate destination, modifies – in the soul and in the body – our inhabit on earth. The song of Mary, its magnificat, reinforces in the hope the humble, the hungry, to the diligent servants of God.

They are the women and men of the beatitudes, who already see the invisible even being in tribulation: the powerful demolished of their thrones, the rich with empty hands, the promises of God made. These are experiences that everyone, in each Christian community, should be able to say that we have lived; They seem impossible, but they continue to reveal the Word of God.

When the links with which we oppose evil with good, death with life, then we see that “there is nothing impossible for God” (Lk 1,37).

On some occasions, unfortunately, where human assurances predominate, a certain material well -being and that relaxation that numbs consciences, this faith can age. It is then that death invades us, in forms of resignation and complaint, nostalgia and insecurity.

Instead of seeing that this old world ends, it is still looking for help in it; The help of the rich, of the powerful, which is generally accompanied by the contempt of the poor and the humble. But the Church lives in its fragile members, rejuvenates thanks to its Magnificat. Also today the poor and persecuted Christian communities, the witnesses of tenderness and forgiveness in the places of conflict, the peace operators and the bridge builders in a world made pieces are the joy of the Church, are their permanent fertility, the firstfruits of the next kingdom.

Many of them are women, such as the old Isabel and the young Maria; Easter women, apostles of the resurrection. Let us convert by your testimonies!

Brothers and sisters, when “we chose life” (cf. dt 30,19) during our existence, we have reasons to contemplate our destiny in Mary, assume to heaven.

She has been given to us as the sign that Jesus’ resurrection was not an isolated case, or an exception. All, in Christ, we can overcome death (cf. 1 co 15,54). Certainly, it is a work of God, not ours. However, Maria is that framework of grace and freedom that drives us to trust, courage, to the commitment to the life of a people. “The Almighty has done great things in me” (Lk 1,49); that each of us can experience this joy and testify it with a new song.

Let’s not be afraid to choose life! It may often seem dangerous, reckless. How many voices are always whispering: “Who forces you to do it? Leave it! Think of your own interests.” They are death voices. We, on the other hand, are disciples of Christ.

It is his love that drives us, soul and body, in our time. As individuals and as a church we no longer live for ourselves. It is precisely this – and only this – that makes life disseminate and prevails. Our victory over death begins from now on.