Homily of the Holy Father in the solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

Pope Leo XIV celebrated a Mass on Sunday on the occasion of the solemnity of the Holy Apostles Pedro and Paul in which he imposed the paios to the Metropolitan Archbishops who have been named during the year. Read here the text of the complete homily.

Dear brothers and sisters:

Today we celebrate two brothers in the faith, Peter and Paul, who recognize as pillars of the Church and venerate as employers of the Diocese and the city of Rome.

The history of these two apostles also challenges us, that we are the pilgrim community of the disciples of the Lord in our time. In particular, seeing their testimonies, I would like to underline two aspects: the ecclesial communion and the vitality of faith.

First, the ecclesial communion. The liturgy of this solemnity, in fact, makes us see how Pedro and Paul were called to live a single destiny, that of martyrdom, which definitely associated them with Christ.

In the first reading we find Pedro that, in jail, he hopes the sentence will be executed (cf. Acts 12,1-11); In the second we find the apostle Paul, also he with chains, affirming, in a kind of will, that his blood is about to be spilled and offered to God (cf. 2 Tm 4.6-8.17-18). Both Peter and Paul, therefore, give their lives for the cause of the Gospel.

However, this communion in the only confession of faith is not a peaceful conquest. The two apostles reach it as a goal they arrive after a long way, in which each one has embraced the faith and has lived the apostolate in a diverse way. His fraternity in the spirit does not erase the diversity of his origins: Simon was a fisherman from Galilee, Saul instead a rigorous intellectual belonging to the Pharisees party; The first leaves everything immediately to follow the Lord; The second chases Christians until it is transformed by the risen Christ; Pedro preaches especially to the Jews; Paul is driven to bring the good news to the Gentiles.

Between them, as we know, there was no lack of conflicts regarding the relationship with the pagans, to the point that Paul states: “When Cefas reached Antioch, I faced him because his behavior was rebuked” (Ga 2,11). And of this question, as we know, the Council of Jerusalem will be occupied, in which the two apostles will continue to debate.

Dear brothers, the story of Pedro and Paul teaches us that the communion to which the Lord calls us is a harmony of voices and faces, does not cancel each other’s freedom. Our employers have traveled different paths, they have had different ideas, sometimes they faced and discussed with evangelical frankness. However, that did not prevent them from living the Apostolorum concord, that is, a vivid communion in the spirit, a fruitful harmony in diversity.

As San Agustín states: «In a single day we celebrated the passion of both apostles. But they were also a unit; Even if they suffered on different dates, they were a unit ”(Sermon 295, 7).

All this interrogates us about the path of ecclesial communion. This is born from the impulse of the spirit, unites diversities and creates bridges of unity in the variety of charisms, gifts and ministries.

It is important to learn to live communion in this way, as a unit in diversity, so that the variety of gifts, articulated in the confession of the only faith, contributes to the announcement of the Gospel. We are called to continue this walking along this path, looking precisely to Pedro and Pablo, because we all need that fraternity. It is needed by the Church, the relations between lay people and presbyters need it, between presbyters and bishops, between bishops and the Pope, as they need pastoral life, ecumenical dialogue and the friendship relationship that the Church wishes to maintain with the world.

Let us commit to make our diversities a workshop of unity and communion, of fraternity and reconciliation so that each one in the Church, with one’s personal history, learn to walk along with others.

The Saints Pedro and Paul also question us about the vitality of our faith. In the experience of discipleship, in fact, there is always the risk of falling into the routine, in ritualism, in pastoral schemes that are repeated without renewing and without capturing the challenges of the present. In the history of the two apostles, on the other hand, we are inspired to open up to the changes, to let us interrogate for the events, encounters and concrete situations of communities, to look for new paths for evangelization based on the problems and questions posed by the brothers and sisters in faith.

And in the center of the gospel we have heard is precisely the question that Jesus asks his disciples, and that also directs us today, so that we can discern if the path of our faith retains dynamism and vitality, if the flame of the relationship with the Lord is still on: “And you, (…) Who say I am?” (Mt 16,15).

Every day, at every moment of history, we must always pay attention to this question. If we do not want our Christian being to reduce an inheritance of the past, as Pope Francis has warned us, it is important to get out of the danger of a tired and static faith, to ask ourselves: Who is today for us Jesus Christ? What place does it occupy in our life and in the action of the Church? How can we testify to this hope in everyday life and announce it to those with whom we meet?

Brothers and sisters, the exercise of discernment, born of these questions, allows our faith and the Church that continually renew and experience new paths and new practices for the announcement of the Gospel. This, together with communion, must be our first desire. In particular, today I would like to address the Church that pilgrim in Rome, because she is called more than all to be a sign of unity and communion, burning church of a living faith, community of disciples who testify the joy and comfort of the Gospel in all human situations.

In the joy of this communion, that the Camino de los Santos Pedro and Paul invites us to cultivate, greet the Archbishopos brothers who today receive the canopy. Dear brothers, this sign, at the same time remembers the pastoral task that has been confident, expresses communion with the bishop of Rome, so that, in the unity of the Catholic faith, each of you can feed it in the local churches entrusted to you.

I also want to greet the members of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church: thanks for your presence here and for their pastoral zeal. That the Lord grants peace to his people.

And with viva gratitude greeting to the delegation of the ecumenical patriarchy, which has been sent by the beloved brother Bartolomé. Dear brothers and sisters, built by the testimony of the apostles Pedro and Paul, we walk together in faith and in communion, and invoke their intercession over all of us, over the city of Rome, about the Church and over the whole world.