Pope Leo XIV visited the Basilica of San Pablo of Extramuros on Tuesday, one of the papal basilicas located on the outskirts of Rome, to pray before the tomb of the “Apostle of the Gentiles.”
Upon arrival, after 5:00 p.m. (Rome time), the Holy Father was received by Father Abad, Mons. Donato Ogliari, and the Archpriest of the Basilica, Cardinal James Michael Harvey.
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Accompanied by the Benedictine monks, custodians of the temple erected on the tomb of the Apostle St. Paul, Pope Leo XIV entered the basilica through the holy door, while resonating the songs of the choir of the Sistine Chapel and the Benedictine community.
He then descended by the altar of the confession to venerate the tomb of St. Paul, on his knees and in silence. After returning to the apse of the temple, a passage from the letter from San Pablo Apóstol was read to the Romans.
Grace, Faith and Justice
In his deep homily, read in Italian, the Holy Father stressed that reading revolves around three issues: “Grace, faith and justice”, and entrusted his pontificate to the intercession of the so -called Apostle of the Gentiles.
Later, Leo XIV remembered, the nearly two thousand faithful gathered in the Basilica, that St. Paul claimed to have received “from God the grace of the call”:
“He acknowledges that his encounter with Christ and his ministry are linked to the love with which God has preceded him, calling him to a new life while he was still far from the Gospel and persecuted the Church,” he added.
He also cited the conversion of San Agustín, spiritual father of the Pope, “who spoke of the same experience.”
In this context, he stressed that “in the root of every vocation there is God, his mercy, his goodness, generous like that of a mother, who naturally, through his same body, nourishes his child when he is still unable to feed on his own.”
Remembering the way in which St. Paul spoke of the “obedience of faith,” said, however, on the path of Damascus, the Lord “did not take away his freedom, but gave the possibility of deciding, to obey as the result of an effort, of interior and exterior struggles, which he agreed to face.”
Therefore, the Pontiff warned that “salvation does not appear by charm, but by a mystery of grace and faith, of the love of God that precedes us, and of the adhesion confident and free by man.”
In this sense, he invited to pray for “that we also know how to respond in the same way to his invitations, witnessing love that has been shed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us.”
“We ask that we know how to cultivate and disseminate your charity, becoming close to each other, in the same career of affections that, from the encounter with Christ, drove the old persecutor to become all for everyone to martyrdom,” he added.
In addition, he stressed that “in the weakness of the flesh the power of faith is revealed in God that justifies.”
“God loves us”
From this Basilica, entrusted to the care of the Benedictine community, Pope Leo XIV also remembered Saint Benito, who proposed “love as a source and engine of the wire of the Gospel”, also recalling his insistent exhortations “to fraternal charity.”
The Pontiff did not want to end his homily without reminding Pope Benedict XVI and his words in the WYD of Madrid in 2011: “Dear friends, God loves us. This is the great truth of our life and that gives meaning to everything else. (…) In the origin of our existence there is a project of love of God”, and faith leads us to open our heart to this mystery of love and to live as people who know themselves loved by God. “
“Here is the root, simple and unique, of all mission, even of mine, as the successor of Pedro and heir of Paul’s apostolic zeal. That the Lord grants me the grace to answer faithfully to his call,” concluded Leo XIV. “
At the end of his homily, the Holy Father kneel against the altar, located on the tomb of the apostle. Later, our father in Latin and Regina Coeli was sung.
Pope Leo XIV left the basilica again in procession, preceded by the Benedictine monks, and before the applause of the faithful.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
Graduated in journalism and advertising from the CEU San Pablo University of Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. It has been a senior correspondent for ACI Press and Ewtn News at the Vatican for two years and is currently a correspondent for Europe based on Spain.