Papa Leo XIV presides over the angel on the day of his 70th birthday: I thank the Lord and my parents

Pope Leo XIV did not miss his traditional Sunday appointment with the faithful for the prayer of the Angelus, on a day marked by a special tone: his 70th birthday. From the early morning, the Plaza de San Pedro was filled with pilgrims carrying banners, congratulations and flags, prepared to celebrate the anniversary of the Pontiff.

“It seems that you know: today 70 years,” said the pontiff with a smile, improvising a few words of thanks. “I thank the Lord and my parents, and all who have had a memory in prayer,” he added.

The Pontiff was visibly excited to hear the music bands that, from the Vatican Square, performed the popular “happy birthday.” The thousands of attendees accompanied the gesture with applause and cheers, stirring their posters with messages of gratitude and blessings.

During his speech after the angelus prayer, the Pontiff recalled the 60 years of the implementation of the Synod of the Bishops by Paul VI, whom he wished a renewed commitment to the synodality in the mission of the Church.

His reflections during the Angelus were focused on the exaltation of the Holy Cross, which the Catholic Church celebrates this Sunday. When commenting on the Gospel of the day, Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus (cf. Jn 3,13-17), said that the Jewish leader “needs light, guide, seeks God and asks for help to the Nazareth teacher, because in him a prophet recognizes, a man who meets extraordinary signs.”

Jesus is revealed as the Son of God in telling him: “God loved the world so much, that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in Him does not die, but has eternal life.” However, Nicodemus “does not fully understand the meaning of these words”, will do so after death and “after crucifixion, will help bury the body of the Savior.”

“God, to redeem men, became man and died on the cross.”

“He will then understand that God, to redeem men, became a man and died on the cross,” the Pope explained.

“God saved us showing us, offering himself as our partner, teacher, doctor, friend, until we get the bread in the Eucharist for us. And to fulfill this work, one of the most cruel death instruments that the man has ever invented: the cross,” said León XIV.

For the pontiff this is the “exaltation” of the cross. He defined it as a celebration that “we make for the immense love with which God, hugging her for our salvation, transformed her as an instrument of life, teaching us that nothing can separate ourselves from Him and that her charity is greater than our same sin.”

The Pope concluded his reflection prior to the prayer asking with Mary “that also in us entrusts and grows his love that saves, and that we also know how to donate to each other, as he has been all donated entirely.”