Pope Leo XIV urges to evangelize those who have lost their sense of life

On the morning of this Friday, May 9, Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass as Successor of San Pedro in the Sistine Chapel accompanied by the cardinals who, just one day before, chose him to guide the more than 1.4 billion Catholics in the world.

Under the imposing gaze of Miguel Ángel’s frescoes, silent witnesses of the great moments that have marked the course of the Church, the new Pontiff returned to the place where on the afternoon of May 8 he accepted the position of being the new Pope.

After 11 in the morning (Rome time), Pope Leo XIV entered the Sistine Chapel, preceded by acolytes and carrying miter and staff, to the altar located under the scene of the final judgment.

The first reading, proclaimed in English, was taken from the Apocalypse book (revelations 21, 9b-14). The second, of the first letter of the Apostle San Pedro, was read in Spanish by Fermina Álvarez, a Spanish secular who works in the Vatican.

The gospel chosen for this relevant first Eucharistic celebration of the new Pontiff was that of Matthew (16: 13-19), in which Jesus entrusts Peter the work of being the stone on which his church will build.

Before pronouncing his homily, Pope Leo XIV directed spontaneous words in English to the cardinals, reminding them with simplicity that they had chosen to “carry a cross”, and asked them to walk with him “because we are a community that must announce the good news of Christ.”

With his face visibly excited, Pope Leo XIV began his homily with an affirmation: “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God living, that is, the only Savior and the one who reveals the Father’s face.”

A holy humanity that we can all imitate

Pope Leo XIV stressed that the Lord has shown us “a model of holy humanity that we can all imitate, together with the promise of an eternal destiny that, however, exceeds all our limits and capacities.”

“Pedro, in his response, assumes both: the gift of God and the path that must be traveled to be transformed, inseparable dimensions of salvation, confident to the Church to announce them for the good of humanity,” he said.

In this sense, he stressed that “we are entrusted to us, chosen by him before we were formal in the womb, regenerated in the water of baptism and, beyond our limits and without any own merit, conducted here and from here sent, so that the Gospel is announced to all the creatures.”

The “Treasury” of the Church is not the grandiosity of its constructions, but the holiness of its members

“God, in a particular way, by calling me through your vote to happen to the first of the apostles, this treasure entrusts me to me, so that, with his help, it is his faithful administrator in favor of the entire mystical body of the Church; so that this is increasingly the city on the mountain, ark of salvation that navigates through the tides of the story, lighthouse that illuminates the nights of the world.”

This, Pope Leo XIV said, it is not “to the magnificence of its structures and the grandiosity of its constructions – like the monuments in which we are – but for the holiness of its members.”

The reality in which we live, with its limits and potentialities

Next, the Pope reflected on the evangelical scene in which Peter does his profession of faith: “What do people say,” Jesus asks, “about the Son of Man? Who says she is?” (Mt 16,13).

For Pope Leo XIV, this issue “concerns an important aspect of our ministry: the reality in which we live, with its limits and their potentialities, their questions and their convictions.”

In response, he pointed out that first is the opinion of the world, which considers Jesus a person “who totally lacks importance, to the fullest a curious character, who can raise amazement with his unusual way of speaking and acting.”

And so, when his presence becomes uncomfortable due to the demands of honesty and the moral demands he raises, “this world will not hesitate to reject and eliminate it.”

However, he pointed out that for “the common people”, the Nazarene is not a “charlatan”, but “a brave man, who speaks well and says fair things, like other great prophets in the history of Israel.”

Even so, he warned that they also see it only as a man and, therefore, at the time of danger, during passion, “they also abandon and leave, disappointed.”

The urgency of evangelizing those who believe that Jesus “is a charismatic leader”

The Pontiff remarked the “current” of these two attitudes, since both reflect thoughts present in many men and women today.

He indicated that today there are also many contexts in which the Christian faith is considered “an absurd, something for weak and little intelligent people, contexts in which other securities are preferred than that she proposes, such as technology, money, success, power or pleasure.”

He also referred to the environments where “it is not easy to testify and announce the gospel and where it is ridiculed who believes, is hindered and despised, or, at most, it is supported and pity.”

Precisely because of this, he stressed, “they are places where the mission is more urgent, because the lack of faith often leads to dramas such as the loss of the meaning of life, the oblivion of mercy, the violation of the dignity of the person in their most dramatic forms, the family crisis and so many wounds more that carry not little suffering to our society.”

In this sense, he pointed out that in these contexts Jesus is reduced “only to a kind of charismatic leader or a superman, and this not only among non -believers, but even among many baptized, which thus end up living, in this area, an atheism in fact.”

Spend until the end so that no one is missing the opportunity to meet him and love him

“This is the world that has been entrusted to us,” he added, “and in which, as Pope Francis taught, we are called to testify to the joyful faith in Jesus Salvador.”

He affirmed that, for this, it is necessary to begin with a personal relationship with Christ and “the commitment to a way of everyday conversion.”

“I say above all for me, as the successor of Peter, while I start my mission as a bishop of the Church that is in Rome, called to preside in charity the universal church,” he said, citing St. Ignatius of Antioch.

For the Pope, the words of this holy martyr “evoke in a more general sense an inalienable commitment for anyone who exercises a ministry of authority in the Church, disappear so that Christ remains, becoming small so that he is known and glorified, spending until the end so that no one is missing the opportunity to know and love him”.

“May God grant me this grace, today and always, with the help of the tender intercession of Mary, mother of the Church,” he concluded.

At the end of the Mass, the cardinals broke applaud while Pope Leo XIV left the Sistine Chapel.