During the Angelus this Sunday, before hundreds of faithful gathered to listen to him in the Plaza de San Pedro, the Pope pointed out that love “ennobles” our existence and “makes us more and more similar to God.”
Love “is the only thing that transforms and ennobles every aspect of our existence, becoming increasingly similar to God,” said the pontiff from the window of his private study in the apostolic palace of the Vatican.
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Inspired by the Gospel of the day, in which Jesus invites “selling the goods and giving alms,” the Pontiff stressed that it is no accident that the Lord pronounces these words “while on his way to Jerusalem, where he will offer himself on the cross for our salvation.”
“The treasure of our life,” he said, “must be deposited in the safest and profitable bank: the works of mercy. In it, even with ‘two coins’, a poor widow can become the richest person in the world.”
Leo XIV urged not to keep for oneself the gifts received from God, but to use them “with generosity for the good of others, especially those who most need our help.”
It is not only about material goods, he clarified, but about putting into play “our abilities, our time, our affection, our presence, our empathy.” Everything that makes us, according to God’s designs, “into a unique and unappreciable good, a living capital that, to grow, must be cultivated and used.”
The Pope warned that, if talents are not put at the service of others, “they dry and devalue” or can be “at the mercy of those who, as thieves, appropriate them to reduce them to simple objects of consumption.” The gift of life, he insisted, “needs space, freedom and relationship to make and express himself.”
As he has done several times since his choice three months ago, Leo XIV cited St. Augustine, who taught that what we give is transformed, not into gold or silver, but “in eternal life”, because in the act of giving “you transform yourself.”
The pontiff illustrated this idea with everyday images: “A mother who embraces her children, isn’t she the most beautiful and rich person in the world? Two boyfriends, when they are together, don’t you feel a king and a queen?”
Finally, he urged to live that love surveillance that Jesus asks: “In the family, in the parish, at school, at work, let’s not miss any occasion to love. Let’s get used to being attentive, willing and sensitive to each other, as he is with us at every moment.”
Finally, Leo XIV urged the international community to persevere in the prayer “to put the wars end” and recalled that the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki “has awakened, throughout the world, the due rejection of the war as a way for the resolution of conflicts.”
The Pontiff also made a special call to those who exercise political and military responsibilities, asking them to “always keep in mind the consequences of their decisions on populations” and do not ignore “the needs of the weakest and the universal desire of peace.”
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.