Newly elected Pope Leo XIV concelebrates Mass with the School of Cardinals contained in the Sistine Chapel on the Vatican the day after his election as 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Friday, Might 9, 2025.
AP/Vatican media
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ROME — Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass as pope Friday morning within the Sistine Chapel. In attendance have been the cardinals who elected him on Thursday.
Leo spoke briefly in English earlier than his homily, saying:
“I wish to repeat the phrases from the Responsorial Psalm: ‘I’ll sing a brand new track to the Lord, as a result of He has achieved marvels,’ and certainly, not simply with me however with all of us.
“My brother Cardinals, as we have a good time this morning, I invite you to mirror on the marvels the Lord has achieved, the blessings that the Lord continues to pour out on all of us by way of the Ministry of Peter.
“You might have known as me to hold that cross, and to hold out that mission, and I do know I can depend on each one in every of you to stroll with me, as we proceed as a Church, as a neighborhood of mates of Jesus, as believers, to announce the Good Information, to announce the Gospel.”
Throughout his homily, delivered in Italian, Leo mentioned that Christians should serve a world that’s typically hostile to their beliefs.
“Even at this time, there are numerous settings through which the Christian religion is taken into account absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings the place different securities are most well-liked, like know-how, cash, success, energy, or pleasure.
“These are contexts the place it isn’t straightforward to evangelise the Gospel and bear witness to its fact, the place believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at greatest tolerated and pitied. But, exactly for that reason, they’re the locations the place our missionary outreach is desperately wanted. A scarcity of religion is usually tragically accompanied by the lack of that means in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the disaster of the household and so many different wounds that afflict our society.”
Right here is the total homily, as translated from the Italian by the Vatican:
“You’re the Christ, the Son of the residing God” (Mt 16:16). In these phrases, Peter, requested by the Grasp, along with the opposite disciples, about his religion in him, expressed the patrimony that the Church, by way of the apostolic succession, has preserved, deepened and handed on for 2 thousand years.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the residing God: the one Saviour, who alone reveals the face of the Father.
In him, God, so as to make himself shut and accessible to women and men, revealed himself to us within the trusting eyes of a kid, within the energetic thoughts of a youngster and within the mature options of a person (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22), lastly showing to his disciples after the resurrection together with his wonderful physique. He thus confirmed us a mannequin of human holiness that we are able to all imitate, along with the promise of an everlasting future that transcends all our limits and talents.
Peter, in his response, understands each of these items: the present of God and the trail to comply with so as to enable himself to be modified by that present. They’re two inseparable points of salvation entrusted to the Church to be proclaimed for the great of the human race. Certainly, they’re entrusted to us, who have been chosen by him earlier than we have been fashioned in our moms’ wombs (cf. Jer 1:5), reborn within the waters of Baptism and, surpassing our limitations and with no advantage of our personal, introduced right here and despatched forth from right here, in order that the Gospel is perhaps proclaimed to each creature (cf. Mk 16:15).
In a selected means, God has known as me by your election to succeed the Prince of the Apostles, and has entrusted this treasure to me in order that, together with his assist, I could also be its devoted administrator (cf. 1 Cor 4:2) for the sake of your entire mystical Physique of the Church. He has achieved so so that she could also be ever extra totally a metropolis set on a hill (cf. Rev 21:10), an ark of salvation crusing by way of the waters of historical past and a beacon that illumines the darkish nights of this world. And this, not a lot by way of the magnificence of her constructions or the grandeur of her buildings – just like the monuments amongst which we discover ourselves – however moderately by way of the holiness of her members. For we’re the folks whom God has chosen as his personal, in order that we might declare the great deeds of him who known as us out of darkness into his marvellous mild (cf. 1 Pet 2:9).
Peter, nevertheless, makes his occupation of religion in reply to a selected query: “Who do folks say that the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16:13). The query shouldn’t be insignificant. It issues a vital facet of our ministry, specifically, the world through which we reside, with its limitations and its potential, its questions and its convictions.
“Who do folks say that the Son of Man is?” If we mirror on the scene we’re contemplating, we’d discover two attainable solutions, which characterize two totally different attitudes.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, second from left, concelebrates Mass with the School of Cardinals contained in the Sistine Chapel on the Vatican the day after his election as 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Friday, Might 9, 2025.
AP/Vatican media
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AP/Vatican media
First, there’s the world’s response. Matthew tells us that this dialog between Jesus and his disciples takes place within the lovely city of Caesarea Philippi, full of luxurious palaces, set in an impressive pure panorama on the foot of Mount Hermon, but additionally a spot of merciless energy performs and the scene of betrayals and infidelity. This setting speaks to us of a world that considers Jesus a very insignificant individual, at greatest somebody with an uncommon and placing means of talking and appearing. And so, as soon as his presence turns into irksome due to his calls for for honesty and his stern ethical necessities, this “world” won’t hesitate to reject and remove him.
Then there’s the opposite attainable response to Jesus’ query: that of unusual folks. For them, the Nazarene shouldn’t be a charlatan, however an upright man, one who has braveness, who speaks effectively and says the proper issues, like different nice prophets within the historical past of Israel. That’s the reason they comply with him, a minimum of for so long as they’ll accomplish that with out an excessive amount of danger or inconvenience. But to them he’s solely a person, and due to this fact, in instances of hazard, throughout his ardour, they too abandon him and depart dissatisfied.
What’s placing about these two attitudes is their relevance at this time. They embody notions that we might simply discover on the lips of many women and men in our personal time, even when, whereas primarily similar, they’re expressed in numerous language.
Even at this time, there are numerous settings through which the Christian religion is taken into account absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings the place different securities are most well-liked, like know-how, cash, success, energy, or pleasure.
These are contexts the place it isn’t straightforward to evangelise the Gospel and bear witness to its fact, the place believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at greatest tolerated and pitied. But, exactly for that reason, they’re the locations the place our missionary outreach is desperately wanted. A scarcity of religion is usually tragically accompanied by the lack of that means in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the disaster of the household and so many different wounds that afflict our society.
Immediately, too, there are numerous settings through which Jesus, though appreciated as a person, is lowered to a type of charismatic chief or superman. That is true not solely amongst non-believers but additionally amongst many baptized Christians, who thus find yourself residing, at this stage, in a state of sensible atheism.
That is the world that has been entrusted to us, a world through which, as Pope Francis taught us so many instances, we’re known as to bear witness to our joyful religion in Jesus the Saviour. Subsequently, it’s important that we too repeat, with Peter: “You’re the Christ, the Son of the residing God” (Mt 16:16).
It’s important to do that, to begin with, in our private relationship with the Lord, in our dedication to a each day journey of conversion. Then, to take action as a Church, experiencing collectively our constancy to the Lord and bringing the Good Information to all (cf. Lumen Gentium, 1).
I say this to begin with to myself, because the Successor of Peter, as I start my mission as Bishop of Rome and, in response to the well-known expression of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, am known as to preside in charity over the common Church (cf. Letter to the Romans, Prologue). Saint Ignatius, who was led in chains to this metropolis, the place of his impending sacrifice, wrote to the Christians there: “Then I’ll actually be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world not sees my physique” (Letter to the Romans, IV, 1). Ignatius was talking about being devoured by wild beasts within the area – and so it occurred – however his phrases apply extra usually to an indispensable dedication for all these within the Church who train a ministry of authority. It’s to maneuver apart in order that Christ might stay, to make oneself small in order that he could also be identified and glorified (cf. Jn 3:30), to spend oneself to the utmost so that each one might have the chance to know and love him.
Might God grant me this grace, at this time and at all times, by way of the loving intercession of Mary, Mom of the Church.
