Pope Leo XIV to Cardinals: 'We are to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ'
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
"We are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ the Saviour..."
Pope Leo XIV gave this heartfelt reminder during his first Mass as Pope on Friday, 9 May 2025, with the Cardinal electors and other Cardinals present in Rome, in the Sistine Chapel, the exact site where the electors, with at least a two-thirds majority, elected him as the 267th Pope on the fourth ballot on Thursday afternoon.
In his homily, the new Pope called for always better cultivating a personal relationship with Christ; and he insisted that, without faith, life lacks meaning.
However, the new US-born Pope began with a few words in English, in which he thanked the Cardinal electors for their trust in him.
"I want to repeat the words from the Responsorial Psalm: 'I will sing a new song to the Lord, because He has done marvels,' and indeed, not just with me but with all of us.
"My brother Cardinals, as we celebrate this morning," he encouraged them, "I invite you to reflect on the marvels the Lord has done, the blessings that the Lord continues to pour out on all of us through the Ministry of Peter.
"You have called me to carry that cross, and to carry out that mission, and I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me, as we continue as a Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the Good News, to announce the Gospel," he said.
Christ showed us human holiness
Pope Leo's homily, which he then pronounced in Italian, was centered on St. Peter, the first Pope, recalling his words in the Gospel according to St. Matthew: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," in order to illustrate that patrimony, made possible by persistent faith in the Lord, "that the Church, through the apostolic succession, has preserved, deepened and handed on for two thousand years."
Reflecting on Peter's relationship with Christ, the Pope recalled that Jesus, our Saviour, alone reveals the face of the Father.
"In Him, God, in order to make Himself close and accessible to men and women," he underscored, "revealed Himself to us in the trusting eyes of a child, in the lively mind of a young person and in the mature features of a man, finally appearing to His disciples after the Resurrection with His glorious body."
In this way, the Pope said, "He showed us a model of human holiness that we can all imitate, together with the promise of an eternal destiny that transcends all our limits and abilities."
A gift and a path
The Pope noted that Peter, in his response, understands that it is both "a gift of God" as well as "the path to follow in order to allow himself to be changed by that gift," and affirmed that "they are inseparable aspects of salvation entrusted to the Church to be proclaimed for the good of the human race."
"Indeed," Pope Leo XIV marveled, "they are entrusted to us, who were chosen by Him before we were formed in our mothers’ wombs, reborn in the waters of Baptism and, surpassing our limitations and with no merit of our own, brought here and sent forth from here, so that the Gospel might be proclaimed to every creature."
Called me to be faithful for the Church
The new Pope recalled that God called him, with his election as the 267th Pope yesterday afternoon, to succeed Peter, and, as such, "has entrusted this treasure to me so that, with his help, I may be its faithful administrator for the sake of the entire mystical Body of the Church. "
Yet, Peter, the Pope remembered, makes his profession of faith in reply to a specific question, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”'
This question, Pope Leo highlighted, is not insignificant and concerns "an essential aspect of our ministry, namely, the world in which we live, with its limitations and its potential, its questions and its convictions."
Two different attitudes
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” the new Holy Father repeated, noting, "If we reflect on the scene we are considering, we might find two possible answers, which characterize two different attitudes."
First, Pope Leo said, there was the response of the world, which "will not hesitate to reject and eliminate Him" once "His presence becomes irksome" also because of "His stern moral requirements."
Then there is the other possible response to Jesus’ question, that of ordinary people, who see Him "as an upright man of courage"; but to them "He is only a man, and therefore, in times of danger, during His passion, they too abandon Him and depart disappointed."
Missionary outreach needed where difficult to preach witness
What is striking about these two attitudes, the Pope said, is their relevance today, for, they, the Holy Father acknowledged, embody notions that we could easily find on the lips of many men and women in our own time, even if, while essentially identical, they are expressed in different language.
"Even today," he warned, "there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure."
These are contexts, he highlighted, "where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied."
"Yet, precisely for this reason," he said, "they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed."
Lack of faith accompanied by lack of meaning in life
"A lack of faith," Pope Leo underscored, "is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society."
Today, he observed, "there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman."
Acknowledging this happens "not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians," Pope Leo warned that, as such, they "end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism."
With this in mind, Pope Leo reassured the congregation, "This is the world that has been entrusted to us, a world in which, as Pope Francis taught us so many times, we are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ the Saviour."
"Therefore," he continued, "it is essential that we too repeat, with Peter: 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"
Daily journey of conversion
He said it is essential to do this, first of all, in our personal relationship with the Lord, in our commitment to a "daily journey of conversion."
Then as a Church, we are to do the same, he reminded them, "experiencing together our fidelity to the Lord and bringing the Good News to all."
"I say this first of all to myself, as the Successor of Peter, as I begin my mission as Bishop of Rome," he expressed, sharing that he does so according to the well-known expression of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, "to preside in charity over the universal Church."
He recalled that "Saint Ignatius, who was led in chains to this city, the place of his impending sacrifice, wrote to the Christians there: 'Then I will truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world no longer sees my body.'”
Moving aside to make space for Christ
"Ignatius," Pope Leo explained, "was speaking about being devoured by wild beasts in the arena – and so it happened," he clarified, adding, "But, his words apply more generally to an indispensable commitment for all those in the Church who exercise a ministry of authority."
Specifically, he underscored, that commitment "is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified, to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love Him."
Pope Leo XIV concluded his homily by praying, "May God grant me this grace, today and always, through the loving intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church."
12 comments:
I really don't currently care about his mass style or theological leanings, as I am too embarrassed by Rome selecting as new pope a guy accused long before his papacy of mishandling sexual abuse of children...
You folk can tune that out and sing, "On The Sun Sunny Side Of The Street!", but the more I consider this, the more mortified I become....this is not something unknown until after his election, but something known years and years back, and yet my Church selects him as pope...yep, status quo, business as usual in Rome.
Bob, apart from those in the media and blogs who constantly hound bishops and priests about mishandling abuse cases, what evidence have you that he has done so and isn’t he innocent until proven guilty of the crime you say he is guilty of. And if guilty of the more serious “delict” of a mortal sin in this regard, is that an unforgivable sin if such a bishop or pope moves forward in the correct way. And now I move to Jesus’ words to the woman caught in adultery, “the first who has no sin cast the first stone…has no one “killed” condemned you? Neither do I go and sin no more. You are a worldly man in terms of justice and retribution but yours is not of Christ’s vision for it.
I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off my back. The Francis years were ROUGH. He never stopped talking and talking and talking. He had an opinion on everything and made sure you knew what it was. He judged and condemned everyone he disagreed with and made a show of humility without really being humble. I always remember that miserable look on his face when he wrenched his hand from that woman in St Peter’s and stormed away with that awful face. That was the real Francis. This pope carries himself with dignity and humility. You can tell it isn’t phony. Basically just glad Francis is gone and Tagle isn’t the pope.
Agreed. Relieved. We must move forward, but, that will take time to just process, reflect, pivot where necessary, compartmentalize, then setting agenda. Leo has his work cut out for him. He seems very much up to the task.
Father McDonald, now that you have a stylin' pope you like, you are getting all legalistic....as for "proof" you now want, we have firstly THREE girls making the accusations, not one, THREE, and then we have $150,000 hush money paid out by the diocese, and of course these issues reported, along with circle the wagons defense of the man by church officials, by that hotbed of anti-clergy The Cardinal Of College Report...
While utterly ignoring the fact that a man elevated to the chair should be beyond reproach or hint of scandal, as even says holy scripture, not to mention public sentiment.
This was an embarrassement, but you won't see that until/unless he plays with ruberics or maybe even doctrine, and meanwhile criticize him for his shoes, maybe a cute red more appropriate to match the purse.
And yes, had Burke or Sarah had these exact same things hanging over them prior to election, I would have been saying the exact same things....unsuitable for the office, an embarrassement, and anybody who thinks this will aid "evangelization" has their head in the sand....this will always be in the background, fuel for Church haters/anti-Catholics, militant atheists, and extreme right of religious and secular persuasion....this is NOT how you build unity.
Pope Leo is a breath of fresh air after “Ming the Merciful!”
No argument there, as Bergoglio never paid hush money to the abused in his diocese, while our new pope did.
Whatever mistakes that then-Cardinal Prevost may have made...whatever flaws/weaknesses that he may possess...
Our Majestic God has raised him to teach, govern, and sanctify us as Pope Leo XIV.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ speaks through Pope Leo XIV. We are called to love, respect, and obey His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Bergoglio has a very unseemly record, from what I have read, worse than almost anyone. Rupnik, anyone?
Father, the mass was beautiful, but the first 10mins of the video showed exactly what is wrong with the Church, our princes of the Church, our spiritual leaders, foremost among bishops, and from them comes the next pope.....in the stunning Sistine chapel before mass, gabbing away as if an attempt on the Guinness record for world's most inappropriate game of "telephone", the audience purely there for the show....my little.country parish does better, and these are our leaders.
Pope Leo’s Latin pronunciation is impeccable and chanting of the Mass lovely. Unlike much of the hierarchy Pope Leo is no stranger to Latin or chant. Deo Gratias! It is evident he does not carry the baggage from the “liturgical wars.”
Post a Comment