At 9.30 this morning, 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Holy Father Leo XIV presided over Holy Mass at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano, with the poor assisted by the diocese and by diocesan Caritas workers.
The following is the homily delivered by the Pope during the Eucharistic Celebration, after the proclamation of the Gospel:
Homily of the Holy Father
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is a joy to be here together to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist, which gives us an even greater joy. If, indeed, it is already a joy to be close to each other here and to overcome distance, looking each other in the eye like true brothers and sisters, an even greater gift is to overcome death in the Lord. Jesus conquered death – Sunday is his day, the day of the Resurrection – and we already begin to overcome it with him. It is so: each one of us comes to church with some fatigue or fear – at times small, at times bigger – and immediately we are less alone, we are together and we find the Word and the Body of Christ. In this way, our heart receives a life that goes beyond death. It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Risen One, which does this among us and in us, silently, Sunday after Sunday, day after day.
We find ourseles in an ancient Sanctuary whose walls embrace us. It is called “Rotonda”, and its circular shape, as in Saint Peter’s Square and in other ancient and new churches, makes us feel cradled by God. From the outside, the Church, like any other human entity, may seem angular to us. Its divine reality, however, manifests itself when we cross the threshold and find welcome. Then, our poverty, our vulnerability and above all the failures for which we can be scorned and judged – and sometimes we scorn and judge ourselves – are finally accepted in God’s gentle strength, a love without edges, an unconditional love. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is for us a sign and anticipation of God’s maternity. In her, we become a mother Church, who generates and regenerates not by virtue of worldly power, but with the virtue of charity.
What Jesus said in the Gospel that has just been read may perhaps have surprised us. We seek peace, but we have heard: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Lk 12:51). And we might almost reply “But how come, Lord? Even you? We already have too many divisions. Is it not you who said, in the last supper: ‘I leave you peace, I give you my peace’?”. “Yes”, the Lord might answer, “It is I. Remember, though, that evening, my last evening, I immediately added, with regard to peace, ‘Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (cf. Jn 14:27).
Dear friends, the world accustoms us to exchanging peace for comfort, good for tranquillity. Therefore, in order for his peace, the shalom of God, to come among us, Jesus has to say to us: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” (Lk 12:49). Perhaps our own relatives, as the Gospel foretells, and even our friends will be divided on this. And some will advise us not to take risks, to save ourselves, because it is important to be at peace, and others do not deserve to be loved. Jesus, on the other hand, immersed himself in our humanity courageously. This is the “baptism” he speaks of (v. 50): it is the baptism of the cross, a total immersion in the risks that love entails. And when, as we say, we “receive communion”, we nourish ourselves with this bold gift of his. Mass nourishes this decision. It is the decision to no longer live for ourselves, to bring fire to the world. Not the fire of weapons, nor even that of words that incinerate others. No, not that. But the fire of love, which lowers itself and serves, which opposes indifference with care and arrogance with meekness; the fire of goodness, which does not cost as much as weapons, but freely renews the world. It may cost misunderstanding, mockery, even persecution, but there is no greater peace than having its flame within us.
Therefore, today I would like to thank, together with your Bishop Vincenzo, all of you who, in the diocese of Albano, are committed to bringing the fire of charity. And I encourage you not to distinguish between those who assist and those who are assisted, between those who seem to give and those who seem to receive, between those who appear poor and those who feel they offer time, skills and help. We are the Lord’s Church, a Church of the poor, all precious, all individuals, each one a bearer of a unique Word of God. Each one is a gift for the others. Let us break down the walls. I thank those who work in every Christian community to facilitate the encounter between people of different origins, economic situations, mental and emotional states: only together, only by becoming one Body in which even the most fragile participate with full dignity, are we the Body of Christ, the Church of God. This happens when the fire that Jesus came to bring burns away the prejudices, cautions and fears that still marginalize those who bear the poverty of Christ written in their history. Let us not leave the Lord outside our churches, our homes and our lives. Instead, let us allow him to enter in the poor, and then we will also make peace with our own poverty, the poverty we fear and deny when we seek tranquillity and security at all costs.
May the Virgin Mary, who heard the elderly Saint Simeon indicate her son Jesus as a “sign that is spoken against” (Lk 2:34), intercede for us. May the thoughts of our hearts be revealed, and may the fire of the Holy Spirit make them no longer hearts of stone, but hearts of flesh.
Santa Maria della Rotonda, pray for us!
