At 10.00 this morning, in Saint Peter’s Square, the Jubilee Audience took place, during which the Holy Father Leo XIV met with groups of pilgrims and faithful.

In his catechesis, the Pope focused on the theme To hope is to choose. Clare of Assisi.

The Jubilee Audience concluded with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.

Catechesis. 6. To hope is to choose. Clare of Assisi

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning, and welcome to you all!

In the biblical text we have just heard (Lk 16: 13-14), the Evangelist notes that some people, after listening to Jesus, deride him. His discourse on poverty seemed absurd to them. More precisely, it touched the nerve of their attachment to money.

Dear friends, you have come as pilgrims of hope, and the Jubilee is a time of concrete hope, I which our heart can find forgiveness and mercy, so that everything can begin again in a new way. The Jubilee also opens us to the hope of a different distribution of wealth, to the possibility that the earth belongs to everyone, because in reality this is not the case. In this year, we must choose who to serve, justice or injustice, God or money.

To hope is to choose. This means at least two things. The most evident is that the world changes if we change. A pilgrimage is made for this reason; it is a choice. The Holy Door is crossed in order to enter into a new time. The second meaning is deeper and more subtle: to hope is to choose because one who does not choose, despairs. One of the most common consequences of spiritual sadness, or sloth, is not choosing anything. Those who experience this are then overcome by an inner idleness that is worse than death. To hope, on the other hand, is to choose.

I would like to remind you today of a woman who, with God’s grace, was able to choose. A courageous girl who went against the tide: Clare of Assisi. And I am happy to speak about her precisely on the feast day of Saint Francis. We know that Francis, choosing evangelical poverty, had to cut himself off from his family. However, he was a man: there was a scandal, but it was minor. Clare’s choice is even more impressive: a girl who wanted to be like Francis, who wanted to live, as a woman, as free as those brothers!

Clare understood what the Gospel asks. But even in a city that believed itself to be Christian, the Gospel taken seriously can appear to be a revolution. Then, as now, we must choose! Clare chose, and this gives us great hope. Indeed, we see two consequences of her courage in following that desire: the first is that many other girls in the area found the same courage and chose the poverty of Jesus, the life of the Beatitudes; the second consequence is that her choice was not merely a flash in the pan, but rather it lasted over time, right up to the present day. Clare’s choice inspired vocational choices all over the world and continues to do so today.

Jesus says: you cannot serve two masters. In this way the Church is young and attracts the young. Clare of Assisi reminds us that young people like the Gospel. It is still thus: the young like people who have chosen and bear the consequences of their choices. And this makes others want to choose too. It is a holy imitation: we do not become “photocopies”, but each person – when they choose the Gospel – chooses themselves. One loses oneself and finds oneself. Experience shows this; this is what happens.

Let us pray, then, for the young; and let us pray to be a Church that does not serve money or herself, but the Kingdom of God and his justice. A Church that, like Saint Clare of Assisi, has the courage to inhabit the city differently. This gives hope!

____________________

Summary of Catechesis

Dear brothers and sisters, as we continue our Jubilee catecheses we reflect on the choice to hope. We heard in the Gospel passage today about the choice to serve God or to serve money. When we allow material possessions to rule over us, we can fall into spiritual sadness. When we choose God, however, we choose hope and a life of forgivenss and mercy. On this feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, we look at his life and that of Saint Clare. They are models of those who understood the Gospel and chose a life of poverty as Jesus did. Their choice continues to inspire many to remember that the earth belongs to everyone. Let us pray to be a Church that serves God and the poor and opens the door of hope to the world.

___________________

Greeting

I extend a warm welcome this morning to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those coming from South Africa, South Korea and the United States of America. A special greeting to all of you who are participating in the Jubilee of the Missions and Migrants. In praying that you may experience an increase in the virtue of hope during this Jubilee Year, I invoke upon all of you, and upon all your families, the joy and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!