Discover the first homily of a spiritual and theologian pope

“You are Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16, 16). By these words, Pierre, questioned with the other disciples by the master on the faith he has in him, expresses in synthesis the heritage that the Church, through the apostolic succession, keeps, deepens and transmits for two thousand years. Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God, that is to say the only Savior and the revealing of the Father’s face. In him, God, to be close and accessible to men, revealed to us in the confident eyes of a child, in the awakened mind of a teenager, in the ripe features of a man (cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Past. Gaudium and Spes, n. 22), until he appears to his family, after his resurrection, in his glorious body. He thus showed us a model of holy humanity that we can all imitate, with the promise of an eternal destiny which exceeds all our limits and all our capacities.

In his answer, Pierre seizes these two aspects: the gift of God and the way to go to be transformed, dimensions inseparable from salvation, entrusted to the church so that it announces them for the good of the human race. Entrusted to us, chosen by him even before we were trained in our mother’s breast (cf. JR 1, 5), regenerated in the water of baptism and, beyond our limits and without any merit from us, led here and sent from here, so that the Gospel is announced to any creature (cf. MC 16, 15).

In particular, God, by calling me by your vote to succeed the first of the apostles, entrusts me with this treasure so that, with his help, I am the faithful administrator (cf. 1 Co 4, 2) for the benefit of the whole mystical body of the church, so that it is always more the city placed on the mountain (cf. AP 21, 10), the Ark of Salvation which sails on the waves of history. And that, not so much thanks to the magnificence of its structures or to the greatness of its constructions – like the buildings in which we are -, but through the holiness of its members, of this “people whom God has acquired to proclaim the admirable works of the one who called you darkness to his admirable light” (1 p 2, 9).

However, upstream of the conversation where Pierre makes his profession of faith, there is also another question: “according to people, who is the son of man?” (Mt 16, 13). It is not trivial, it indeed relates to an important aspect of our ministry: the reality in which we live, with its limits and potentialities, its questions and its convictions. “According to people, who is the son of man?” (Mt 16, 13).

Thinking about the scene we are thinking about, we could find two possible answers to this question that draw two different attitudes. First of all there is the world’s response. Matthieu underlines that the conversation between Jesus and his disciples on his identity takes place in the beautiful city of Caesarea of ​​Philippe, rich in luxurious palaces, nestled in an enchanting natural setting, at the foot of the Hermon, but also seat of cruel power and theater of betrayals and infidelities. This image tells us about a world that considers Jesus as a totally insignificant person, at most a curious character, who can arouse wonder by his unusual way of speaking and acting. Thus, when his presence becomes embarrassing because of his requirement of honesty and morality, this “world” will not hesitate to reject and eliminate it.

Then there is another possible answer to the question of Jesus: that of the people. For him, the Nazarer is not a “charlatan”: he is a straight, courageous man, who speaks well and says just things, like other great prophets in the history of Israel. This is why it follows it, at least as long as it can do it without too much risk or drawbacks. But it is only a man, and therefore, at the time of danger, during the passion, he abandons it and leaves, disappointed.

What strikes in these two attitudes is their news. They indeed embody ideas that one could easily find-perhaps expressed in a different language, but identical in their substance-in the mouths of many men and women of our time. Even today, there are many contexts where the Christian faith is considered absurd, reserved for weak and not very intelligent people; Contexts where we prefer other certainties, such as technology, money, success, power, pleasure. These are environments where it is not easy to testify and announce the Gospel, and where those who believe are ridiculed, persecuted, despised or, at best, tolerated and pity. And yet, it is precisely for this reason that the mission is urgent in these places, because the lack of faith often leads to dramas such as the loss of the meaning of life, the forgetting of mercy, the violation of the dignity of the person in its most dramatic forms, the family crisis and so many other injuries from which our society suffers considerably.

Even today, there are contexts where Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superhomme, and this not only among non -believers, but also in many baptized who end up living, at this level, in de facto atheism. This is the world entrusted to us, in which, as has taught us repeatedly Pope Francis, we are called to testify to the joyful faith in Jesus Savior. This is why, for us too, it is essential to repeat: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16, 16). It is essential to do it above all in our personal relationship with him, in the commitment of a daily conversion path. But also, as a Church, living together our belonging to the Lord and bringing to all the good news (cf. Vatican Council II, Const. Dogm. Lumen Gentiumn. 1).

I say it first for myself, as a stone successor, while I start my mission as bishop of the church which is in Rome, called to chair in charity the universal church, according to the famous expression of Saint Ignatius of Antioch (cf. letter to the Romans, prologue). Drive chained to this city, the place of his imminent sacrifice, he wrote to the Christians who were there: “So I will be really a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world no longer see my body” (Letter to the Romans, IV, 1). He referred to the fact of being devoured by wild beasts in the circus – and that is what happened -, but his words more generally refer to an unconditional commitment for anyone who exercises a ministry of authority in the Church: disappear so that Christ remains, to be small so that he is known and glorified (cf. Jn 3, 30), to spend him to know it. May God give me this grace, today and always, with the help of the very tender intercession of Mary, mother of the Church.