Tor Vergata, the entire homily of Pope Leo XIV

Word from Pap Léon XIV before the start of the young jubilee mass

Hello everyone! Good Sunday!
Good Morning! Buenos Dias! Good morning, Guten Morgen!

I hope you all rested a little. We will soon start the greatest celebration that Christ has left us, his presence even in the Eucharist. May God bless you all. And that it is a really memorable moment for each of us, when, together, as the Church of Christ, we follow, walk together and live with Jesus Christ.

Good celebration to all!

The entire Sunday, August 3 homily at the Jeunes Jubilee

Very dear young,

After the vigil lived together last night, we meet today to celebrate the Eucharist, the sacrament of the total gift of self that the Lord made for us. We can imagine bringing back, in this experience, the path traveled on Easter evening by the disciples of Emmaus (cf. Lc 24, 13-35): First, they were moving away from Jerusalem, frightened and disappointed; They left convinced that after the death of Jesus, there was nothing more to wait, nothing to hope for. And yet, they met him precisely, they welcomed him as a traveling companion, they listened to him while he explained the scriptures to them, and finally they recognized him in the fraction of bread. So their eyes opened and the joyful announcement of Easter found room in their hearts.

Today’s liturgy does not speak to us directly about this episode, but it helps us to reflect on what it says: the meeting with the risen that changes our existence, which illuminates our affections, our desires, our thoughts.

The first reading, taken from the book of Qoheletinvites us to make, like the two disciples of which we have spoken, the experience of our limit, of the finitude of things that pass (cf. Qo 1, 2; 2, 21-23); And the responsible psalm, which echoes her, offers us the image of a “changing grass: she flowers in the morning, she changes; in the evening, she is faded, dried up” (PS 90, 5-6). These are two strong reminders, perhaps a little shocking, but which should not scare us, as if they were “taboos” subjects to avoid. The fragility they tell us is indeed part of the wonder we are. Let us think of the symbol of grass: isn’t that beautiful, a pre-flower? Admittedly, they are delicate, made of fine, vulnerable stems, likely to dry out, bend, to break, but at the same time, they are immediately replaced by others who grow after them, and the first of which become generously nutrients and serve as fertilizers, consuming themselves on the ground. This is how the field lives, continuously renewing itself, and even during the cold winter months, when everything seems silent, its energy simmers underground and is preparing to explode, in spring, in a thousand colors.

We too, dear friends, are thus made: we are made for that. Not for a life where everything is acquired and motionless, but for an existence that is constantly regenerating in gift, in love. And so, we continually aspire to a “plus” that no reality created can give us; We feel such a large and burning thirst that no drink from this world can quench it. Faced with this thirst, let’s not deceive our hearts trying to appease it with ineffective substitutes! Let’s listen to it rather! Let us make it a stool on which we can climb to lean, like children, on tiptoe, at the window of the meeting with God. We will find ourselves in front of him, who awaits us, which even kindly strikes the window of our soul (cf. AP 3, 20). And it is beautiful, even at twenty, to open our hearts greatly, to let him enter it, and then venture with him towards the eternal spaces of infinity.

Saint Augustine, speaking of his intense research of God, wondered: “What is the object of our hope (…)? Is it the earth? No. Is it something that comes from the earth, like gold, silver, tree, harvest, water (…)? These things please, they are beautiful, they are good” (Sermon 313/F3). And he concluded: “Look for the one who made them, it is him your hope” (ibid.). Then, thinking back to the path he had traveled, he prayed by saying: “You (Lord) was inside, and I am outside and that’s where I was looking for you (…). You called, you shouted and you broke my deafness you shone, you resplended and you dissipated my blindness you have embalmed, I breathed and breathless. PS 33, 9; 1 p 2, 3) and I’m hungry and I’m thirsty (cf. MT 5, 6; 1 CO 4, 11); You touched me and I ignited myself for your peace “(Confessions10, 27).

Brothers and sisters, these are very beautiful words, which recall what Pope Francis said to Lisbon, during the World Youth Day, to other young people like you: “Everyone is called to confront large questions that do not (…) a simplistic or immediate answer, but which invite you to make a trip, to surpass themselves, to go further (…), to a take -off without which there is no end. We find thirsty from the interior, worried, unfinished, eager for meaning and future (…). (Speech for Meeting with young academicsAugust 3, 2023).

There is an important question in our hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask ourselves: what is happiness? What is the true taste for life? What frees us from the swamps of absurdity, boredom, mediocrity?

In recent days, you have lived many enriching experiences. You have met young people from your age, from different parts of the world and belonging to different cultures. You have exchanged your knowledge, shared your expectations, dialogued with the city through art, music, IT, sport. At Circo Massimoyou have approached the sacrament of penance, you received forgiveness from God and you asked for a good life.

In all of this, you can find an important answer: the fullness of our existence does not depend on what we accumulate or, as we have heard in the Gospel, on what we have (cf. Lc 12, 13-21). It is rather linked to what we know how to welcome and share with joy (cf. MT 10, 8-10; Jn 6, 1-13). Buying, accumulating, consuming is not enough. We need to look up, look up, towards “the realities from above” (Collar 3, 2), to realize that everything has a meaning, among the realities of the world, insofar as it serves to unite with God and our brothers in charity, making us grow in us “feelings of tenderness and compassion, kindness, humility, sweetness” (Collar 3, 12), sorry (cf. ibid., c. 13), of peace (cf. Jn 14, 27), like those of Christ (cf. PH 2, 5). And in this perspective, we will always understand better what it means “hope is not disappointed, since the love of God has been spread in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given to us” (RM 5, 5).

Very dear young people, our hope is Jesus. It is he, as Saint John Paul II said, “who arouses in you the desire to make your life something big, (…) to make you better, to improve society, by making it more human and more fraternal” (XV Youth World Day, prayer vigilAugust 19, 2000). Let us remain united to him, let us remain in his friendship, always, by cultivating it by prayer, worship, Eucharistic communion, frequent confession, generous charity, as we taught us by blessed Piergiorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, who will soon be proclaimed holy. Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Don’t just. You will then see growing every day, in you and around you, the light of the Gospel.

I entrust you to Mary, the Virgin of Hope. With his help, going back in the coming days in your countries, in all parts of the world, continue to walk with joy in the footsteps of the Savior, and contaminate everyone you meet with your enthusiasm and the testimony of your faith! Have a good trip!