(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 10.05.2025).- At 11 a.m. on Friday, May 9, Pope Leo XIV presided over a Eucharistic concelebration with the Cardinal Electors. The Mass «Pro Ecclesia» (For the Church) of former Cardinal Prevost, now Pope, took place in the Sistine Chapel. Following is a translation in English of the Holy Father’s homily.
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I’ll begin with a few words in English, and the rest will be in Italian. I would like to repeat the phrase from the Responsorial Psalm: «O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things!» (Psalm 98:1). And indeed, not only with me, my brother Cardinals, but with all of us, as we celebrate this morning.
I invite you to recognize the wonders the Lord has done, the blessings the Lord continues to shower upon all of us, through the ministry of Peter.
You have called me to carry that cross and to be blessed with that mission. And I know I can count on each and every one of you to walk with me, as we continue, as the Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, announcing the Good News and proclaiming the Gospel.
«You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God» (Matthew 16:16). With these words, Peter, questioned by the Master along with the other disciples about their faith in Him, summarizes the heritage that the Church, through apostolic succession, has guarded, deepened, and transmitted for two thousand years.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the only Savior, and the One who reveals to us the face of the Father.
In Him, God, in order to draw close to humanity, revealed Himself to us in the trusting eyes of a child, in the restless mind of a young man, in the mature features of a man (cf. Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22), even appearing to His own people, after the Resurrection, with His glorified body. He thus showed us a model of holy humanity that we can all imitate, together with the promise of an eternal destiny that, however, surpasses all our limits and capacities.
In his response, Peter embraces both: the gift of God and the path to be taken to allow oneself to be transformed, inseparable dimensions of salvation, entrusted to the Church to proclaim for the good of humanity. He entrusts them to us, chosen by Him before we were formed in the maternal womb (cf. Jeremiah 1:5), regenerated in the water of Baptism, and, beyond our limits and without any merit of our own, led here and from here sent, so that the Gospel may be proclaimed to all creatures (cf. Mark 16:15).
God, in a particular way, by calling me through your vote to succeed the first of the Apostles, entrusts this treasure to me, so that, with your help, I may be His faithful steward (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:2) for the entire Mystical Body of the Church; so that it becomes ever more the city on the mountain (cf. Revelation 21:10), an ark of salvation that navigates through the tides of history, a beacon that illuminates the nights of the world. And this not so much thanks to the magnificence of the structures and the grandeur of the constructions — like the monuments in which we find ourselves –, but because of the holiness of its members, of that «people acquired to proclaim the wonderful deeds of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light» (1 Peter 2:9).
Yet, above the conversation in which Peter makes his profession of faith, there is another question: «What do people say about the Son of Man?» Jesus asks, «Who do they say He is?» (Matthew 16:13). This is not a trivial question; on the contrary, it concerns an important aspect of our ministry: the reality in which we live, with its limits and its potentialities, its questions and its convictions.
«What do people say about the Son of Man? Who do they say He is?» (Matthew 16:13). Thinking about the scene we are reflecting on, we can find two possible answers to this question, which outline two different attitudes.
In the first place, there is the world’s response. Matthew points out that the conversation between Jesus and His followers about His identity takes place in the beautiful city of Caesarea Philippi, rich in luxurious palaces, nestled in a charming natural setting at the foot of Mount Hermon, but also the seat of cruel circles of power and a source of betrayal and infidelity. This image speaks to us of a world that considers Jesus a completely unimportant figure, at most a curious figure, who can arouse astonishment with his unusual way of speaking and acting. And so, when his presence becomes bothersome, due to the demands for honesty and the moral demands He makes, this world will not hesitate to reject and eliminate him.
There is also another possible answer to Jesus’ question: that of the common people. For them, the Nazarene is not a Christian; He is an upright man, a brave man, who speaks well and says just things, like the great prophets in the history of Israel. That’s why they follow Him, at least as far as they can without too much risk and inconvenience. But they consider Him only a man, and that’s why, in the moment of danger, during the Passion, they too abandon Him and leave, disillusioned.
The relevance of these two attitudes is striking. Both embody ideas that we can easily find — perhaps expressed in different language, but identical in substance — in the mouths of many men and women of our time.
Today, too, there are many contexts in which the Christian faith remains an absurdity, something for weak and unintelligent people, contexts in which other securities than those it proposes are preferred, such as technology, money, success, and power or pleasure.
We are talking about environments in which it is not easy to bear witness to and proclaim the Gospel, and where those who believe are ridiculed, hindered, and despised, or, at most, tolerated and pitied. And yet, precisely for this reason, they are places where the mission is most urgent, because the lack of faith often brings with it tragedies 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 crisis of the family and many other wounds that bring no small amount of suffering to our society.
There are also contexts in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, and this not only among non-believers, but even among many baptized people, who thus end up living, in this context, a de facto atheism.
This is the world entrusted to us, and in which, as Pope Francis has often taught, we are called to joyfully bear witness to our faith in Jesus the Savior. Therefore, for us too, it is essential to repeat: «You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God» (Matthew 16:16).
It is fundamental to do this first of all in our personal relationship with Him, in our commitment to a daily journey of conversion. But also as a Church, living together our belonging to the Lord and bringing the Good News to all (cf. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 1).
I say this first of all for myself, as Successor of Peter, as I begin my mission as Bishop of the Church which is in Rome, called to preside over the universal Church in charity, according to the famous expression of Saint Ignatius of Antioch (cf. Letter to the Romans, Prologue). He, being led in chains to this city, the place of his imminent sacrifice, wrote to the Christians who were there: «At that moment I will truly be a disciple of Christ, when the world will no longer see my body» (Letter to the Romans, IV, 1). He was referring to being devoured by the beasts of the circus — and that is what happened — but his words evoke, in a more general sense, an inalienable commitment for anyone who exercises a ministry of authority in the Church: to disappear so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that He may be known and glorified (cf. John 3:30), to spend oneself to the end so that no one may lack the opportunity to know and love Him.
May God grant me this grace, today and always, with the help of the tender intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church.
