As is the tradition after the election of a new pope, Pope Leo XIV chaired his first Eucharistic celebration as a pontiff Friday morning in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinal voters present.
Wearing black shoes and a pastoral cross made for Pope Benedict XVI and also used by Pope Francis, former Cardinal Robert Prevost addressed his comrades the day after the end of the conclave which elected it.
“You called me to wear a cross”: these are the first words, pronounced in English, of Pope Leo XIV, in the homily describing his pontificate. “I'm going to start with a few words in English, the rest I will do in Italian,” he started.
“I'm going to sing a new song to the Lord because he did wonders,” he said. “Not only with me, but with all of us, my brother Cardinals, when we celebrate this morning, I invite you to recognize the wonders that the Lord has made, the blessings that the Lord continues to pour us.”
“Thanks to the ministry of (saint) Peter, you called me to carry this cross and be blessed with this mission, and I know that I can count on each of you to walk with me while we continue as a Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news, to announce the Gospel.”
Answering the question of who is Christ for each person “is not a trivial question,” said the new Pope.
“First there is the answer from the world,” he said, who “often considers Jesus a completely unimportant person, at most a curious character, who can arouse the question by his unusual way of speaking and acting.”
“And therefore, when his presence becomes embarrassing because of the requirements of the honesty and the moral requirements he makes, this world will not hesitate to reject it and eliminate it.”
In his homily, Prévost quoted Pope Francis, referring to the world that he “entrusted” to his successor – “in which, as he has taught us so many times, we are called to testify to a joyful faith in Jesus the Savior”.
By concluding his homily, Pope Leo XIV underlined “an inalienable commitment to anyone in the Church which exercises a ministry of authority: disappear so that Christ can remain, to be small so that he is known and glorified, to do without the maximum so that no one is missing the opportunity to know and love him.”
“May God give me this grace, today and always, with the help of tender intercession of Mary Mother of the Church,” he concluded.
