Holy Mass Pro Ecclesia

On Friday, 9 May 2025, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass with the Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on Christ, the model of our humanity, and Peter's response to the Lord's question, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

I will begin with a word in English, and the rest is in Italian.

But I want to repeat the words from the Responsorial Psalm: “I will sing a new song to the Lord, because he has done marvels.”

And indeed, not just with me but with all of us. My brother Cardinals, as we celebrate this morning, I invite you to recognize the marvels that the Lord has done, the blessings that the Lord continues to pour out on 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 rely on each and every one of you to walk with me, as we continue as a Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers to announce the Good News, to announce the Gospel.

From here, in Italian.

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). With these words Peter, questioned by the Master, together with the other disciples, about his faith in him, expresses in summary the patrimony that the Church for two thousand years, through apostolic succession, preserves, deepens and transmits.

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that is, the only Savior and the revealer of the Father’s face.

In Him, in God, in order to make himself close and accessible to men, has revealed himself to us in the confident eyes of a child, in the lively mind of a young man, in the ripe features of a man (cf. Vat. II, Cost. Past. Gaudium et Spes, 22), until he appeared to his [disciples], after the resurrection, with his glorious body. He thus showed us a model of holy humanity that we can all imitate, together with the promise of an eternal destiny that instead exceeds our limits and abilities.

Peter, in his response, grasps both these things: the gift of God and the path to be taken to allow them to be transformed, inseparable dimensions of salvation, entrusted to the Church so that he may proclaim them for the good of the human race. Entrusted to us, chosen by him before we were formed in the womb (cf. Jer 1:5), regenerated in the water of Baptism and, beyond our limitations and without our merit, led here and sent here, so that the Gospel may be proclaimed to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15).

In particular, God, calling me through your vow to succeed the First of the Apostles, entrusts this treasure to me so that, with his help, he may be a faithful administrator (cf. 1 Cor 4:2) in favor of the whole Mystical Body of the Church; so that it may be ever more a city placed on the mountain (cf. Rev 21:10), a jure-of-a-lifetime, a juxtach that navigates through the waves of history, a beacon that illuminates the nights of the world. And this is not so much because of the magnificence of his structures and for the grandeur of his buildings – like the monuments in which we find ourselves – as through the holiness of his members, of that “people whom God has acquired to proclaim to him, who has called you from darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2,9).

However, upstream of the conversation in which Peter makes his profession of faith, there is also another question: “Does people – ask Jesus – who says that the Son of man is?” (Mt 16:13). It is not a trivial question, indeed it concerns an important aspect of our ministry: the reality in which we live, with its limits and its potential, its questions and convictions.

“Who do people say he is the Son of Man?” (Mt 16:13). Thinking about the scene on which we are reflecting, we could find two possible answers to this question, which outline as many attitudes.

First, there is the response of the world. Matthew emphasizes that the conversation between Jesus and his about his identity takes place in the beautiful town of Caesarea Philip, rich in luxurious palaces, set in an enchanting natural scenery, at the foot of the Hermon, but also home to cruel power circles and the scene of betrayals and infidelity. This image speaks to us of a world that considers Jesus a person totally unimportant, at most a curious character, who can arouse wonder with his unusual way of speaking and acting. And so, when his presence becomes annoying by the demands of honesty and the moral demands it recalls, this “world” will not hesitate to reject and eliminate it.

Then there is the other possible answer to Jesus’ question: that of ordinary people. For them the Nazarene is not a “squared man”: he is a righteous man, one who has courage, who speaks well and who says right things, like other great prophets of the history of Israel. That’s why they follow him, at least as long as they can do it without too many risks and inconveniences. But they consider him only a man, and therefore, in the moment of danger, during the Passion, they too abandon and leave, disappointed.

It is striking, of these two attitudes, their actuality. They embody ideas that we could easily find – perhaps expressed in a different language, but identical in substance – on the lips of many men and women of our time.

Even today there are many contexts in which the Christian faith is considered an absurd thing, for weak and unintelligent people; contexts in which other certainties are preferred to it, such as technology, money, success, power, pleasure.

These are environments in which it is not easy to witness and proclaim the Gospel and where those who believe are mocked, opposed, despised, or at most endured and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are places where mission is urgent, because the lack of faith often brings with it dramas such as the loss of the meaning of life, the oblivion 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 our society suffers and not a little.

Even today there are also the contexts in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced only to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, and this not only among non-believers, but also among many baptized, who thus end up living, at this level, in a de facto atheism.

This is the world entrusted to us, in which, as Pope Francis has taught us so many times, we are called to witness to the joyful faith in Christ the Saviour. Therefore, it is essential for us too, to repeat: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16).

It is essential to do so first of all in our personal relationship with Him, in the commitment of a daily journey of conversion. But then, as a Church, living together our belonging to the Lord and bringing the Good News to all (cf. Vat. II, Cost. Dogm. Lumen Gentium, 1).

I say this first of all for myself, as the 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 St. Ignatius of Antioch (cf. Letter to the Romans, Greeting). He, in chains towards this city, the place of his impending sacrifice, wrote to the Christians who were there: “Then I will be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world will not see my body” (Letter to the Romans, IV, 1). He was referring to being devoured by the beasts in the circus – and so it happened – but his words recall in a more general sense an indispensable commitment for anyone in the Church to exercise a ministry of authority: to disappear so that Christ may remain, to become small so that He may be known and glorified (cf. Jn 3:30), spend himself to the end so that no one lacks the opportunity to know and love him.

May God give me this grace, today and always, with the help of the most tender intercession of Mary Mother of the Church.

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