“Pope Leo urged Catholics to reject comfort, power and
domination and instead embrace a mission rooted in self-giving love, even when
it requires risk, vulnerability and suffering”.
Taken
from:
'In this dark hour of history,' do not shy
away from your mission, pope says - Detroit Catholic
‘In this dark hour of
history’, do not shy away from your mission, pope says
Carol
Glatz and Josephine Peterson
Apr 2, 2026
….
ROME (CNS) -- God doesn't exist to grant
victories or to be useful by providing wealth or power, Pope Leo XIV said.
Through Jesus, he serves humanity by offering himself
in a way that transforms human hearts so that they may then be inspired to love
others unconditionally, in turn, he said in his homily during Mass of the
Lord's Supper in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
"Jesus purifies not only our image of God -- from
the idolatry and blasphemy that have distorted it -- but also our image of
humanity," he said April 2, Holy Thursday. "For we tend to consider
ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals,
great when we are feared."
However, he said, "Christ offers us the example
of self-giving, service and love" so that humankind can learn how to love
according to what true love is.
In fact, he said, learning to act like Jesus "is
the work of a lifetime."
The Lord loves not because those he reaches out to are
good or pure, Pope Leo said, but simply because "he loves us first."
"His love is not a reward for our acceptance of
his mercy; instead, he loves us, and therefore cleanses us, thereby enabling us
to respond to his love," he said. "He does not ask us to repay him,
but to share his gift among ourselves."
"In him, God has given us an example -- not of
how to dominate, but of how to liberate; not of how to destroy life, but of how
to give it," Pope Leo said.
"As humanity is brought to its knees by so many
acts of brutality, let us too kneel down as brothers and sisters alongside the
oppressed," he said. "In this way, we seek to follow the Lord's
example."
Pope Leo XIV washes the
foot of a priest during the Mass of the Lord's Supper at the
Basilica of St. John
Lateran in Rome April 2, 2026. The foot-washing ritual reflects the call
to imitate Christ by
serving one another. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
The pope's words came during a Mass that commemorates
Jesus' institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood, and includes the
traditional foot-washing ritual, which reflects the call to imitate Christ by
serving one another.
Pope Leo returned to an earlier practice of washing
the feet of 12 priests from the Diocese of Rome in the Basilica of St. John
Lateran, which is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. The pope poured water
from a golden pitcher onto the foot of each priest, wiped each foot dry with a
towel and then gently kissed each foot.
Pope Francis had departed from the norm after his
election in 2013 by celebrating the Mass in one of Rome's
"peripheries," such as prisons or nursing homes, and by washing the
feet of men, women and their infants, Muslims or people of no faith, as a sign
of his dedication to serve everyone unconditionally.
Pope Francis' predecessors had always chosen either 12
priests, laymen or boys from the diocese for the ritual held either in the
Basilicas of St. John Lateran or of St. Peter.
By choosing 12 priests, 11 of whom he ordained last
year, Pope Leo highlighted the Mass' commemoration of the institution of the
Eucharist and of holy orders.
"The intrinsic bond between these two sacraments
reveals the perfect self-gift of Jesus, the high Priest and living, eternal
Eucharist," he said in his homily.
"Beloved brothers in the priesthood, we are
called to serve the people of God with our whole lives," he said.
Jesus' disciples were astonished by their master's
gesture and, like Peter, "we too must 'learn repeatedly that God's
greatness is different from our idea of greatness … because we systematically
desire a God of success and not of the Passion,'" he said, quoting Pope
Benedict XVI.
"We are always tempted to seek a God who 'serves'
us, who grants us victory, who proves useful like wealth or power. Yet we fail
to perceive that God does indeed serve us through the gratuitous and humble
gesture of washing feet," he said. "This is the true omnipotence of
God."
Earlier in the day, Pope Leo urged Catholics to reject
comfort, power and domination and instead embrace a mission rooted in
self-giving love, even when it requires risk, vulnerability and suffering.
During the chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, he
called on the faithful in his homily to overcome fear and a sense of
powerlessness in responding to the world’s crises.
"In this dark hour of history, it has pleased God
to send us to spread the fragrance of Christ where the stench of death
reigns," he said. "Let us renew our 'yes' to this mission that calls
for unity and brings peace."
While grounding his remarks in the teaching of his
predecessors, saints and clergy, the pope in this homily placed particular
emphasis on the Church’s mission through his own eyes as a missionary.
The first step of accepting the Christian mission, he
said, is to risk leaving behind what is familiar and certain, in order to
venture into something new.
"Every mission begins with that kind of
self-emptying in which everything is reborn," he said.
It is through this self-emptying that Christians
encounter the love of Christ, the pope said.
Pope Leo XIV celebrates
the Mass of the Lord's Supper at the Basilica of St. John Lateran
in Rome April 2, 2026.
(CNS photo/Vatican Media)
At the heart of his first Holy Thursday homily as
pope, he reflected on the nature of Christian love, saying it is rooted not in
power, but in self-giving.
"Jesus' journey reveals to us that the
willingness to lose oneself, to empty oneself, is not an end in itself, but a
condition for encounter and intimacy," Pope Leo said. "Love is true
only when it is unguarded."
He said true peace is not found in remaining
comfortable, but in embracing the risk and detachment that mission requires.
Calling it a "fundamental secret of mission," the pope said
"everything is restored and multiplied if it is first let go, without
fear,” a process repeated “in every new beginning, in every new sending
forth."
God calls upon the faithful to take risks, so "no
place becomes a prison, no identity a hiding place," he said. Every
mission requires reconciliation with the past, with the "gifts and
limitations of the upbringing we have received," the pope said.
Once the faithful are able to detach from what is
familiar and comfortable, Pope Leo said they must then "encounter"
the other through selfless service and the sharing of life. This detachment, he
said, creates the conditions for authentic encounter rather than control.
He emphasized that it is a priority that "neither
in the pastoral sphere nor in the social and political spheres can good come
from abuse of power."
He pointed to the example of missionaries, a role he
held as an Augustinian in Peru, whose work must be rooted in service, dialogue
and respect.
Rather than seeking to "reconquer"
increasingly secular societies, the pope said Catholics must approach as
guests, not to impose, but to listen and accompany.
The Church's mission, the pope said, is guided by the
Holy Spirit, and the faithful must not try to control it but instead follow its
lead, entering each culture with humility and "respecting the mystery that
every person and every community carries within them."
In his third point, the pope explained that this
mission is not a "heroic adventure" reserved only for a few, but
rather the "living witness of a Body with many members," and every
mission includes rejection and suffering.
He recalled that the people of Nazareth were filled
with rage when they heard Jesus' words and drove him out of the town. Every
Christian must "pass through" a trial just as Jesus did, the pope
said.
"The cross is part of the mission: the sending
becomes more bitter and frightening, but also more freeing and
transformative," he said.
A successful mission is not about the results, but
rather about the disciple's faithfulness and hope in God. Jesus embarked on a
journey "in a world torn apart by the powers that ravage it," Pope
Leo said.
"Within it arises a new people, not of victims,
but of witnesses," he said.
