Vatican City – The preferential option of Jesus and the Church for the poor leads “back to the essence of our faith,” for they are “the very flesh of Christ and not just a sociological category,” said Pope Leo XIV, who, on the penultimate Sunday of the liturgical year, recalled that the preferential option for the poor is rooted in the redemption brought about by Christ. He reaffirmed this in his homily during the Eucharistic celebration he presided over in St. Peter’s Basilica, on the occasion of the “Jubilee of the Poor”.
The last Sundays of the liturgical year, the Pope said, invite us to look to the ultimate end of history. In the first reading, the prophet Malachi sees the arrival of the “day of the Lord” as the beginning of a new era: “It is described as God’s time, when, like a dawn that brings forth the sun of righteousness, the hopes of the poor and the humble will receive a final and definitive answer from the Lord, and the work of the wicked and their injustice, especially against the defenseless and the poor, will be eradicated and burned like straw.”
The “sun of righteousness that rises,” declared the Bishop of Rome, “as we know, is Jesus himself.” For the “Day of the Lord” is not only the last day of history; it is “the Kingdom that draws near to every person in the Son of God who comes.” That Kingdom whose proclamation is first addressed to the poor. A predilection that, like a “common thread,” runs through the entire history of salvation.
“In the midst of persecution, suffering, struggles, and oppression in our personal lives and in society,” Pope Leo reminded us, “God does not abandon us. He reveals himself as the One who takes our side.” “And the Scriptures are woven with this golden thread that recounts the story of God, who is always on the side of the little ones, orphans, strangers and widows.”
And the Church desires to be “the mother of the poor, a place of welcome and justice,” emphasized the Bishop of Rome, referring to the Apostolic Exhortation “Dilexit te”—even today, in this world marked by “old and new forms of poverty” that “oppress our world.” First and foremost are material forms of poverty, but there are also “many moral and spiritual situations of poverty, which often affect young people in a particular way. The tragedy that cuts across them all is loneliness,” the Pope said.
The Gospel, Pope Leo XIV emphasized, “reminds us that it is precisely in the upheavals of history that the Lord comes to save us. And today, as a Christian community, together with the poor, we must become a living sign of this salvation.” He stressed that we must always be aware that “there can be no peace without justice, and the poor remind us of this in many ways, through migration as well as through their cries, which are often stifled by the myth of well-being and progress that does not take everyone into account, and indeed forgets many individuals, leaving them to their fate.”
Walking through history with the expectation of the Lord’s glorious return, the Pontiff emphasized, does not mean “to live a life closed in on ourselves, in a religious seclusion that isolates us from others and from history.”
Precisely by holding fast to Christ’s predilection for the poor, Leo XIV stressed, the Church can transform itself into “a space of fraternity and dignity for all, without exception,” while there is always the danger of “living like distracted wanderers, unconcerned about the final destination and uninterested in those who share the journey with us.”
On the day of the “Jubilee of the Poor,” Pope Leo concluded, one can draw inspiration from the witness of the saints “who served Christ in the most needy and followed him on the path of humility and self-denial.”
In particular, Pope Leo recalled the figure of Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, whose “life as a “vagabond of God”, characterizes him as the patron saint of the homeless.”
After Mass and before the Angelus prayer, which he recited from the window of his study in the Apostolic Palace, Leo XIV recalled that “throughout the history of the Church, it is above all the martyrs who remind us that God’s grace is capable of transforming even violence into a sign of redemption.” And after the Marian prayer, he affirmed that even today, Christians in various parts of the world face discrimination and persecution, referring in particular to Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sudan, and other countries “from which we often hear news of attacks on communities and places of worship. God is a merciful Father, and he desires peace among all his children!”
“My prayers are with the families in Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” the Pope continued, “where in recent days there has been a massacre of civilians, with at least twenty victims of a terrorist attack. Let us pray that all violence will cease, and that believers will work together for the common good.”
After the Angelus prayer, around 1,300 people from all over the world attended a luncheon with Pope Leo XIV in the Paul VI Hall. The Pope paid tribute to the Vincentian Order, who had organized and served the luncheon for the needy. “This luncheon,” Pope Leo said, “which we are now receiving, is offered to us through Providence and the great generosity of the Community of San Vincenzo, the Vincentians, to whom we wish to express our gratitude. Moreover, today marks an anniversary: 400 years since the birth of their founder.
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