by Marie-Lucile Kubacki
Madrid – In one of the most important speeches of his trip to Spain, Pope Leo XIV, meeting with members of the Spanish Paraments, quoted the father of Spanish literature, Miguel de Cervantes. “From the universal pages of the Quixote, where Cervantes proclaimed that “freedom […] is one of the most precious gifts given to men by the heavens” , to the spiritual depth of St. Teresa of Avila, and from the great Spanish juridical tradition to the metaphysical restlessness of Unamuno, who reminded us that man “does not resign himself to die completely” , Spain has been able to look at the human being as something more than a part of the social, economic or political order: it has recognized him as a creature open to truth, endowed with freedom and moved by a thirst for eternity that no temporal reality can extinguish; in a word, as someone whose dignity precedes all utility and to whose service legislative action is subject,” the Pope affirmed.
The literary reference is interesting because the figure of Don Quixote embodies several concepts that the Pope illustrated during his visit to this ancient Christian land, present-day Spain.
Imaginary battles and Christian concreteness
Who is Don Quixote? A man who yearns for an unknown time and world, one that likely existed only in the novels he devoured with passion. A fascinating and at times somewhat eccentric figure, he struggles against reality, deciding to tilt at windmills, which he mistakes for giants. Disillusioned by reality as it is, Don Quixote wants to see only what he desires. Shortly before his death, after a bout of melancholic fever following yet another lost battle, he regains his sanity. In this sense, Don Quixote is an incredibly modern and provocative figure for Christians in secularized countries, who sometimes succumb to a longing for bygone eras.
Nostalgia, memory, cultural heritage, vision: Leo XIV addressed his relationship to the past on several occasions. During the Corpus Christi Mass in Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, he spoke about the traditions of the processions. “Jesus travels the streets,” he explained. “Therefore, the historical memory of the Corpus Christi processions is not confined to wistful nostalgia. Instead, it stands as an invitation in the present moment, in our daily lives, in our relationships, in society, and in the building of the future.” It is important to understand the invitation to “remember,” he continued, “so as not to forget who the Lord is, so as not to fall into the temptation of trusting in other idols and feeding on bread that does not satisfy.”
He then expressed his wish that “the religiosity which has shaped and defined this country for centuries is not a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today.” In other words, to avoid becoming mere folklore, popular piety must always be rooted in the source, which is the living God, who reveals himself in Sacred Scripture, gives himself in the sacraments, and allows himself to be served in his brothers and sisters.
The “journey” of mission
In his address to the bishops, he compared mission to a journey “whose destination is God, toward whom we lift our gaze. Like any journey, this one temptation that can arise when traveling is that of fixating on what we leave behind. Along with this temptation, there is also that of our luggage, which, for similar reasons, we fill with useless things that end up being a burden.” Leo XIV continued, “our response to the question of how to face the challenge before us must prudently combine freedom and courage, so that we may leave behind structures that do not help us, do not respond to our needs, or even lead us away from our goal, while having the strength to treasure what facilitates it.” Preserving the religious heritage, whose beauty “can reach even non-believers,” is a “challenge” that must be faced with “courage” so that it “bears fruit.” Moreover, every missionary on this journey of relationships and encounters cannot forget his “Viaticum”, the “Bread of the Word and of the Eucharist,” which are “even more necessary to us than material food because they open for us the way to salvation.”
The consolation of the Saints, new shoots in devastated lands
Yet sometimes encounters become rare, and the plains seem deserted—a metaphor for the sometimes sparsely attended ecclesial realities. “This is not the first time Spain has faced such a situation: in the past, for example, when the Church had to rebuild its presence in scorched lands, models of evangelization emerged that were later exported to the Americas, and they can help us here in our mission,” the Pope remarked. “As then,” he added, “we too are called to build a new reality through respectful dialogue and the use of new languages, like the famous “holy mufti” of Granada, Friar Hernando de Talavera, and later Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo in the Americas, an exemplary bishop who reached out to others in a time of mission and ecclesial reorganization.”
In other words, to find their place in society, Christians must see the world as it is. This does not mean accepting everything or engaging in a culture war. The Gospel illustrates the Christian attitude through various metaphors: the mustard seed, the leaven in the dough, the salt of the earth. Before the authorities, he entrusted Spain, a country with a “great history behind it,” with the mission of “appreciating and studying complexity, learning not to deny it but to embrace it as a blessing, and fleeing from identity-based approaches that seem to explain everything yet only fill the world with “ghosts” and enemies.” “Your own history suggests that a culture of encounter, not confrontation, is what fosters stability and prosperity,” he emphasized. “This is the gift that the “Old Continent” can offer the world if it wishes to remain young, for youth is found in those who feel they have a future and a mission that still have meaning,” he affirmed. Shortly afterward, he invited the parliamentarians to raise their gaze to the paintings depicting the reception of the Gospel and the Decalogue, not to distance themselves from reality, but to remember “that every decision made by public authorities affects real people, especially those who have the least power to make their voices heard.”
“Without confusing the political order with the religious one, these symbols invite us to recognize that modern freedom has also been shaped by a long education of conscience, deeply marked by the Christian tradition. In that inner school, people learned that law must serve the good, that justice sets limits on force, that power requires legitimacy, that the poor belong fully to the community, that the foreigner must be welcomed in accordance with his dignity, and that human life can never be treated as a commodity,” he continued, before declaring: “A law does not attain its true greatness merely by having been formally enacted; it attains it when, in addition to being valid in form, it can stand before the dignity of the person and pass that test without shame.” Thus, “faith does not claim to impose privileges or constraints,” but neither can it be “silenced as if it were irrelevant to public life,” the Pope affirmed.
Wounded bodies, broken hearts
After hearing shocking testimonies in the port of Arguineguin in the Canary Islands, the Pope met with migrants there and gave a concrete example of the task of Christians in the face of one of the greatest tragedies of our time. He called on the countries of origin to examine their consciences and emphasized that the Church, too, must be open to scrutiny. “The reception of migrants cannot be something secondary or delegated only to a few volunteers,” he stressed. “We kneel before the altar to adore Christ present in the Eucharist, from whom we receive the strength and the motive to live charity; for this reason, we cannot then “pass by“ in front of the canoes and the boats, because from prayer springs every service and every commitment returns to it” ,” the Pope said. He also referred to “the Fisherman’s Ring” that is made for every new Pope and symbolizes the authority of the successor of Peter: “Its very name leads us to the Sea of Galilee, where Christ called Peter and said to him: “From now on you will be catching people” ,” the Pope said. “The Church has interpreted that verse as an image of her mission. Yet here and in places like El Hierro, Christ’s command is especially powerful and painful.” And he concluded with this wish: “May history not accuse us of turning the pain of those who suffer into a common sight along our shores. Today, here by the sea, every individual that arrives asks us what remains of our humanity. Sooner or later, it will be known whether we protected life or whether we yielded to indifference.”
A “madness” that embraces reality
In this sense, Don Quixote’s unwavering belief in a higher dignity touches the Christian heart. He refuses to measure human worth by economic and social performance, even at the risk of appearing naive, ridiculous, or antiquated. But the followers of Christ are called to a different kind of “madness,” unlike that of the Knight of La Mancha: not to tilt at windmills in the name of an idealized past, but to allow the Gospel to purify their nostalgia. In this way, they can clearly see reality, confront it, and courageously embrace it, moved by something that leads them to actions that appear not heroic, but simply normal and human. “I want to entrust all of you the mission to be truly human. Yes, be human: men and women of flesh and blood! Not mere appearances, but trustworthy faces,” the Pope said in his address to the young people in Madrid during the prayer vigil. This is the mission today: not to escape from the world, but to be men and women who, like Don Quixote, find healing, just as he did after a period of melancholy.
And if Cervantes let his hero die at precisely this point in the story, as if there were no life beyond nostalgic idealization, then the Christian can begin his mission, or, as Leo XIV put it, his journey, precisely with healing—and with the grace that heals even wounded hearts.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.