Vatican City – “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” The words of Jesus, with which the passage from Sunday’s Gospel ends, were repeatedly reiterated in the homily of his Holiness Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square
The penultimate Sunday of October, the day on which the Catholic Church celebrates World Mission Sunday throughout the world, has also become a “feast of Holiness,” with seven blesseds proclaimed saints by the Bishop of Rome with the Rite of Canonization.
In front of countless people who filled the square and the adjacent Via della Conciliazione, the Successor of Peter recalled the treasure that shines in the lives of the saints and makes every authentic missionary work flourish: the gift of faith, “what is most precious in the Lord’s eyes,” without which “we cannot hope for salvation.”
The New Saints, “Friends of Christ”
The new Saints canonized by the Pope and individually named by him in his homily are “martyrs for their faith,” such as the Armenian Bishop Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan and the catechist from Papua New Guinea Peter To Rot; they are missionaries, such as the Salesian Maria Troncatti; they are “charismatic foundresses, such as Sister Vincenza Maria Poloni and Sister Carmen Rendiles Martínez”; they are “benefactors of humanity, such as Bartolo Longo and the Venezuelan doctor José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros.” Seven witnesses who “with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning. Indeed, they themselves became lamps capable of spreading the light of Christ.”
Faith, Prayer, Temptations
Without the gift of faith, Pope Prevost clarified, the “great material, cultural, scientific and artistic treasures” lose their meaning. A world without faith would be populated by children living without a Father, that is, by creatures without salvation. Heaven and earth “would remain as before, but there would no longer be hope in our hearts; everyone’s freedom would be defeated by death; our desire for life would fade into nothingness.” This is precisely why the Pontiff emphasized, Christ speaks to his disciples of the “need to pray always.” Just as breathing sustains the life of the body, “so prayer sustains the life of the soul: faith, in fact, is expressed in prayer, and authentic prayer lives on faith.”
There are “two temptations,” the Bishop of Rome continued, that can test faith. The first “draws strength from the scandal of evil, leading us to think that God does not hear the cries of the oppressed and has no pity for the innocent who suffer.” The second, however, arises from the “claim that God must act as we want him to: prayer then gives way to a command to God, to teach him how to be just and effective.” Jesus, “the perfect witness of filial trust, frees us from both temptations. “Whatever happens,” he entrusts himself “as Son to the Father”; and the Church’s prayer “reminds us that God grants justice to all, giving his life for all. Thus, when we cry out to the Lord, “Where are you?” let’s transform this invocation into a prayer, and then we we will recognize that God is present where the innocent suffer. The cross of Christ reveals God’s justice, and God’s justice is forgiveness. He sees evil and redeems it by taking it upon himself.”
The blessing for the “Missionaries of Hope among the peoples”
There is no cry,” Pope Leo continued, “that God does not console; there is no tear that is far from his heart. The Lord listens to us, embraces us as we are, and transforms us as he is.” While those who reject God’s mercy, however, “remain incapable of mercy towards their neighbor. Those who do not welcome peace as a gift will not know how to give peace.”
One should therefore understand that Jesus’ questions are “a powerful invitation to hope and action,” the Pope emphasized.
“Only the gift of faith can also sustain “our commitment to justice, precisely because we believe that God saves the world out of love, freeing us from fatalism.” Christ is “the just one who makes us just. We see all this in the lives of the new Saints: they are not heroes or champions of some ideal, but authentic men and women.”
May the intercession of the newly canonized Saints, the Pontiff prayed, concluding his homily, “assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness. As we journey towards this goal, let us pray without ceasing, and continue in what we have learned and firmly believe. Faith on earth thus sustains the hope for heaven.”
Following the Mass, Pope Leo expressed his gratitude before the Angelus. He thanked all the participants who had gathered in St. Peter’s Square to attend the Rite of Canonization and the Holy Liturgy, greeting in particular the President of the Italian Republic, the President of Lebanon and the distinguished official delegations, in particular those from Armenia and Venezuela. The Pontiff also referred to today’s celebration of World Mission Sunday: “The Church,” said Pope Prevost, “is entirely missionary, but today we pray especially for those men and women who have left everything to bring the Gospel to those who do not know it. They are missionaries of hope among all peoples. May the Lord bless them.”
The Bishop of Rome also referred to the painful news from Myanmar, referring to “ongoing armed clashes and aerial bombardments, including the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure.” The Pope renewed his appeal “for an immediate and effective ceasefire.” Finally, he emphasized: “Let us entrust to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the new Saints our constant prayer for peace in the Holy Land, Ukraine and other places affected by war.”
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