Vatican City (AsiaNews) – “Who is the Lord for me? Do I really know him? What does his Gospel ask of me today? What steps and choices should I make?” These are the questions Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to ask themselves “often” so as not to allow faith to become a mere habit.
During the Sunday Angelus, addressing Romans and pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square from his window in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope commented on the words “And who do you say that I am?”, central to the Gospel passage proposed by today’s liturgy (Mt 16:15).
This question from Jesus – the Pope remarked – is “a fundamental passage for the disciples of every age, for each one of us. Faith, in fact, is not given to us once and for all; on the contrary, we always need to rediscover the face of Christ and his Gospel, to delve deeper into his message and renew the choices we make in our lives, so that they may be consistent with what we profess, overcoming the temptation to think we already know everything and to turn faith into a mere habit”.
The question of who Jesus is for us “arises also when we are faced with the wounds and needs of our brothers and sisters, or in the relationships and situations that most challenge our conscience.
In short, in the context of our own lives, we can assess whether, for us, the Lord Jesus is merely a great historical figure who said and did important things, or the Christ of God, the One who was sent to draw us into the Father’s love and to transform our lives and the world in which we live.”
“Let us learn not to shut ourselves away in our religious convictions and certainties,” warned Leo XIV, “so that we may remain open to an authentic relationship with Christ.”
Sometimes, in fact,” he continued, “when it comes to the Christian faith, we are content with ‘hearsay’, with clichés, with what has been passed on to us, perhaps even with good intentions; but Jesus calls us to a personal response, to know him intimately, to allow ourselves to be shaped by friendship with him, in an ever-new encounter that may even ask us to tread untrodden paths and make choices different from those we had imagined”.
This, the Pope added, also applies “to the Church’s journey and to pastoral choices, where at times we think it is enough simply to carry on as we have always done”.
After the Angelus prayer, the Pope said he continues to pray for the victims of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“I urge the international community to respond, involving local communities in prevention efforts, to save as many lives as possible,” he added. Pope
Leo XIV also remembered the victims of the mine collapse in Zamboyé, in the Central African Republic.
“May the Lord welcome those who have lost their lives and support the efforts to ensure safety and legality at mining sites,” he commented.
Finally, the Pope recalled the tenth anniversary of the Amatrice earthquake in Italy, which falls tomorrow. “May faith and solidarity continue to sustain the work of reconstruction,” he concluded.
