At the mass of the jubilee of catechists, Pope Leo XIV praises those who seek to accompany others in faith, and invites all Christians to help each other to learn, to hope, then to love.
By Devin Watkins
Pope Leo XIV celebrated mass on Saint-Pierre square on Sunday while the church marked the jubilee of catechists.
In his homilyThe Pope thought about reading the Gospel of the day (LK 16: 19-31), which tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus, noting that it was the same gospel read during the jubilee of catechists during the holy year of mercy in 2016.
Through this passage of the Gospel, he said, Jesus shows us how God considers the world, as a man puts by dying with dogs licking his wounds while another man is throvated in elegant clothes just on the other side of the door.
“At the door of today’s opulence, the misery of whole peoples, ravaged by war and exploitation,” he said. “Over the centuries, nothing seems to have changed.”
Even as many Lazarus die while the rich ignore what is before their eyes, the Gospel assures us that God will do justice to the two, ending the sufferings of the poor and the festivities of the rich man.
After the rich dies, he sees Lazarus alongside Abraham and begs God to warn his brothers with his fate. However, Abraham, said Jesus, told him that those who are alive have Moses and the prophets to warn them.
“Listening to Moses and the prophets means remembering the commandments and promises of God, whose providence does not give up,” said the Pope. “The Gospel tells us that everyone’s life can change because Christ has resurrected from the dead.”
The resurrection of Jesus, he added, is the truth which saves us and which must be proclaimed by the Church through its catechists.
By learning to love this truth, we understand the Gospel while our hearts are transformed and open to God and our neighbor, said the Pope.
Pope Leo then thought about the meaning of the word “catechist”, which, according to him, comes from the Greek word meaning “teaching aloud, to resonate”.
A catechist, he said, is a person of the word whom she proclaims with their lives, whether our parents or ministers in the name of the Church.
“We have all learned to believe by the witness of those who believed before us,” he said. “Since childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood and even old age, catechists accompany us in our faith, sharing this journey for life.”
The catechists and all those who teach others by their example, said that the Pope cooperates in the pastoral work of the Church by listening and serving “the desire for justice and truth that lives in human conscience”.
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV invited the catechists to be filled with faith so that they help others in their trip of faith.
As St. Augustine said it in the decoutia deacon, “explain everything in such a way that the one who listens to you, listening, can believe; By believing, can hope; And hoping, can love. “
