Pope Leo to warmongers: ‘God cannot be enlisted by darkness’

 

 

“Some even claim to involve the name of God in these choices of death”,

the pope continued. “But God cannot be enlisted by darkness.

Rather, he always comes to give light, hope, and peace to humanity

— and it is peace that those who invoke him must seek”.

 

  

By Marco Mancini

….

March 15, 2026 at 2:18 PM ET

 

Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that God cannot be used to justify violence or war, warning that “God cannot be enlisted by darkness.”

 

The pope made the remarks March 15 during a pastoral visit to the Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Ponte Mammolo, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome, where he celebrated Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, known as Laetare Sunday.

 

Before the Mass, Leo XIV met with various parish groups, including children, young people, families, the sick, the elderly, and the poor assisted by volunteers from Caritas, the Catholic Church’s charitable aid network, and the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Rome-based Catholic lay community known for its service to the poor and peacemaking efforts.]

 

In his homily, the pope reflected on the suffering caused by armed conflicts around the world.

“Many of our brothers and sisters today suffer because of violent conflicts, caused by the absurd claim that problems and differences can be resolved with war,” he said. “Instead, we must tirelessly pursue dialogue for peace.”

“Some even claim to involve the name of God in these choices of death,” the pope continued. “But God cannot be enlisted by darkness. Rather, he always comes to give light, hope, and peace to humanity — and it is peace that those who invoke him must seek.”

 

Reflecting on the Gospel story of the man born blind, Leo XIV said the passage teaches believers to see others with the eyes of God.

 

To see in this way, he said, means overcoming prejudice — especially the tendency to look at someone who suffers “only as an outcast to be despised or a problem to be avoided,” retreating into “the fortified tower of selfish individualism.”

 

Jesus, by contrast, looks at the blind man with love, “not as an inferior being or a nuisance but as a person who is dear and in need of help,” the pope said.

 

By healing him, Jesus reveals his divine power and restores the man’s dignity as a creature made in the image and likeness of God. Having regained his sight, the man becomes “a witness to the light,” the pope said.

 

Leo XIV also warned of another form of blindness — the refusal to recognize God’s presence.

 

Those who accused Jesus and the healed man, he said, showed a deeper blindness: failing to see “right before them the face of God,” preferring instead the sterile security of rigid legalism.

“Jesus does not stop before such obstinacy,” the pope said, showing that “there is no Sabbath that can hinder an act of love.”

 

The pope also urged Christians to examine their own lives.

 

“We too can be blind when we fail to notice others and their problems,” he said. The first Christian community, he added, understood the call to live differently — sharing their goods, persevering in prayer, and living in communion and peace despite trials.

 

Addressing the parish community directly, Leo XIV praised its outreach to the poor and marginalized, including its attention to inmates at the nearby Rebibbia prison and its efforts to assist migrants with learning the language, finding housing, and securing stable employment.

 

He also commended the parish’s charitable initiatives, including family homes that welcome women and mothers in difficulty.

 

The pope concluded by encouraging the faithful to continue nurturing the “gift of light” entrusted to them through prayer, the sacraments, and charity.

“Let it grow within you and among you in all its gentleness,” he said, “and spread it throughout the world.”

 

Earlier, greeting children and young people, the pope also addressed parishioners who could not enter the church because of limited space, telling them that a vibrant parish community can be a sign of hope even in places marked by hardship.

“We who believe in Jesus Christ and live as brothers and sisters united can be a sign of hope in a world where these signs are often lacking,” he said. “In Jesus Christ there is salvation, and we want to live, receive, and share this great love that the Lord offers us.”

….

 

Pope Leo XIV: God ‘cannot be enlisted by darkness’

 

 

Saint Joseph the perfect icon of God the Father

 

“This is the theological foundation of the holy Patriarch’s greatness as virginal, messianic father of the Only-begotten of the Father: shadow and transparent icon of Him who wished to make Joseph unique partaker of his fatherhood in order to prepare the human nature of Christ for the holocaust of Calvary”. 

Jonathan Fleischmann

  

Today is the feast-day of Saint Joseph

 19^th March, 2026

  

The Vertex of Love

October 8, 2012 by Jonathan Fleischmann

 

When Mary was predestined in one and the same decree with

Jesus Christ by the design of God—before the creation of angels or

the universe, and before the existence of sin or evil—she was predestined to be the Spouse of the Holy Spirit … to hold within herself 

all the love of creation.

Love’s Mechanics

 

In the return of all created things to God the Father (cf. Jn 1, 1; 16, 28), “the equal and contrary reaction,” says St. Maximilian Kolbe, “proceeds inversely from that of creation.”  In creation, the saint goes on to say, the action of God “proceeds from the Father through the Son and the Spirit, while in the return, by means of the Spirit, the Son becomes incarnate in (the Virgin Mary’s) womb and through Him, love returns to the Father.” …. 

The Saint of Auschwitz goes on:

 

In the union of the Holy Spirit with her, not only does love bind these two beings, but the first of them (the Holy Spirit) is all the love of the Most Holy Trinity, while the second (the Blessed Virgin Mary) is all the love of creation, and thus in that union heaven is joined to earth, the whole heaven with the whole earth, the whole of Uncreated Love with the whole of created love: this is the vertex of love. ….

 

Love’s Equilibrium

The form of the diagram shown in Figure 1 is not found in the work of St. Maximilian. 

     Figure 1:  The return of all created things to God the Father.

 

However, it accurately represents the state of equal and opposite action and reaction, that occurs when two bodies make contact.  In this case, the “bodies” represent heaven and earth:  the uncreated and created orders, God and his creation.  The first point I would like to make is that the state of equal and opposite contact forces in Newtonian mechanics requires “force equilibrium.”  It may then seem very wrong to use an image like this one, because how can the state shown between God and his creation be in equilibrium?  Isn’t God’s act of love so much greater than the return of his creation that no “equilibrium” would be possible?  This would certainly be the case if it were not for Emmanuel, that is, God with us.  Jesus, who is truly man, and truly God, belongs to both the created and uncreated orders simultaneously.  In his person, Jesus is both the son of Mary, fully human and like us in all ways except sin, and the Eternal Son of God the Father, infinite and equal in all ways to the Triune God.

....

Thus, the love of Jesus, the Word Made Flesh who is God, is by itself enough to “balance” the love of God.  However, there is even more in the equation of love’s equilibrium than the love of the Son, infinite and sufficient in itself, though it is.  According to St. Maximilian, the perfect love of the Trinity meets an adequate response in the perfect love of the Immaculate, which is the name St. Maximilian gives to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

 

How is it possible that Divine Love can find an adequate response in the love of a creature?  It is possible precisely because of the name that the Virgin Mary can claim for herself.  In 1854, the Blessed Virgin Mary proclaimed to St. Bernadette Soubirous: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” 

 

In the words of St. Maximilian, the Blessed Virgin is the created Immaculate Conception, as in the words of St. Bonaventure, the Holy Spirit is the uncreated Immaculate Conception. ….

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and the Son, as the perfect and infinite love between the Father and the Son in the eternal interior life of the Blessed Trinity. Thus, the Holy Spirit is truly all the love of the Most Holy Trinity.  The Holy Spirit is also called the “Complement” of the Blessed Trinity, because he is the completion of the Trinity, not in “number” (quantitatively), but in essence (qualitatively).

 

When Mary was predestined in one and the same decree with Jesus Christ … by the design of God—before the creation of angels or the universe, and before the existence of sin or evil—she was predestined to be the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

 

So she was predestined to hold within herself all the love of creation.  Thus, St. Maximilian says that the Blessed Virgin Mary “inserted into the love of the Most Holy Trinity becomes, from the very first moment of her existence, always, forever, the Complement of the Most Holy Trinity.” We may paraphrase the thoughts of St. Maximilian Kolbe on the spousal relationship between the Holy Spirit, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the words of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner:

 

In virtue of this spousal union formally denoted by the title, Complement, Mary is able to enter, as no other, into the order of the hypostatic union, her soul being wholly divinized, because by the grace of the Immaculate Conception, it has been ‘transubstantiated’ into the Holy Spirit. ….

 

It is for this reason that Mary—though she is a creature in both her person and her nature—is herself the created Immaculate Conception, and, therefore, all the love of creation. She can actually provide an adequate response to the love of the Holy Spirit, who is the uncreated Immaculate Conception, and, therefore, all the Love of God.  Thus, the equation of love’s equilibrium is balanced again.

 

Now that we have balanced the equation of love’s equilibrium twice over, we could certainly stop. However, there is reason to continue. St. Maximilian does not expressly mention St. Joseph in the context of these reflections. 

 

However, the diagram in Figure 1, based entirely on the saint’s own reflections, certainly suggests the presence of St. Joseph in the order of the response of creation to God the Father. The order of Father, Son, and, Holy Spirit, shown in the diagram, reflects the order of God’s loving act of creation.

 

This was initiated by the zeal of the Father, designed by the wisdom of the Son, and effected by the action of the Holy Spirit. This is the order referred to by St. Maximilian when he says that: “the equal and contrary reaction (i.e., the return of all creation to God) proceeds inversely from that of creation.” We see this reflection in the diagram, where the reaction “force” of love is inverted, and the order of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the “action force,” is reversed to give the order of Holy Spirit, Son, and Father.

 

Notice, however, that in the return to God, it is creation that is reacting. Thus, the individuals reacting—while reflecting the Holy Spirit, Son, and Father to greater or lesser degrees—are all creatures.  We have Mary, who is the perfect similitude (St. Bonaventure), transparent icon (St. Maximilian), or even quasi-incarnation (St. Maximilian) of the Holy Spirit, but who is still a created person, with a created human nature. We have Jesus, who is the Word Incarnate, the same Person as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, but who is still in possession of a created human nature. St. Maximilian stops here, but must we stop here? I would dare to say that the analogy we have carried out so far on the inspiration of St. Maximilian suggests an obvious completion. We have St. Joseph, who has been called the “perfect icon of God the Father” by more than one saint. …. In the words of Fr. Joachin Ferrer Arellano:

 

In the light of the Scotistic thesis on the Primacy of Christ, to take one example, one discovers (…) how the virginal marriage of Mary and Joseph was predestined “ante mundi constitutionem” (before the constitution of the world), as an essential part of the one decree of the Incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Immaculate “ante praevisa merita” (before any consideration of antecedent merit). Such is the saving plan, “the mystery hidden before the ages in God,” (cf. Eph 3:9) to be accomplished at the high point in the history of salvation. That high point is the fullness of time (cf. Gal 4:4) when God sent his Son into the most pure bosom of Holy Mary Ever Virgin, espoused to a man of the house of David (cf. Lk 1:26) in fulfillment of the prophecy of Nathan. 

 

God acted thus, that through the obedience of the Spouses of Nazareth the Son might be freely welcomed into history on behalf of all mankind in order to save it. This welcome took place in the virginal womb of Mary, the Daughter of Zion, and in the house of Joseph, in the family home established by the marriage of the two Spouses (Mary and Joseph), “sanctuary of love and cradle of life.” 

 

This is the theological foundation of the holy Patriarch’s greatness as virginal, messianic father of the Only-begotten of the Father: shadow and transparent icon of Him who wished to make Joseph unique partaker of his fatherhood in order to prepare the human nature of Christ for the holocaust of Calvary. In this way, He made Joseph Father and Lord of the Church gushing forth from Christ’s opened side and born of the sword of sorrow of the Woman. ….

 

In addition to being the transparent icon of God the Father, St. Joseph was the true, virginal husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ….  In fact, it can even be said that St. Joseph is the virginal father of Jesus Christ.  For, again in the words of Fr. Joachin Ferrer Arellano:

 

Although singular, unique, and not univocal with fatherhood as this is ordinarily understood and commonly found among men, the position more common and traditional among theologians upholds the truly real fatherhood of Joseph in relation to Jesus, based 1) on his marriage to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and 2) on the right of the husband over his wife. He, therefore, who is born virginally of Mary, by reason of his birth, intimately pertains in some manner to Joseph as father. … In view of the dignity of Joseph as husband of Mary, to whom belongs the fruit of his wife’s womb, one is not permitted to overlook … how the indivisible virginity of both spouses—not simply that of Mary, but also that of her husband, the son of David—is ordered to the virginal fatherhood of Joseph according to the Spirit, in virtue of the obedience of faith to the saving plan of God. This plan includes the messianic fatherhood of Joseph as son of David in relation to his virginal Son, constituted Son of David, the messianic King, because He was Son of Joseph. ….

 

In the return of all created things to God the Father, it is under the leadership, and in imitation of, St. Joseph, our patriarch, that the individual members of the Church must, by the merits gained for us through the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, be transubstantiated into Mary, who is the Virgo Ecclesia Facta (Virgin-Made-Church). ….

 

It is only by being transubstantiated into Mary, the created Immaculate Conception, that we can be united to God as she is uniquely united to God, being transubstantiated with her into the uncreated Immaculate Conception, who is the Holy Spirit. In virtue of this transubstantiation, we are possessed by the Immaculate, and we are thereby formed into a single community, or Church, sharing her personality. To St. Maximilian, this is the only way that we can be members of Christ’s Church, and thereby united to God. 

….

 

Taken from: http://www.hprweb.com/2012/10/the-vertex-of-love/

 

 

Humanity will not have peace until it turns to Divine Mercy

 

 

 

“God wants us to know that all the graces of His mercy

can only be received by our trust.

The more we open the door of our hearts and lives to Him with trust,

the more we can receive”.

 

 

The Divine Mercy Message and Devotion

 

The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us – all of us. And, He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy. 

The Divine Mercy message is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC: 

A - Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world. 

 

B - Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us. 

C - Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that all the graces of His mercy can only be received by our trust. The more we open the door of our hearts and lives to Him with trust, the more we can receive.

 

This message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread. 

 

The message and devotional practices proposed in the Diary of Saint Faustina and set forth in this web site and other publications of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception are completely in accordance with the teachings of the Church and are firmly rooted in the Gospel message of our Merciful Savior. Properly understood and implemented, they will help us grow as genuine followers of Christ.

 

….

Jesus told St. Faustina, “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy” (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 300; see also 699).

 

The five elements of the devotion (represented by the acronym F.I.N.C.H., for Feast, Image, Novena, Chaplet, Hour) have attached to them some of the most powerful and extraordinary promises of any devotion.

 

Spend time to learn more about the mercy of God, learn to trust in Jesus, and live your life as merciful to others, as Christ is merciful to you. 

 

For a full understanding of Divine Mercy, we recommend Divine Mercy Message and Devotion, by Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC.

 

The Divine Mercy Message | The Divine Mercy

 

 

 

Jesus, as the ‘New Adam’, driven into the wilderness

 

 

“The Gospel of Mark tells us how Jesus began His ministry for us.

After the Holy Spirit fell upon Him at His baptism, Mark says,

“and the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12)”.

 Ken Yates

 

 

What It Was Like to Be Tossed Out of Paradise? (Genesis 3:24) 

 

October 24, 2022 by Ken Yates in Blog - Adam, beasts, Second Adam, wilderness

What It Was Like to Be Tossed Out of Paradise? (Genesis 3:24)  – Grace Evangelical Society

 

When I was in the military, we would often go on field exercises. Basically, we would live in the woods for a period of time. The kind of units I was in did not take a lot of equipment. As a result, in the “field,” I did not have a shower. There was no hot food, air conditioning, or a comfortable cot to sleep on. Being a creature of comfort, I was always looking for an opportunity to enjoy those things. I soon learned that hospital units had them, and I would try to visit such units as often as I could. They even had ice cream. I would look for any reason to go there, such as visiting another chaplain, seeing an injured soldier, etc. When I did, I made myself at home and was never in a hurry to leave. I acted like I belonged there. It was paradise.

 

Eventually, someone working there would notice me. They would find out I was not a part of the unit and they would realize I was sponging off of all the wonderful things they provided. Despite any protests on my part, I would be tossed out of the area, back into the “field.” It was always a sad time in my life when that happened. I always missed those hot showers and a comfortable place to take a long nap.

 

In Gen 3:24, Adam is tossed out of Paradise. He lived in a perfect environment, in the Garden of Eden. He had everything he could possibly want. All of creation was in perfect harmony. Unlike me prolonging a visit at a comfortable hospital unit, his own actions caused him to get cast out. His sin had turned that garden into a wilderness, with the ground being cursed and producing thistles. God tossed him out into that field.

 

In my experience in the military, I would tell of others of the trauma I felt going from a hospital to getting tossed into the field. I remember one of my seminary professors, Craig Glickman, describing what happened to Adam, and I thought of the parallels. Adam went from Paradise to getting tossed into the wilderness. Both of us were sad pictures, but I am sure Adam’s sadness was much greater than mine.

 

In the NT, Christ is called the Second Adam (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:45-49). To use Glickman’s terminology, Jesus came to turn the wilderness back into paradise, to undo what the stupidity of Adam had caused. He would do what was necessary for His people to leave the wilderness and stay in paradise. It would be like if the army had told me I could leave the field and stay at the hospital forever.

 

The Gospel of Mark tells us how Jesus began His ministry for us. After the Holy Spirit fell upon Him at His baptism, Mark says, “and the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12). Garlington maintains that this is a clear parallel with Gen 3:24, and points to the Lord as the Second Adam. The word “drove” is a forceful one. The Spirit forced Jesus into the wilderness. It reminds the reader that God drove, or tossed, Adam into the wilderness from the Garden of Eden (D. B. Garlington, “Jesus, the Unique Son of God: Tested and Faithful,” Bib Sac 141 (1994): 289).

 

The very mention of the word “wilderness” in Mark 1:12 reminds us what happened in Genesis 3. Eden had been turned into a wilderness. The fact that Jesus would be tempted by Satan also reminds us that the first Adam was tempted by the evil one.

Mark is the only Gospel that mentions that in the wilderness, Jesus would find Himself with “the wild beasts.” France comments that this also points to Genesis 3. Prior to Adam’s sin, in Paradise, there were no wild beasts. After his sin, and being placed in the wilderness, there were (R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, 86).

 

The curse that Adam brought into the world, of course, also resulted in death. The wilderness throughout Scripture is a place of death.

 

Glickman, Garlington, and France are all correct. Mark’s description of Jesus being driven into the wilderness takes us back to Genesis 3. We are to see the parallels with the first Adam.

 

But there is at least one major difference. When the first Adam was tossed into the wilderness, he went against his will. Who would want to leave Paradise and go there? It was like when I was forced to leave a hot shower, good food, and comfortable cot, to go out into the field. I never did that willingly.

 

But our Lord did. He allowed Himself to be tossed out into the wilderness. We all know why. Such was His love for us.

 

 

‘Father … let this Cup pass from me’

 

 

“Why did Jesus speak about his death as “drinking” a “cup”?

What cup is he talking about?”

 Dr. Brant Pitre

 

 

In the Foreword to Scott Hahn’s book, The Fourth Cup (2018), Dr. Brant Pitre writes:

The Fourth Cup

 

Jesus of Nazareth was a man of many mysteries. He taught in puzzling parables, he performed strange signs and wonders, he asked riddle-like question after question. And his Jewish disciples and the Jewish crowds he taught—although he frequently stumped them—loved it.

But the mysteries of Jesus didn’t end with his public ministry. According to the Gospels, he continued to do and say puzzling things right up to the moment of his death. One of the greatest riddles of Jesus’ Passion involves the mysterious vow that he made during the Last Supper. On the night he was betrayed, toward the end of the meal, Jesus solemnly declared that he would not drink “the fruit of the vine” again until the coming of “the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:18; cf. Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25). Later on, when he was on the way to Golgotha and the soldiers tried to offer him wine, true to his word, “he would not drink it” (Matthew 26:34; cf. Mark 14:23). On the other hand, according to the Gospel of John, at the very last moment of his life, right before he died on the cross, Jesus requested for wine to be given to him, saying: “I thirst” (John 19:28). Even more mysterious, after drinking the wine he declared, “It is finished,” bowed his head, and gave up his spirit (John 19:30).

What are we to make of this riddle? How could Jesus vow at the Last Supper not to drink wine again, refuse it on the way to the cross, then turn around and ask for a drink right before he died? How can we reconcile Jesus’ words at the Last Supper with his words on the cross? Was he breaking his vow? Or was something else going on?

To top it all off, there’s one more puzzle to ponder—one that takes place between the upper room and Calvary. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was praying about his death, he said something odd: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). And then again: “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Now, if you were about to be crucified, is this how you would have prayed? Why did Jesus speak about his death as “drinking” a “cup”? What cup is he talking about?

In The Fourth Cup, Dr. Scott Hahn gives us the keys to unlocking this mystery—the mystery of the Last Supper and the cross. He does this in two ways: first, by going back to the Jewish roots of Jesus’ words and deeds, and second, by telling you the story of his own personal journey from Protestantism to Catholicism. The result reads almost like a detective novel—an exhilarating journey of discovery that will change the way you see the Last Supper, the Passion of Christ, and the Eucharist forever. 

I’ll never forget the first time I heard one of Dr. Hahn’s presentations on the fourth cup. I was completely blown away. It was like reading the Passion of Christ again for the first time. Don’t get me wrong: it’s not as if I had spent nights lying awake wondering why Jesus vowed never to drink wine again at the Last Supper and why he asked for a drink on Good Friday. Nor had I wondered all that much about why Jesus talked about his crucifixion as drinking a “cup.” I just took these things for granted. But after listening to Dr. Hahn’s lecture, it was like the pieces of a puzzle that I didn’t even realize were there suddenly fell into place. What I had always wondered about was this: Why do Catholics believe that the Eucharist is a sacrifice? Didn’t Jesus offer himself “once and for all” on Calvary? What is the link between Jesus’ offering of his body and blood at the Last Supper and his death on the cross?

 

If you’ve ever wondered the same thing, or if you’ve ever celebrated a Passover seder, or if you’ve ever just wanted to deepen your understanding of the Jewish roots of the Eucharist, then I’ve got one message for you, read this book. And don’t just read it. Pray about it. Reflect on it. And share it with others.

Because if you’re anything like me, once you begin to see the mystery of the Last Supper and the cross through ancient Jewish eyes, it will completely change your life. For, as r. Hahn shows, the Passover of Jesus that began in the upper room and was consummated on Calvary is still with us today. Whenever and wherever Mass is celebrated, the Paschal Mystery—that is, the “Passover” mystery—is made truly present. The Fourth Cup not only solves the mystery of Jesus’ vow, it will also give you the missing link between the upper room and Golgotha and help you to see more clearly how the sacrifice of Christ at the Last Supper and the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary are the same sacrifice “poured out for the forgiveness of sins” and the redemption of the world (Matthew 26:28).

 

 

 

 

Pope Leo XIV: Lenten ashes carry ‘the weight of a world that is ablaze’

 

Reflecting on the meaning of the ashes traditionally imposed on the heads of the faithful, Leo recalled a 1966 catechesis by St. Paul VI, who described the public celebration of the rite as a “severe and striking penitential ceremony” and as “a realistic pedagogy,” intended to cut through modern illusions and widespread pessimism that can reduce life to “the metaphysics of the absurd and of nothingness.”

 

“Today, we can recognize that his words were prophetic as we perceive in the ashes imposed on us the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war,” Leo said.

 

He said that devastation is echoed in “the ashes of international law and justice among peoples,” “the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples,” “the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom,” and “the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature.”

 

In the same homily, the pope urged Catholics to treat Lent as a time when the Church is renewed as a true community, even as modern society finds it harder to come together in communion.

 

Leo stressed that sin is never only private because it shapes and is shaped by the real and digital environments people inhabit. “Naturally, sin is always personal, but it takes shape in the real and virtual contexts of life… and often within real economic, cultural, political, and even religious ‘structures of sin,’” he said. Against idolatry, he added, Scripture calls Christians to dare to be free and to rediscover freedom through “an exodus, a journey,” rather than remaining “paralyzed, rigid, or complacent.”

 

The pope also pointed to what he described as a renewed attentiveness among young people to Ash Wednesday’s call to accountability.

 

“Young people especially understand clearly that it is possible to live a just lifestyle, and that there should be accountability for wrongdoings in the Church and in the world,” he said, urging Catholics to “start where we can, with those who are around us,” and to embrace “the missionary significance of Lent” for “the many restless people of goodwill” seeking genuine renewal.

 

The pope also highlighted the ancient Roman tradition of the Lenten station churches, which begins each year with Santa Sabina. “The ancient Roman tradition of the Lenten ‘stationes’ — which begins today with the first station — is instructive,” he said, noting that it points both to moving, as pilgrims, and to pausing — ‘statio’ — at the memories of the martyrs on which Rome’s basilicas were built.

 

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.