VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Families are the cradle of the future of humanity, Pope Leo XIV said during a Mass concluding the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly.
“Today’s world needs the marriage covenant in order to know and accept God’s love and to defeat, thanks to its unifying and reconciling power, the forces that break down relationships and societies,” he said in his homily at the Mass celebrated June 1 in St. Peter’s Square.
The day also marked World Communications Day, and in remarks after the Mass Pope Leo thanked all “media workers who, by taking care of the ethical quality of messages, help families in their role as educators.”
In the family, he said in his homily, faith “is shared like food at the family table and like the love in our hearts. In this way, families become privileged places in which to encounter Jesus, who loves us and desires our good, always.”
Speaking to all married couples, the pope said that “marriage is not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful,” and enables them, “in the image of God, to bestow the gift of life.”
“I encourage you, then, to be examples of integrity to your children, acting as you want them to act, educating them in freedom through obedience, always seeing the good in them and finding ways to nurture it,” he told married couples.
“And you, dear children, show gratitude to your parents. To say, ‘thank you’ each day for the gift of life and for all that comes with it is the first way to honor your father and your mother,” Pope Leo said.
Speaking to grandparents and elderly people, he asked that they “watch over your loved ones with wisdom and compassion, and with the humility and patience that come with age.”
The pope focused his homily on “The Prayer of Jesus” in the day’s Gospel reading (John 17:20-26) in which Jesus prays to the Father that all of Christ’s disciples not only follow him but also seek to be in union with the Father.
He re-read portions of the Gospel to emphasize God’s plan of unity for all of humanity, particularly: “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.”
“Jesus is telling us that God loves us as he loves him. The Father does not love us any less than he loves his only-begotten Son. In other words, with an infinite love,” Pope Leo said.
“In his mercy, God has always desired to draw all people to himself. It is his life, bestowed upon us in Christ, that makes us one, uniting us with one another,” he said, connecting the Gospel reflection to how it relates to celebrating the Jubilee of families.
Jesus’ prayer “makes fully meaningful our experience of love for one another as parents, grandparents, sons and daughters,” he said.
“That is what we want to proclaim to the world: We are here in order to be ‘one’ as the Lord wants us to be ‘one,’ in our families and in those places where we live, work and study. Different, yet one; many, yet one; always, in every situation and at every stage of life,” the pope said.
“If we love one another in this way, grounded in Christ,” he said, “we will be a sign of peace for everyone in society and the world. Let us not forget: Families are the cradle of the future of humanity.”
By beatifying and canonizing married couples who gave exemplary witness of married life, such as Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin and the Blessed Ulma family — mother, father and seven small children — “the church tells us that today’s world needs the marriage covenant” in order to discover and embrace God’s love and to defeat that which breaks down relationships and communities, he said.
No one chose to be born, he said, but someone was there to offer care. “All of us are alive today thanks to a relationship, a free and freeing relationship of human kindness and mutual care.”
However, “that human kindness is sometimes betrayed. As for example, whenever freedom is invoked not to give life, but to take it away, not to help, but to hurt,” he said.
Nonetheless, the pope said, “even in the face of the evil that opposes and takes life, Jesus continues to pray to the Father for us. His prayer acts as a balm for our wounds; it speaks to us of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
More than 70,000 people from 131 countries gathered in the square after three days of jubilee events in Rome. Families of every age and size were present in the square; some were holding banners or flags, wearing matching hats or seeking shelter under umbrellas from the hot morning sun.
Pope Leo rode through the crowds before the start of Mass while temperatures were still in the high 70s. He broke from his usual blessing of infants and small children hoisted up to him when a young boy in the crowd held out his hand for a shake. The pope leaned far out from the popemobile to give him a “low five” to the cheers and fist pumps of the boy and his friends.
Before praying the “Regina Coeli” in the square, the pope prayed for all families, especially those “suffering due to war in the Middle East, in Ukraine and in other parts of the world. May the Mother of God help us to press forward together on the path of peace.”
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