«The course of history is not already written by the powerful of this world. Let us put our thoughts and energies at the service of a God who comes to reign not to dominate us, but to free us.” Pope Leo, at the Angelus, invites us to look at “the lights along the streets” which remind us “that each of us can be a small light if we welcome Jesus” and that the Gospel “is truly good news that motivates us and involves us”.
It underlines the 60 years since the closure of the Second Vatican Council and the sixty also since the “common declaration between Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras which put an end to mutual excommunications”. He encourages the commitment to unity also by recalling his first apostolic journey which touched Türkiye and Lebanon. The 1,700 years since the first Council were celebrated in Nicaea with an ecumenical ceremony and, Leone underlines, there he “had the joy of meeting the Catholic community”. In Türkiye there is a small community, but which bears witness to “the Gospel of love and the logic of God which is manifested in smallness”. And then Lebanon which «is a mosaic of coexistenceto”. He remembers the meeting at the port, at the site of the 2020 explosion where he met some survivors and relatives of the victims of that terrible event which caused the death of over 300 people and injured over seven thousand. «I was moved by the meeting with the relatives of the victims of the explosion in the port of Beirut», he underlines. But he also says: «The Lebanese were waiting for a word and a presence of consolation. But I was the one who was comforted by their faith and their enthusiasm.” And again: «What has happened in recent days in Turkey and Lebanon teaches us that peace is possible and that Christians in dialogue with men and women of other faiths and cultures can contribute to building it. Let’s not forget it. Peace is possible.”
Previously he had explained the Sunday Gospel, with the scene of the Baptist asking for conversion “because the kingdom of heaven is near!”.
«In the prayer of the “Our Father”, we ask every day: “Thy kingdom come”», says Leone. «Jesus himself taught us this. And with this invocation we orient ourselves to the New that God has in store for us, we recognize that the course of history is not already written by the powerful of this world.”
The Baptist’s tone is severe, but the people listen to him because in his words they hear God’s appeal not to joke with life, to take advantage of the present moment to prepare for the encounter with Him who judges based on the works and intentions of the heart, and not according to appearances. John himself will be surprised by the way in which the Kingdom of God will manifest itself in Jesus Christ, in meekness and mercy. The prophet Isaiah compares it to a sprout: an image not of power or destruction, but of birth and newness. On the sprout that emerges from an apparently dead trunk, the Holy Spirit begins to blow with his gifts. Each of us can think of a similar surprise that has happened to him in his life. It is the experience that the Church lived with the Second Vatican Council, which ended sixty years ago: an experience that is renewed when we walk together towards the Kingdom of God, all ready to welcome and serve it. Then not only do realities that seemed weak or marginal germinate, but what would have been humanly said impossible is achieved.” It will be then that «The wolf will dwell together with the lamb; the leopard will lie down next to the kid; the calf and the lion will graze together and a little boy will lead them.” The world, says Leone, «needs this hope! Nothing is impossible with God. Let’s prepare for his Kingdom, let’s make room for him. The “least”, Jesus of Nazareth, will guide us! He who placed himself in our hands, from the night of his birth to the dark hour of his death on the cross, shines on our history like the rising Sun. A new day has begun: let’s wake up and walk in its light! Here is the spirituality of Advent, so luminous and concrete.”
