To move aside so that Christ may remain

By Andrea Tornielli

Some words are destined to set the course. In the first homily of Pope Leo XIV, what stands out first is the opening, with Peter’s repeated profession of faith, those same words John Paul I chose to repeat at the end of his homily during the inaugural Mass of his pontificate: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But there is also a vision of the Church, and of how any service within the Church should be exercised, which emerges in the final lines. He quotes St. Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to martyrdom: “Then I will truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world no longer sees my body.” The great Church Father was referring to being devoured by beasts, and yet those words shine light on every moment and circumstance of Christian life: “His words,” said the new Bishop of Rome, “apply more generally to an indispensable commitment for all those in the Church who exercise a ministry of authority. It is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified, to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him.” To move aside, become small, so that He may be known. Abandon every desire for the spotlight, every worldly reliance on power, structures, money, or religious marketing strategies, and instead entrust oneself to the One who guides the Church, without whom, as He Himself said, we can do nothing. To surrender to the action of His grace, which always goes before us.

In this perspective from the new Pope, there is also a meaningful continuity with his predecessor, Francis, who often cited the mysterium lunae, the image of the moon used by the Church Fathers to describe the Church, which would be deluded to think it can shine with its own light, as it can only reflect the light of Another.

At the beginning of his journey, the new Pope, a missionary born in the United States and who lived on the peripheries of the world as a shepherd “with the smell of the sheep”, seems to echo the words of John the Baptist about Jesus: He must increase, and I must decrease. Everything in the Church exists for the mission, that is, so that He may increase. Everyone in the Church, from the Pope to the last of the baptized, must become small so that Jesus may be known, so that He may be the protagonist. This reflects Augustine’s restlessness in the search for truth, the search for God, which becomes the restlessness of wanting to know Him more and more, and to go beyond oneself to make Him known to others, so that the desire for God may be rekindled in everyone.

The choice of the name Leo is striking, as it directly connects him to the great and ever-relevant tradition of the Church’s Social Doctrine: the defense of workers, and the call for a more just economic and financial system. Equally significant is the simplicity of his first greeting, the invocation of Easter peace, a peace that is urgently needed, and the openness to all that echoes Francis’ “everyone, everyone, everyone.” Striking as well is his desire to continue on the synodal path. And finally, touching is the Hail Mary recited yesterday with the people of God, on the day of the Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii, and the final invocation in his first homily, a grace requested “with the help of the tender intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church.”

Yesterday, once again, we were reminded of this: at the moment of the extra omnes, something happened in the Sistine Chapel that cannot be fully explained by human logic or systems. That 133 cardinals, from every corner of the earth, many of whom had never met before, could gather to elect the Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the universal Church within twenty-four hours is a beautiful sign of unity. The witness of the Successor of Peter, which just days ago shone in the frailty of Francis and in his final Easter blessing to the people, has now passed to a gentle missionary bishop, a son of Saint Augustine. The Church is alive because Jesus is alive and present, guiding it through fragile disciples willing to disappear so that He, and He alone, may remain.