Pope Leo XIV Warns of ‘Crisis of the Family’ in First Homily
Pope Leo XIV celebrated the first mass of his pontificate Friday in the Sistine Chapel, just hours after being elected the 267th pope of the Catholic Church.
Those who aren’t Catholic can affirm many important declarations the pope made in his homily, in which he decried the “crisis of the family,” a state of “practical atheism” among many Christians, and emphasized the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ in our modern world.
For those less familiar with the Catholic liturgy, the first half of the mass – termed the liturgy of the Word – usually includes a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from a Pauline Epistle, and a reading from one of the four Gospels.
The gospel reading for Friday’s mass centered on the Apostle Peter’s declaration of Christ’s identity, found in Matthew 16:16: “Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (ESV).
In his homily, the pope said there are three possible answers to Jesus’ question to Peter: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13, ESV).
The first is the world’s response, which “considers Jesus a completely insignificant person. … And so, once his presence becomes irksome because of his demands for honesty and his stern moral requirements, this ‘world’ will not hesitate to reject and eliminate him.”
The second response is that of ordinary people who see Jesus as “an upright man, one who has courage, who speaks well and says the right things.” So, they follow Christ until times of danger, risk or inconvenience, when they quickly “abandon him and depart disappointed.”
“What is striking about these two attitudes is their relevance today,” Pope Leo said. “Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.”
“These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed,” the pope pronounced.
He warned:
The pope then counseled against “appreciating [Jesus] as a man,” but nevertheless reducing him to “a kind of charismatic leader or superman.” He cautioned,
The solution, Pope Leo said, is the third possible response, which is to acknowledge who Christ is and the fullness of his Lordship over creation, the world and our lives. We must declare like Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
“It is essential to do this, first of all, in our personal relationship with the Lord, in our commitment to a daily journey of conversion. Then, to do so as a Church, experiencing together our fidelity to the Lord and bringing the Good News to all.”
Pope Leo XIV’s first homily is indeed a good and strong start to his papacy. Let’s pray he continues warning about the crisis of the family, upholding human dignity, and pointing all people to faith in Christ as the solution to our modern plights.
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