MORE THAN «GOOD EVENING» AND «ENJOYABLE LUNCH» WE NEEDED A LION TO REMIND US TO «ACCEPT CHRIST WITHOUT CONDITIONS»

Pope Leo in his first homily has already reminded us that we must accept Christ unconditionally, although this truth is considered absurd by the world and the powerful, it remains the only way to walk as Christians and to correspond to the Petrine ministry which from Peter reaches us today.

— Pastoral current events —

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

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The Sacred College of Cardinals a few days ago he gave the Church a new Pontiff: Leone XIV. From Catholics and consecrated people, we want and hope that this burdensome choice was - if not exactly guided - at least inspired by the Holy Spirit in that mysterious way with which God is capable of directing the world and events, even those who blatantly seem to deny his action and presence.

In a recent article of mine (cf.. WHO) I have already had the opportunity to explain the role of the Holy Spirit within the great rite of the Conclave, certainly the action of the Spirit of God remains mysterious to man most of the time and therefore it is difficult to want to claim control and fathom all the subtleties that the Holy Spirit weaves into the lives of us men, including that permission to error and even to sin which for man becomes the opportunity to rediscover divine grace.

How not to remember, about this, the apostle Peter himself at the moment of his denial, a moment of great tragedy and infidelity, in the face of all those experiences of faith that Peter had the opportunity to see while being with Jesus in the three years of public life. How Peter knows how to repay the Master after having perjured his love and faithfulness? With those words heavy as lead: "I don't know him". And if Peter tries to deny Christ, However, Christ knows Peter and his heart well and for this reason he prays for him and invites him in advance on the road of return:

«Simone, Simone, there: Satan sought you to sift you like wheat; but I prayed for you, so that your faith does not fail. And you, once converted, confirm your brothers " (LC 22,31-32).

Of these two verses from the Gospel of Luke the invitation to conversion and the return of the apostle is fundamental. Jesus almost seems to say to Peter that his task as a guide in the faith and as head of the apostolic college and of the Church cannot ignore the capacity for continuous conversion and a return to himself in which Christ himself is waiting for him. How can we not see in this that penetrating look of Christ towards Peter after his denial. That look full of mercy that penetrates the soul, «in the inner man», where Peter finally recognizes the truth in the Truth. And the truth is that Peter is only such when he knows how to be «Kephas» which in its original meaning that our Eastern Christian brothers know how to give - more than what we Westerners are used to interpreting - means unstable and shaky stone. You Peter are an unstable stone until you find stability in Christ who is the cornerstone, until you trust his command to cast the nets when it is broad daylight and to feed his sheep, until you remember that Christ asks you to love him and you can only offer him your poor good.

Having faith before your eyes the person of the Blessed Apostle Peter, we can legitimately ask ourselves who Pope Leo XIV will be? Personally, I want nothing more than for him to be a herald of the risen Christ and to re-propose the Easter faith to the world every day.. This is the most urgent thing today in the Church and in the world. The problems are there, reforms are necessary, peace is a cry to always invoke, the dialogue, hospitality and political and international relations are good things but without the solidity of Christ as the cornerstone none of this saves and restores hope to man. In this dance of human freedom, the man Robert Francis Prevost will have to disappear, to finally make way for Pope Leo XIV, who with effort and suffering will have to make himself transparent so that Christ may manifest himself in him.

From faithful Christians we are called to abandon the colorful fans immediately papolatrics the “I like it”, “I do not like” which equate the Holy Father to a leader politician or to a influence with their own ideologies and their own entourage Power. All these things cannot stand the test of the faith of the apostle Peter who confesses:

"Man, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; we have believed and known that you are the Holy One of God" (GV 6,68-69).

Pope Leo in his first homily (cf.. our article WHO) he has already reminded us that we must accept Christ unconditionally, although this truth is considered absurd by the world and the powerful, it remains the only way to walk as Christians and to correspond to the Petrine ministry which from Peter reaches us today.

Another thing to avoid and not hope for is to make Pope Leo XIV an emulator of previous pontificates, he is not a Francis, a Benedict, a John Paul II: he is Leo. Living on nostalgia, with your head turned to the past, to the point of giving a stiff neck does not belong to Christians. Nostalgia is the fertile ground in which the divisive factions of traditionalists are born, of progressives, of the sedevacantists and other pathological ways of being and feeling that oppose and suffocate the true Easter faith.

Witnessing in recent days the various attempts to drag the Pope by the mozzetta to bring him to one's side - ecclesial and political - is an unbecoming and childish spectacle. Time will be able to give us the pulse of this new pontificate in which the Holy Spirit - as well as that friendly family of seagulls who made their nest near the chimney of the Sistine Chapel - will be on the lookout to ensure that the boat of the Church is not definitively sunk by the seas.

Sanluri, 12 May 2025

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