During his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV insists that living the Beatitudes can bring us happiness, bring light to the world’s shadows, and renew our hearts.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
God gives hope to those whom the world discards as desperate, Pope Leo XIV said on Sunday during his midday Angelus address in the Vatican.
Recalling the day’s Gospel reading according to Matthew on the Beatitudes, the Pope said Jesus announces Good News for all humanity.
“These are, in fact, lights that the Lord kindles in the darkness of history, revealing the plan of salvation that the Father accomplishes through the Son, with the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Renews our life
On the mountain, Christ gives the disciples a new law written in the heart, no longer on stone, “that renews our lives and makes them good, even when the world seems to have failed us and is full of misery,” the Pope noted.
Only God, he said, “can truly call the poor and afflicted blessed, because he is the highest good who gives himself to all with infinite love,” only He “can satisfy those who seek peace and justice, because He is the just judge of the world, the author of eternal peace.”
The Pope continued by saying that “Only in God do the meek, the merciful, and the pure of heart find joy, because he is the fulfilment of their expectations,” and in persecution, they find redemption, and in falsehood, they find “an anchor of truth.”
‘Rejoice and be glad’
“Therefore,” Pope Leo recalled, “Jesus proclaims, ‘Rejoice and be glad!’”
The Holy Father did acknowledge that the Beatitudes may seem paradoxical to those who expect the powerful to always rule the earth.
“Those who are accustomed to thinking that happiness belongs to the rich may believe that Jesus is deluded. However, the delusion lies precisely in the lack of faith in Christ,” he said.
Yet, he marveled that Christ is “the poor man who shares his life with everyone, the meek man who perseveres in suffering, the peacemaker persecuted to death on the cross.”
“In this way, Jesus illuminates the meaning of history. It is no longer written by conquerors, but rather by God, who is able to accomplish it by saving the oppressed,” stressing, “God gives hope especially to those whom the world discards as desperate.”
A measure of happiness
Moreover, he noted, “the Beatitudes become for us a measure of happiness.” They “lead us to ask ourselves whether we see it as an achievement to be bought or a gift to be shared; whether we place it in objects that wear out or in relationships that accompany us.”
Thanks to Christ, he continued, “the bitterness of trials is transformed into the joy of the redeemed. Jesus does not speak of a distant consolation, but of a constant grace that always sustains us, especially in the hour of affliction.”
“The Beatitudes,” he noted, “lift up the humble and disperse the proud in their inmost thoughts.”
Finally, Pope Leo concluded by imploring the Virgin Mary, servant of the Lord, whom all generations call blessed, to help us live the Beatitudes.
