At audience Oct. 8, Pope Leo reflected on Christ’s resurrection as being marked by simplicity and humility
VATICAN CITY — Jesus is always walking alongside everyone, no matter how mundane or precarious their journey, Pope Leo XIV said.
“Sometimes we think that the Lord comes to visit us only in moments of contemplation or spiritual fervor, when we feel worthy, when our lives appear orderly and bright,” the pope said Oct. 8 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
“Instead, the Risen One is close to us precisely in the darkest places: in our failures, in our frayed relationships, in the daily struggles that weigh on our shoulders, in the doubts that discourage us,” he said. “Nothing that we are, no fragment of our existence, is foreign to Him.”
In his ongoing series of audience talks on the Jubilee theme, “Jesus Christ our Hope,” Pope Leo reflected on Christ’s resurrection as being marked by simplicity and humility.
“The risen Lord does nothing spectacular to impose Himself on the faith of His disciples,” he said. “He does not appear surrounded by hosts of angels, He does not perform spectacular feats, He does not deliver solemn speeches to reveal the secrets of the universe.”
“We would have expected special effects, signs of power, overwhelming evidence,” he said. “But the Lord does not seek this: He prefers the language of proximity, of normality, of sharing a meal.”
“There is a valuable message in this,” the pope said. “The resurrection is not a theatrical coup; it is a silent transformation that fills every human gesture with meaning.”
Every human body, story and relationship, he said, are “destined for the fullness of life” by “entering into a deeper communion with God and with our brothers and sisters, in a humanity transfigured by love.”
That means “everything can become grace. Even the most ordinary things: eating, working, waiting, taking care of the house, supporting a friend,” Pope Leo said.
“However, there is an obstacle that often prevents us from recognizing Christ’s presence in our daily lives: the assumption that joy must be free from suffering,” he said.
The disciples expected “a different ending” for the Messiah, he said. “But Jesus walks alongside them and patiently helps them understand that pain is not the denial of the promise, but the way through which God has manifested the measure of his love.”
Their eyes are opened when they are seated at the table with the Lord and realize “their hearts were already burning” despite their sadness, he said. “This is the greatest surprise: to discover that beneath the ashes of disenchantment and weariness there is always a living ember, waiting only to be rekindled.
“Christ’s resurrection teaches us that no history is so marked by disappointment or sin that it cannot be visited by hope,” he said. “However distant, lost or unworthy we may feel, there is no distance that can extinguish the unfailing power of God’s love.”
Christian joy, he said, “comes from the certainty that the Lord is alive, walks with us, and gives us the possibility to start again at every moment.”
