The homily delivered by Pope Leo XIV on November 2, 2025, during the Holy Mass for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed celebrated at the Verano Cemetery in Rome was a day marked by prayer and remembrance of loved ones. The Pontiff offered a profound meditation on Christian hope and eternal life, reminding us that faith in the Risen Christ transforms the pain of loss into certainty of salvation.
We leave below the complete message from Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters:
We have gathered in this place to celebrate the commemoration of all the faithful departed, in particular those who are buried here and, with special affection, our loved ones. On the day of their death they left us, but we always carry them with us in the memory of the heart. And every day, in everything we live, this memory is alive. Many times there is something that makes us remember them, images that take us back to the moments we lived with them. Many places, even the scents of our homes, speak to us of those we have loved and who have left us, and keep their memory alive in us.
Today, however, we are not here only to commemorate those who have passed from this world to the next. The Christian faith, founded on Christ’s Easter, helps us to live memory not so much as a remembrance of the past, but as a future hope. It is not so much looking backward, but looking forward, toward the goal of our journey, toward the eternal banquet: «On that day —we heard in the reading from the prophet Isaiah—, the Lord of hosts will offer to all peoples on this mountain a banquet of rich food […] He will destroy death forever» (Is 25:6.8).
This “future hope” animates our remembrance and our prayer on this day. It is not an illusion that serves to soothe the pain of separation from loved ones, nor a mere human optimism. It is the hope founded on Jesus’ resurrection, who has conquered death and has also opened for us the way to the fullness of life. He —as I recalled in a recent catechesis— is «the point of arrival of our journey. Without his love, the journey of life would become a wandering without a goal, a tragic mistake with a lost destiny. […] The Risen One guarantees the arrival, leads us home, where we are awaited, loved, saved» (Catechesis, October 15, 2025).
And that final harbor, the banquet from which the Lord will gather us, will be a meeting of love. Out of love, God created us, and in love he saves us from death, in the immortality he has prepared for us. But when do we live with love and practice love with one another, especially with the most fragile and the poorest? Jesus invites us to do so with these words: «for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and you clothed me; sick and you visited me; imprisoned and you came to me» (Mt 25:35-36).
Charity conquers death. In charity God will gather us together with our loved ones. And if we walk in charity, our life will be a prayer that rises and unites us to the departed, brings us closer to them, in the expectation of meeting them again in eternal joy.
Dear brothers and sisters, while the pain for the absence of those who are no longer with us remains imprinted in our hearts, let us entrust ourselves to the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rm 5:5); let us look to the Risen Christ and think of our departed loved ones as enveloped by his light; let us allow the word of faith that the Lord addresses to us to resound in our souls: He will wipe away death forever. He will lead us to life forever and wipe away every tear from our eyes. In faith, even in the tunnel of death, for those who, united to him, reach out to him, the light of eternity shines.
In this hope, and united with those we love, at the end of this earth, we will enjoy eternal life with him and with them. May the Virgin Mary, who stood by the cross and knows the pain of our tears, direct our gaze forward, toward the future hope that does not fade.