In the afternoon of December 12, liturgical memory of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, the Pope presided over Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. In a homily delivered in Spanish with a marked doctrinal and pastoral content, the Pontiff presented the Virgin as a mother who engenders unity, safeguards the faith of the Christian people, and offers a maternal response to division, violence, and the loss of meaning that afflict both the Church and contemporary societies.
We leave below the complete homily of Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters:
In the reading from Sirach, we are presented with a poetic description of Wisdom, an image that finds its full identity in Christ, the «wisdom of God» (1 Co 1:24), who, when the fullness of time had come, became flesh, born of a woman (cf. Ga 4:4). The Christian tradition has also read this passage in a Marian key, for it brings to mind the woman prepared by God to receive Christ. Indeed, who but Mary can say «in me is all the grace of the way and of the truth, all hope of life and of virtue» (Si 24:25 NV)? For this reason, the Christian tradition does not hesitate to recognize her as «the mother of love» (ibíd. v. 24).
In the Gospel, we hear how Mary lives the dynamic proper to one who allows the Word of God to enter her life and transform it. Like a burning fire that cannot be contained, the Word impels us to communicate the joy of the gift received (cf. Jr 20:9; Lc 24:32). She, joyful at the angel’s announcement, understands that God’s joy is fulfilled in charity, and then she goes in haste to the house of Elizabeth.
Truly, the words of the Full of Grace are «sweeter than honey» (Si 24:27 NV). Her greeting alone is enough to make the child exult in Elizabeth’s womb, and she, filled with the Holy Spirit, wonders: «Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?» (Lc 1:43). That jubilation flows into the Magnificat, where Mary recognizes that her blessedness comes from the faithful God, who has turned his eyes toward his people and blessed it (cf. Sal 66:2) with an inheritance sweeter than honey in the comb (cf. Si 24:20 NV); the very presence of his Son.
Throughout her existence, Mary carries that joy to where human joy is not enough, where the wine has run out (cf. Jn 2:3). So it happens in Guadalupe. On Tepeyac, she awakens in the inhabitants of America the joy of knowing they are loved by God. In the apparitions of 1531, speaking to St. Juan Diego in his native language, she declares that she «greatly desires» that a «sacred little house» be built there from which she will exalt God and make him manifest (cf. Nican mopohua, 26-27). Amid conflicts that do not cease, injustices and pains that seek relief, Our Lady of Guadalupe proclaims the core of her message: «Am I not here, I who am your mother?» (ibíd., 119). It is the voice that echoes the promise of divine fidelity, the presence that sustains when life becomes unbearable.
The motherhood she declares makes us discover ourselves as children. Whoever hears «I am your mother» remembers that, from the cross, to the «here is your mother» corresponds the «here is your son» (cf. Jn 19:26-27). And as children, we will turn to her to ask: «Mother, what must we do to be the children your heart desires?» She, faithful to her mission, with tenderness will tell us: «Do whatever he tells you» (Jn 2:5). Yes, Mother, we want to be authentic children of yours: tell us how to advance in faith when our strength wanes and the shadows grow. Help us understand that with you, even winter becomes a time of roses.
And as a son I ask you: Mother, teach the nations that want to be your daughters not to divide the world into irreconcilable factions, not to allow hatred to mark their history or lies to write their memory. Show them that authority must be exercised as service and not as domination. Instruct their rulers in their duty to safeguard the dignity of every person in all phases of their life. Make those peoples, your children, places where every person can feel welcomed.
Accompany, Mother, the youngest ones, so that they may obtain from Christ the strength to choose good and the courage to stand firm in the faith, even if the world pushes them in another direction. Show them that your Son walks at their side. May nothing trouble their hearts so that they can welcome God’s plans without fear. Keep from them the threats of crime, addictions, and the danger of a life without meaning.
Seek out, Mother, those who have strayed from the holy Church: may your gaze reach them where ours does not, tear down the walls that separate us, and bring them back home with the strength of your love. Mother, I beseech you to incline the hearts of those who sow discord toward the desire of your Son that «all may be one» (Jn 17:21) and restore them in the charity that makes communion possible, for within the Church, Mother, your children cannot be divided.
Strengthen families: may they, following your example, educate with tenderness and firmness, so that every home may be a school of faith. Inspire, Mother, those who form minds and hearts to transmit the truth with the sweetness, precision, and clarity that comes from the Gospel. Encourage those whom your Son has called to follow him more closely: sustain the clergy and consecrated life in daily fidelity and renew their first love. Guard their interiority in prayer, protect them in temptation, encourage them in weariness, and help the downcast.
Holy Virgin, like you, may we keep the Gospel in our hearts (cf. Lc 2:51). Help us understand that, though recipients, we are not owners of this message, but rather, like St. Juan Diego, its simple servants. May we live convinced that wherever the Good News arrives, everything becomes beautiful, everything recovers health, everything is renewed. «Those who are led by you will not sin» (cf. Si 24:22 NV); assist us so as not to tarnish with our sin and misery the holiness of the Church which, like you, is mother.
Mother «of the true God by whom one lives,» come to the aid of the Successor of Peter, so that he may confirm in the one way that leads to the blessed Fruit of your womb all those entrusted to me. Remember this son of yours, «to whom Christ entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of heaven for the good of all,» that those keys may serve «to bind and loose and to redeem all human misery» (St. John Paul II, Homily in Syracuse, November 6, 1994). And make it so that, trusting in your protection, we advance ever more united, with Jesus and among ourselves, toward the eternal dwelling that he has prepared for us and in which you await us. Amen.