On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Pope Leo XIV presided this Sunday in the Sistine Chapel over the Holy Mass during which he administered the sacrament of Baptism to several children, in a traditional celebration that underscores the bond between the public manifestation of Christ and the beginning of Christian life. The liturgy, celebrated at 9:30 in the morning, gathered the families of the baptized in one of the most emblematic spaces of the Vatican.
In his homily, the Pontiff highlighted the theological meaning of Baptism as participation in God’s saving justice, recalling that Christ, by submitting to John’s baptism, fully assumed the human condition to open to all the path of forgiveness and communion. Addressing the parents in particular, Leo XIV emphasized that faith is an essential good that cannot be postponed, comparing it to the food and clothing necessary for life, and invited families to safeguard and transmit this gift that incorporates children into the great family of the Church.
We leave below the complete homily:
Dear brothers and sisters:
When the Lord enters history, He comes to meet the life of each one with an open and humble heart. He seeks our gaze with His own, full of love, and dialogues with us by revealing to us the Word of salvation. Made man, the Son of God opens for all a surprising possibility, which inaugurates a new and unexpected time even for the prophets.
John the Baptist realizes it immediately and says to Jesus: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Mt 3:14). Like light in the darkness, the Lord allows Himself to be found where we do not expect Him: He is the Holy One among sinners, who wants to dwell in our midst without keeping distances, but by fully assuming everything that is human. “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness,” Jesus replies to John (v. 15). What justice is He referring to? To God’s justice, which in Jesus’ baptism works our justification: in His infinite mercy, the Father makes us righteous through His Christ, the only Savior of all. How does this happen? He who is baptized by John in the Jordan makes this gesture a new sign of death and resurrection, of forgiveness and communion. This is the sacrament we celebrate today for your children; may God love them, and may they become Christians, our brothers and sisters.
The children you now hold in your arms become new creatures. Just as they have received life from you, their parents, now they also receive the meaning to live it: faith. When we know that a good is essential, we immediately seek it for those we love. Who among us, in fact, would leave newborns without clothing or food, waiting for them to choose how to dress and what to eat when they are older? Dear brothers and sisters, if food and clothing are necessary to live, faith is more than necessary, because with God life finds salvation.
God’s provident love is manifested on earth through you, moms and dads, who ask for faith for your children. Certainly, the day will come when they will be too heavy to carry in your arms; and the day will also come when they will be the ones to support you. Baptism, which unites us in the one family of the Church, sanctify all your families at all times, granting strength and constancy to the affection that unites them.
The gestures that we will perform shortly are beautiful testimonies of this: the water from the font is the bath in the Spirit, which purifies from all sin; the white garment is the new garment that God the Father grants us for the eternal feast of His Kingdom; the lit candle from the Paschal candle is the light of the Risen Christ, which illuminates our path. I wish you to continue that path, with joy, throughout the year that has just begun and throughout life, assured that the Lord will always accompany your steps.