During his final General Audience of the year on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV recalled that the months just lived had been marked by events of contrasting significance.
“Some of them joyful,” he said, “such as the pilgrimage of so many of the faithful on the occasion of the Holy Year; others painful, such as the passing of the late Pope Francis, and the scenarios of war that continue to convulse the planet.”
Precisely for this reason, he added, the Church calls believers to gather everything—joys and sufferings alike—before God, asking Him “to renew, in us and around us, in the coming days, the wonders of his grace and mercy.”
Te Deum prayer
With this in mind, Pope Leo reflected on the ancient tradition of the solemn Te Deum sung on the evening of 31 December.
“It is in this dynamic,” he explained, “that the tradition of the solemn singing of the Te Deum, with which we will thank the Lord this evening for the blessings we have received, finds its place.”
Quoting Pope Francis, he contrasted this prayerful gratitude with what he called a worldly attitude. “While ‘worldly gratitude and worldly hope are evident... they are focused on the self, on its interests’,” Pope Francis had said. “In this Liturgy... one breathes an entirely different atmosphere: one of praise, of wonder, of gratitude.”
This spirit of thanksgiving, Pope Leo continued, also calls for truthfulness of heart. “With these attitudes,” he said, “we are called upon to reflect on what the Lord has done for us over the past year,” and also “to examine our consciences honestly,” asking forgiveness “for all the times we have failed to treasure his inspirations and invest the talents he has entrusted to us in the best possible way.”
A journey with a destination
The Pope then pointed to a second sign that has marked the Jubilee year: that of the journey. “This year,” he observed, “countless pilgrims have come from all over the world to pray at the Tomb of Peter and to confirm their adherence to Christ.”
Their pilgrimage, he explained, mirrors the deeper truth of human existence. “Our whole life is a journey whose final destination transcends space and time,” a journey fulfilled “in the encounter with God and in full and eternal communion with Him.”
This hope finds voice, he added, when the Church prays in the Te Deum: “Bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.”
The Holy Door
A third sign, the Pope continued, emerges in the light of eternity: the passage through the Holy Door. “So many of us,” he said, “have made this gesture, praying and imploring forgiveness for ourselves and our loved ones.”
Crossing the threshold, he explained, expresses “our ‘yes’ to God,” who invites us, through forgiveness, “to cross the threshold of a new life, animated by grace, modelled on the Gospel.”
Quoting Pope Paul VI, Pope Leo stressed that this life is “inflamed by ‘love for that neighbour, in whose definition... every man is included’,” even those “personally unknown to us, even if bothersome and hostile,” yet always “endowed with the incomparable dignity of a brother.”
“This,” the Pope said, “is our ‘yes’ to a life lived with commitment in the present and oriented towards eternity.”
“Let the sinner rejoice”
Reflecting on these signs in the light of Christmas, Pope Leo recalled the words of Saint Leo the Great, who saw the Nativity as a proclamation of universal joy. “Let the saint rejoice, because he is approaching his reward; let the sinner rejoice, because he is offered forgiveness; let the pagan take courage, because he is called to life.”
“This invitation,” the Pope said, “is addressed today to all of us.” To the baptized, “because God has become our companion on the journey towards true life”; to sinners, “because, forgiven, with his grace we can stand up and set off again;” and to the poor and fragile, because the Lord, “making our weakness his own, has redeemed it.”
God is Love
In conclusion, Pope Leo recalled the Jubilee of 1975, noting how Pope Paul VI summed up its message in a single word: “love.”
“God is Love!” Pope Paul VI said during that audience. “God loves me! God awaited me, and I have found him! God is mercy! God is forgiveness! God is salvation! God, yes, God is life!”
“May these thoughts,” Pope Leo XIV concluded, “accompany us in the passage from the old to the new year, and then always, in our lives.”