"Unfortunately, there are always 'Herodes' figures in the world, with her myth of success at all costs, with unscrupulous power, empty and superficial prosperity; and often she pays for it with loneliness, despair, divisions and conflicts," Leo XIV said at the midday prayer in front of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square.
Distorted echo of threat
On the Feast of the Holy Family, the Church on 28. December, Leo said, of the joy of the birth of the Redeemer, nothing penetrates into Herod's isolated palace, "except as a distorted echo of a threat that must be suffocated with blind force." It is precisely the hard-heartedness of the despotic and greedy tyrant that underlines the value of the Holy Family, in which God gives himself unreservedly to man. "And the gesture of Joseph, who obediently follows the voice of the Lord and brings wife and child to safety, is revealed here in all its redeeming meaning," he said.
Even today, families can shine a light on society. Christian families called on Leo to nurture prayer and sacrament reception, especially confession and communion. Also "real affection, sincere dialogue, fidelity, simple and beautiful concreteness of the words and good deeds of each day" was to be preserved. Then they could bring hope into their environment and become "a school of love and a tool of salvation in the hands of God."
After his speech, the Pope again strongly promoted peace. "Today we pray especially for the families who suffer from war, for children, the elderly and the most vulnerable," said Leo XIV.