At the opening of 2026, Pope Leo XIV invited the faithful to see the new year not as something to control or fear, but as a spiritual journey shaped by God’s mercy and human freedom.
Celebrating his first public Mass of the year on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, Pope Leo reflected on the biblical blessing from the Book of Numbers: “May the Lord bless you and keep you… and bring you peace.” According to Vatican News, the Pope explained that this blessing was first spoken to the people of Israel after their liberation from slavery, when they were offered “an open road toward the future.”
Drawing a parallel to the start of a new calendar year, Pope Leo told the roughly 5,500 faithful gathered for the liturgy that “every day can be the beginning of a new life, thanks to God’s generous love, his mercy and the response of our freedom,” urging believers to welcome the coming year as “an open journey to be discovered.”
The Mass marked both the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the World Day of Peace, a connection Pope Leo explored at length in his homily. According to Vatican News, he emphasized that through Mary’s cooperation, God entered the world “naked and defenceless,” choosing to come as a newborn child rather than with force or power.
This, the Pope said, reveals the true way the world is redeemed. God does not save humanity through violence, but through “tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear,” as reported by Vatican News.
Pope Leo described Mary’s divine motherhood as the meeting of two “unarmed realities”: God, who renounces the privileges of divinity to take on human flesh, and a human person who freely and completely entrusts herself to God’s will. In this union, the Pope said, the Church sees the “unarmed and disarming” face of God, one that calls humanity to peace rather than domination.
As the homily drew to a close, Pope Leo turned the attention of the faithful to the approaching end of the 2025 Jubilee Year, which concludes on January 6. Reflecting on the spiritual fruits of a jubilee, he cited the words of Pope St. John Paul II at the conclusion of the Great Jubilee of 2000.
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo recalled John Paul II’s reflection on “forgiveness received and given,” the witness of the martyrs, and attentiveness to the cries of the poor, moments in which believers could “physically” sense God’s renewing love at work in history.
With these reflections, Pope Leo framed the new year not as a blank slate to be filled by human effort alone, but as a continuation of God’s saving work—one that unfolds through humility, mercy, and the courageous choice of peace.
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