By Courtney Mares, OSV News
VATICAN CITY – In his first Palm Sunday homily, Pope Leo XIV proclaimed that Jesus, the King of Peace, embraces all suffering in human history and cries out from the Cross against war.
“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Square March 29.
“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’ (Is 1:15).”
Pope Leo repeated the phrase “King of Peace” seven times throughout his homily, weaving it through different moments of the Passion of Christ, pointing to Jesus as a victim of unjust violence who never took up arms in his own defense.
“Christ, King of Peace, cries out again from his Cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters,” Pope Leo said.
He emphasized that Jesus, in allowing himself to be nailed to the Cross embraced “every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history.”
“As we set our gaze upon him who was crucified for us, we can see a crucified humanity. In his wounds, we see the hurts of so many women and men today,” the pope said.
“In his last cry to the Father, we hear the weeping of those who are crushed, who have no hope, who are sick and who are alone. Above all, we hear the painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war.”
Pope Leo’s first Holy Week began under sunny skies with a solemn Palm Sunday procession through St. Peter’s Square, where cardinals, bishops and lay people carried large palm branches. The congregation held olive branches, as is customary in Italy.
The Passion narrative from the Gospel of Matthew was solemnly chanted during the Mass; at the moment of Jesus’ death, the square fell silent as tens of thousands of people, including the pope, knelt down in prayer.
At the end of the Mass, Pope Leo led the crowd in the Angelus prayer in Latin and made an impassioned appeal for Christians in the Holy Land, where the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has had to cancel or postpone key Holy Week liturgies, including Palm Sunday due to wartime restrictions.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and Father Francesco Ielpo, the custos of the Holy Land, were prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by Israeli police on Palm Sunday.
“At the beginning of Holy Week, our prayers are more than ever with the Christians of the Middle East, who are suffering the consequences of a brutal conflict and, in many cases, are unable to observe fully the liturgies of these holy days,” Pope Leo said at the Angelus.
“Just as the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s Passion, we cannot forget those who today are truly sharing in his suffering,” he said, adding “their ordeal challenges all our consciences.”
The pope also prayed for migrants who have died at sea, particularly those who perished recently off the coast of Crete.
In his homily, Pope Leo quoted Servant of God Antonio “Tonino” Bello, an Italian bishop and vocal critic of the Gulf War who died of cancer in 1993 and is on the path to sainthood.
“‘Holy Mary, woman of the third day, grant us the certainty that, in spite of all, death will no longer hold sway over us; that the injustices of peoples are numbered; that the flashes of war are fading into the twilight; that the sufferings of the poor are breathing their last. And grant, finally, that the tears of all the victims of violence and pain will soon be dried up like frost beneath the spring sun,'” the pope said, quoting Bello, whom he referred to by his nickname “Tonino.”
Pope Leo has a busy Holy Week schedule ahead, which includes a return to the tradition of Holy Thursday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and includes Stations of the Cross in the Colosseum.
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