In a message addressed to Latin American priests, seminarians, and religious men and women studying in Rome, Pope Leo XIV encourages them to remember their calling to follow Christ and strive to place God above everything.
By Isabella H. de Carvalho
“Since we live in a confusing society of noise, today more than ever we need servants and disciples who announce the absolute primacy of Christ and who keep His voice clearly in their ears and hearts.”
Pope Leo XIV offered that invitation to Latin American priests, seminarians, and religious men and women who study Rome, in a message released on Friday, December 12.
They gathered at the Vatican for a meeting organized by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on “Mary: Star of Evangelization and Mission for Latin America Today,” on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In his message, Pope Leo reflected on Christ’s words to His disciples, “Follow me,” as representative of the “deepest purpose” of the life of a seminarian, priest, or consecrated person.
He invited them to remember their calling and stay faithful to God through good and hard times, by also nurturing their relationship with Him through reading Scripture, meditating in prayer, following their pastors, and studying the knowledge and wisdom offered by the Church.
“In joys and in difficulties, our motto must be: if Christ went through it, then we too must live what He lived,” he wrote. “We should not cling to applause, for its echo fades quickly; nor is it healthy to dwell only on memories of crises or times of bitter disappointment.”
“Rather, let us see all of it as part of our formation and say, ‘If God has willed it for me, I too will it. The deep bond that unites us to Christ, whether as priests, consecrated persons, or seminarians, resembles what is said to Christian spouses on their wedding day: ‘for poorer, for richer, in sickness and in health’.”
Place God above everything
The Pope pointed out how the Gospel passages about vocation all underline “the absolute initiative of the Lord,” who calls people “without any merit” on their part.
Rather, he said their vocation is “an opportunity to bring the Gospel message to sinners and the weak,” and so Jesus’ disciples become “instruments of the plan of salvation that God has for all people.”
However, Pope Leo emphasized that the Gospel also highlights the commitment that responding to such a vocation entails, such as placing God above everything, detaching oneself from all human security, and “the demand of the urgent necessity of theoretical and practical knowledge of the divine law.”
“In this requirement to leave everything—even things good in themselves—the Lord does not intend to make us evade natural duties, sanctioned by God’s law, but to open our eyes to a new life,” Pope Leo explained, citing St. Ambrose.
“In this new life nothing can be placed before God, not even what we had previously known as good, and it entails death to sin and to the old worldly self.”
Quoting again St. Ambrose, Pope Leo underlines how this union with Jesus then helps us be in communion with others and walk together.
“We are not united by bonds of sympathy, shared interests, or mutual convenience, but by belonging to the people whom the Lord purchased at the price of His Blood,” the Pope insisted.
Jesus sustains and knows us
The Pope also highlighted that in the Gospel of John, Christ tells the apostle Peter to follow Him twice, and both times, it shows the Lord’s closeness.
The first time is after Peter’s triple confession of love after denying Jesus three times, and even though “the Apostle did not fully understand the mystery of the Cross,” God already had “in mind the sacrifice with which Peter would glorify God.”
“When, throughout life, our vision becomes clouded, like Peter’s did in the night or amid the storms,” the Pope explained, “it will be the voice of Jesus that, with loving patience, sustains us.”
Similarly, the second time is shortly after when Peter asks about John, and Jesus replies, “What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” This second episode “assures us that the Lord knows our frailty and that, often, it is not the cross imposed upon us, but our own selfishness, that becomes a stumbling block in our desire to follow him,” Pope Leo emphasized.
“The dialogue with the Apostle shows us how easily we judge our brother and even God, without docilely accepting His will in our lives.”
At the end of his message, the Pope entrusted the Latin American seminarians, priests, and religious to Mary and asked Our Lady of Guadalupe to “teach us to respond with courage and to keep in our hearts the wonders that Christ has done in us, so that we may go forth without delay to proclaim the joy of having found him, of being one in the One, and living stones of a temple for His glory.”
