Pope Leo XIV gives “homework” to young people of Peru taking part in the Jubilee of Young People, asking them to not let the Jubilee be for making memories preserved in photos, but to bring the Good News of Christ home, and to make all people they meet see the face of Christ.
Jul 28, 2025
Pope Leo XIV receives young Peruvians participating in the Jubilee (@Vatican Media)
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“I would like that when you return to Peru, you flood those lands with the joy and strength of the Gospel, with the Good News of Jesus Christ”, Pope Leo XIV on Monday told young people from Peru who are in Rome to participate in the Jubilee of Young People.
The Pope welcomed them “as pilgrims of hope” ready to meet thousands of other young people to celebrate the Holy Year event together. “Seeing you here,” the Pope said, made him also think of their families and many people from their parish communities who have helped them, “with great sacrifices and hard work,” to make this long-awaited journey possible.
The family of the Church
As the Holy Father reflected on the day’s readings, the Pope went on to observe that “we too are small, but we are not alone.”
“The Lord,” he reassured them, “has willed that we become part of a great family, the family of the Church. Incorporated into it in Christ, like clusters on the vine, we can grow and bear fruit, aided by the grace of the Lord.”
The Pope remembered how Saint Augustine, commenting on Psalm 68, had in this sense highlighted the strength of what is small, stressing that when it grows, it takes root in a people, namely “the people of God that extends throughout the earth.”
Bring home the Good News and transmit the face of Christ to those you meet
In this sense, the Holy Father urged the young people to not keep everything they experience these days as a memory of the past.
“Please, do not let all this remain merely as a memory in some beautiful photos,” he said, but rather transmit Christ once you return home.
“May everyone you meet,” the Holy Father encouraged them, “see in you the face of Christ, who loves and gives Himself, and who remains present in each baptized person.”
Beloved Saints of Peru
Therefore, Pope Leo urged them, “love and serve freely, in daily life, in what is small and hidden, because you have experienced the joy of being loved first, and because you have received everything freely from God the Father.”
“The backpacks that accompany you during these days, carrying only the essentials,” Pope Leo concluded, “are a sign of the mission that the Pope entrusts to you today,” namely to “be missionaries wherever you go; be transparent to the presence of the Lord, just as our beloved Peruvian Saints were.”–Vatican News