“May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.”
Pope Leo opened the homily at his first Mass of 2026 by reflecting on this blessing from the Book of Numbers, taken from the day’s first reading.
The blessing, he said, was addressed to the people of Israel, who had just been liberated from slavery in Egypt, and had been offered a “rebirth,” an “open road toward the future.”
In this way, the pope noted, the day’s liturgy reminds us 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.”
We should view the coming year, Pope Leo urged the roughly 5,500 faithful in attendance, as “an open journey to be discovered.”
The day’s liturgy marked both the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the World Day of Peace.
In his homily, Pope Leo explored the tight relationship between the two celebrations. With Mary’s cooperation, he said, God arrived amongst us “naked and defenseless,” a “newborn in a cradle.”
“He does this,” the pope explained, to teach us that the world is not saved by violence but by “tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear.”
“In Mary’s divine motherhood,” the pope said, two “unarmed realities” come together: “that of God, who renounces every privilege of his divinity to be born in the flesh, and that of a human person who, trustingly and fully, embraces God’s will.”
The pope brought his homily to a close by reflecting on the Jubilee Year 2025, which will come to an end on Jan. 6, 2026.
He did so by citing the words of his predecessor Pope St. John Paul II, at the closure of the Jubilee 2000:
“How many extraordinary occasions the Great Jubilee has offered to believers! In the experience of forgiveness received and given, in the commemoration of the martyrs, in listening to the cry of the world’s poor… we too have glimpsed the saving presence of God in history. We have, as it were, physically felt his love which renews the face of the earth.”