By Gary Gately
Reminding us that we must seek to see God’s presence in everyone, especially the impoverished and the downtrodden, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass and shared a meal Sunday with about 100 refugees, homeless and poor people.
In the “Church of the poor,” the pontiff said in his homily at the St. Mary sanctuary of Albano near the papal retreat outside Rome: “Each one is a gift to the others….
“I encourage you not to distinguish between those who assist and those who are assisted, between those who seem to give and those who seem to receive, between those who appear poor and those who feel they have something to offer in terms of time, skills, and help,” he said. “We can find God in the presence of everyone.”
Reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel, in which Jesus proclaimed, “I have come to set the earth on fire,” Pope Leo said: “The fire Jesus came to bring burns away the prejudices, fears, and false cautions that still marginalize those who carry Christ’s poverty in their lives.”
The first U.S. pope — who spent two decades ministering to the poor and marginalized of Peru, first as an Augustinian missionary, then as a bishop —called on the faithful to “bring the fire of love into the world” — a love that “lowers itself and serves, that responds to indifference with care.”
“There is no greater peace than having that flame burning within us,” he said.
After the Mass, the 69-year-old Pope Leo shared a meal of lasagna, eggplant parmesan and roast veal with at wit the refugees, homeless and poor people at Laudato Si’ Village, the ecological education center named for the late Pope Francis’ landmark 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’’” (“Praise Be to You”).
Inside a gazebo set up for the luncheon in the lush gardens to the village, on the grounds of the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, Leo said: “The most beautiful of all creation is that which was made in God’s image — that is, each one of us.”
At the luncheon — also attended by volunteers who run the Albano diocese’s shelters, clinics and social service offices, the Holy Father said: “Breaking bread together, a gesture that for us all is deeply significant: the act through which we recognize Jesus Christ present among us.
“It is during the Holy Mass, but it is also all of us gathered around the table, sharing the gifts the Lord has given us.”
Welcoming Pope Leo and the guests before the meal, Albano Bishop Vincenzo Viva said: “In the faces of those seated at these tables today, we see the beauty of the Gospel made concrete — living testimony of who we are as the Church of Albano. “There is no ‘us’ and ‘them,’ no benefactors and beneficiaries: there are only people sharing bread — and with it, their stories, their struggles, and their hopes.”