Pope Leo XIV prayed the Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 7, using his address for the Second Sunday of Advent to urge Christians to prepare for and welcome God’s Kingdom with hope, as the Church marks the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.
Recalling the voice of John the Baptist crying out in the desert, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’, the Pope said the Advent season invites believers to recognize that God, not worldly powers, directs the deeper course of history. He noted that each day’s prayer of the Our Father is a choice to let God’s Kingdom enter the world anew.
“Let us, then, put our thoughts and energy at the service of God who came not to reign over us, but rather to free us,” he said. “This is the ‘gospel’, the truly good news that motivates and draws us in.”
Pope Leo acknowledged that John the Baptist’s tone is “severe”, yet insisted that its purpose is to awaken consciences to the Kingdom of God. “The people listen attentively because they hear resounding in his words God’s plea to take life seriously,” he said, explaining that these warnings urge the faithful to be ready “for the encounter with him who judges, not by appearance, but by the deeds and intentions of the heart.”
He added that even John the Baptist was surprised by the manner in which the Kingdom of God manifested in Jesus Christ, who came not in worldly strength but “in meekness and mercy,” resembling the tender shoot that springs from a seemingly dead stump in the prophecy of Isaiah.
“This, too, is what the Church experienced in the Second Vatican Council, which concluded exactly sixty years ago,” the Pope said. “It is an experience that is renewed when we journey together toward the Kingdom of God with everyone eager to welcome and serve it.”
The Pope emphasized that the coming of God’s Kingdom will bring to fruition even what appears weak, marginal, or impossible. “When the Kingdom comes to fruition, not only will those things which seem weak or marginal bud forth, but even those things which humanly speaking would be impossible will also be brought to fulfillment.”
“How much the world needs this hope!” he said. “Nothing is impossible to God. Let us prepare ourselves for his Kingdom; let us welcome it.”
Pope Leo called the spirituality of Advent “very luminous and concrete.” Like the streetlights that brighten winter evenings, he said, every Christian can become a small light of hope by making room for Jesus, “the shoot of a new world.”
“Each of us can be a little light,” he said, “if we welcome Him.”
