Pope: Revolution of love needed for suffering people

In a homily at a Mass celebrated at the Pontifical Parish of Saint Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo’s Liberty Square on July 13, the Pope said that the parable is challenging.

“Are we content at times merely to do our duty, or to regard as our neighbour only those who are part of our group, who think like us, who share our same nationality or religion?” he asked. “Jesus overturns this way of thinking by presenting us with a Samaritan, a foreigner or heretic, who acts as a neighbour to that wounded man. And he asks us to do the same.”

The Pope continued: “If Christ shows us the face of a compassionate God, then to believe in him and to be his disciples means allowing ourselves to be changed and to take on his same feelings.

“Looking without walking by, halting the frantic pace of our lives, allowing the lives of others, whoever they may be, with their needs and troubles, to touch our heart,” the Pope added. “That is what makes us neighbours to one another, what generates true fraternity and breaks down walls and barriers.”

The Pontiff called for a “revolution of love” toward those who have been hurt by life, who are “stripped, robbed and pillaged, victims of tyrannical political systems, of an economy that forces them into poverty, and of wars that kill their dreams and their very lives”.

Later, before reciting the Angelus prayer, Pope Leo said the hope of eternal life “is described as something to be ‘inherited’, not something to be gained by force, begged for, or negotiated. Eternal life, which God alone can give, is bestowed on us as an inheritance, as parents do with their children”.

“That is why Jesus tells us that, in order to receive God’s gift, we must do his will,” he continued. “It is written in the Law: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart’, and ‘your neighbour as yourself’.

“When we do these two things, we respond to the Father’s love,” the Pontiff said.

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Pope Leo XIV greeted by international crowd at first Angelus from Castel Gandolfo (By Hannah Brockhaus/Catholic News Agency)