Vatican, 02 February, 2026 / 1:49 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged consecrated men and women to serve as “leaven of peace” and a “sign of hope” as he celebrated Mass for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in St. Peter’s Basilica and marked the 30th World Day for Consecrated Life.
The liturgy began with a candlelight procession, recalling Simeon’s words that Christ is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles,” as the pope processed from the basilica’s entrance toward the main altar in a dimly lit church “waiting” for the light of Christ.
In his homily, the pope reflected on the Gospel passage from Luke (2:22–40), where Simeon and Anna recognize and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. He described the scene as “the meeting between two movements of love: that of God who comes to save man and that of man who awaits with vigilant faith his coming.”
Leo noted that Jesus presents himself as the son of a “poor” family — a detail he said shows God’s respect for human freedom and his solidarity with human need: Christ offers himself “in full respect for our freedom and in full sharing of our poverty,” the pope said, adding that there is “nothing coercive” in the Lord’s action “but only the disarming power of his unarmed gratuitousness.”
Turning to those living vowed religious life, the pope said the Church asks them “to be prophets: messengers who proclaim the presence of the Lord and prepare his way.” He urged them to “empty” themselves for the Lord, invoking the prophet Malachi’s imagery of being “crucibles for the refiner’s fire and vessels for the launderer’s lye.”
