Yesterday, all of the Dominican student brothers here at the House of Studies jammed together to watch the reveal of a new pope. We were not alone. The whole world trained its eyes on a balcony in Rome. And after some waiting—and some more waiting—there emerged Leo XIV, the 267th Pope, the Successor of Saint Peter, the Vicar of Christ.
Yesterday, the Church and the world had their eyes on one spot, one person, elevated in a moment of thanksgiving and praise. Like our Eucharistic Lord, drawing all peoples to himself, his representative on Earth has done something no one else can do—he became a representative of true unity.
We have a new Pope! What now? Now the Catholic Church goes on as she always has.
The world understands an election, but it will not understand what comes next. Leo has been chosen to love and to feed Christ’s sheep (see John 2:15–19). He has been chosen for a position of sacrifice and service, not of power or worldly success. In his own words, from his first papal homily this morning:
Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.
“Technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.” All sources of security, all attempts at unity—unity of our own lives, unity with others. But time and again, self-sustained unity proves fleeting. And how is the election of a pope different? The Church has, after all, been through this before—266 times before. Is this really a rock we can stand on? Even now, the speculation machine is churning: Will the new pope be a pastor? A prophet? An administrator?
He will be a vicar. He will represent the same Shepherd who has been with the flock from the beginning—Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Leo is a pope for us, but a Christian with us. He is part of the same Body of Christ, our brother, and the very image of the unity of that body. Leo is offering something more than himself. We do not flock around a new shepherd as our savior. Leo, like his predecessors before him, is simply a steward of the graces he’s been given (see 1 Pet 4:10). We find our rest, our safety, our unity in the one Leo serves. But our hearts soar that Jesus Christ, our shepherd, our unity, our Way, our Truth, our Life, is manifest in a Vicar.
May Jesus Christ bless his Vicar Leo, and through him may the whole flock be led to unity, life, and peace.
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
