Pastoral Visit to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish at Ponte Mammolo (Rome)

Author: Pope Le4o XIV

On the Fourth Sunday of Lent, 15 March 2026, Pope Leo made a Pastoral Visit to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish at Ponte Mammolo (Rome), where he celebrated Holy Mass. In his homily, the Pope reflected on the word Laetare, “rejoice” from the reading in Isaiah 66, despite the suffering caused by conflicts in the world.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Our Eucharistic celebration, today, is more than ever intoned with joy. In fact, the beauty of our encounter is part of the context of the Sunday called laetare“Laetare”, that is, “rejoiced”, from the words of Isaiah: “Rejoice, Jerusalem” (Entry, cf. Is 66:10).

This makes us think. Currently in the world many of our brothers and sisters suffer from violent conflicts, provoked by the absurd claim to solve problems and disagreements with war, while we must dialogue without respite for peace. Someone, then, even pretends to involve the name of God in these choices of death, but God cannot be enlisted by darkness. Rather, he comes, always, to give light, hope and peace to humanity, and it is peace that must seek those who call upon him.

It is the message of this Sunday: beyond any abyss in which man can fall, because of his sins, Christ comes to bring a stronger light, capable of freeing him from the blindness of evil, so that a new life may begin.

The encounter between Jesus and the born blind man (cf. Jn 9:1-41), in fact, can be compared to the scene of a birth, thanks to which he, like a child who comes to light, discovers a new world, seeing himself, others and life with the eyes of God (cf. 1Sam 16:9).

Let us ask ourselves: what is this look? What does it reveal? What does “looking with God’s eyes” mean?

According to the evangelist John, it means first of all overcoming the prejudices of those who, in front of a man who suffer, see only an outcast to be despised, or a problem to be avoided, closing in the armored tower of a selfish individualism. Many times they hear phrases like, “As long as things were good, there were many friends; at the moment of the test, however, many have left, they are gone!” Jesus does not do so: he looks at the blind man with love, not as an inferior being or an annoying presence, but as a loved one and in need of help. Thus their encounter becomes an opportunity so that in all the work of God may be manifested.

In the “sign”, in the miracle, Jesus reveals his divine power and man, almost retracing the gestures of creation – the mud, the saliva – returns to fully show his beauty and dignity as a creature made in the image and likeness of God. Thus, recovering his sight, he becomes a witness of light.

Of course, this implies a fatigue: he must get used to many things previously unknown, learn to distinguish colors and shapes, reset his relationships, and it is not easy. On the contrary, the hostility that surrounds him grows, provokes him, and not even his parents have the courage to defend him (cf. Jn 9:18-23). It seems almost, absurdly, that those close to him want to cancel what happened. Not only that: in the interrogation to which the blind man who now sees us is subjected, those who are tried is above all Jesus, accused of having violated, to heal him, on the Sabbath.

Thus, in the bystanders, another blindness, different and even more serious: that of not seeing, right before him, the face of God, for which they trade the possibility of a saving encounter with the sterile security that gives them the legalistic observance of a formal discipline. In the face of such dullness Jesus does not stop, showing that there is no “Saturday” that can hinder an act of love. Moreover, the meaning of the sabbatical rest, for the people of Israel – and for us on Sunday, the Lord’s day – is precisely to celebrate the mystery of life as a gift, in front of which no one can ignore the cry of help of the brother and sister who suffer.

Perhaps, sometimes, in this sense, blind we can be blind, too, when we do not notice others and their problems. Jesus, on the other hand, asks us to live differently, as the first Christian community had well understood, in which the brothers and sisters, constant in prayer, shared everything with joy and simplicity of heart (cf. Acts 2:42-47). Not that they were missing, even in those days, tribulations and obstacles. But they did not give up: strong of the gift of Baptism, they tried the same to live as new creatures, living in communion and in peace with all and finding in the community a family that accompanied and supported them.

Dearly beloved, these are the fruits that we are called to bear as children of light (cf. 1 Thess 5:4-5); and your Parish has been faithfully living this mission for about ninety years, with special care of situations of poverty, marginalization and emergency, with attention to the presence, in its territory, of the House of imprisonment of Rebibbia, and with many other signs of sensitivity and solidarity.

I know that you help many brothers and sisters, from other countries, to fit in here: to learn the language, to find a decent home and to exercise an honest and safe job. There is no shortage of difficulties, unfortunately sometimes accentuated by those who, unscrupulously, take advantage of the condition of poverty of the weakest to do their own interests. However, I am aware of how much you all commit to meet these challenges, through the services of Caritas, the Family Homes for the reception of women and mothers in difficulty and many other initiatives. Just as I am aware of the vitality and generosity with which you spend yourself for the education of young people and young people, with the oratory and with other training proposals.

St. Augustine, speaking of the face of God, of which we are called to be a mirror in the world, said to the Christians of his time: “What face does love have? What shape, what stature, what feet, what hands? [...] He has feet, which lead to the Church; he has his hands, which they give to the poor; he has eyes, with whom one comes to know him who is in need” (In Epistolam Joannis ad Parthos, 7, 10) and added, referring to charity: “Keep it, embrace it: nothing is sweeter than it” (ibid.).

Dear brothers and sisters, this is the gift of light entrusted to you, so that you may make it grow in you and among you in all its sweetness and spread it in the world, with prayer, frequency to the Sacraments and charity. Keep engaging in your journey.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, to which your Parish is dedicated, shapes and preserves more and more this beautiful community, because, with the same feelings of Christ (cf. Phil 2:5), he lives and witnesses with joy and dedication the treasure of grace that you have received.