The first public words spoken by Pope Leo XIV struck me. “Peace be with you all!”, he proclaimed as he emerged from the loggia above St. Peter’s Basilica.
Then he added, “Beloved brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who has given his life for the flock of God.”
The words rang a hauntingly familiar tone when I first heard them, and I later connected the dots. In a Message of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America on the Occasion of the Celebration in Spanish Dioceses of “Hispano-America Day” from last year, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, the President of the Commission, issued a statement in which he reflected on the figure of “the Good Shepherd who has given his life for the flock of God.”
“I immediately recall Saint Oscar Romero,” wrote the future pope in the Spanish-language message.
“Through a process of purification and conversion, he discovered that the love of Jesus must be offered beyond one’s comfort zone, risking one’s life,” Cardinal Prevost expounded.
He then offered a quote from the Salvadoran martyr:
It’s really a horrible thing just to live comfortably and without any suffering, not getting involved in problems, staying well connected politically, economically, and socially … Those who out of love for [Christ] uproot themselves and accompany the people and share in the suffering of the poor and take on themselves the pain and abuse of the outcasts—these will save their lives because [the] Father will reward them. (April 1, 1979 homily).
In his March 3, 2024 statement, the future pope remarks that Romero was not offering a hypothetical commentary like an ivory-tower academic. “On the contrary, our beloved saint was speaking from the Gospel come alive.”
Then he offered a second Romero quote, which Romero uttered moments before he was killed:
You just heard the Gospel of Christ: we must not love our lives so much that we avoid taking the risks in life that history calls for. Those who seek to shun danger will lose their lives, whereas those who for love of Christ dedicate themselves to the service of others will live. (March 24, 1980 homily.)
Our new pontiff then added his own gloss to Romero, saying: “This is the greatest truth. Life finds its true destiny in love. The love that entails offering one’s life for our brothers and sisters, transcending rhetoric and immersing us in the great adventure of following the vocation the Lord has entrusted to us.”
Thus, when Pope Leo XIV offered the “peace” of the Risen Christ — the peace greeting of the Good Shepherd who has given his life for the flock — this was no passive acknowledgment, but the clarion call of a shepherd challenging his fellow Christians to go further and deeper than we might be prepared to go.
He concluded by quoting Pope Francis:
Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others. (Evangelii Gaudium, 10, citing the Aparecida document).
Such is the “peace” of Leo XIV. It is a peace rooted in justice, a peace built up on sacrifice and solidarity, but also peace of contented hearts that rest easy like the South American pampas and stand strong like the mighty Andes.
Image: Vatican Media.
Carlos X. Colorado is an attorney and blogger from Southern California. He tracked the canonization of St. Oscar Romero in his «Super Martyrio» blog from 2006-2018. He is a member of the board of the St. Thomas More Society of Orange County, a Catholic lawyer group.
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