Pope Leo XIV’s Advent Angelus urges repentance and hope, links Vatican II renewal to Isaiah’s peace vision, and stresses peace is possible after Türkiye-Lebanon trip.
Newsroom (08/12/2025 ) On the Second Sunday of Advent, Pope Leo XIV delivered a powerful reflection urging the faithful to embrace the “good news” of God’s Kingdom that arrives not through worldly power but through meekness, mercy, and unexpected newness.
Drawing from the day’s Gospel of Matthew, the Holy Father highlighted the figure of John the Baptist, whose stark call — “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!” — resounded in the Judean desert. Yet, Leo XIV noted, even the fiery prophet would be surprised by how gently the Kingdom unfolded in Jesus Christ: not as a blaze of judgment but as a tender shoot springing from what seemed a dead stump, as foretold by Isaiah.
“That same John will be surprised at the manner in which the Kingdom of God manifests itself in Jesus Christ, in meekness and in mercy,” the Pope said. He invited the crowd to recall personal moments of similar surprise, when God’s action overturned human expectations.
The Holy Father then drew a striking parallel to the Church’s own history. “This, too, is what the Church experienced in the Second Vatican Council, which concluded exactly sixty years ago,” he declared, describing the Council as an ongoing experience of renewal when believers journey together toward the Kingdom. In God’s design, he continued, the seemingly weak and marginal flourish, and even the humanly impossible becomes reality — symbolized by Isaiah’s vision of the wolf dwelling with the lamb and a little child leading them.
“How much the world needs this hope! Nothing is impossible to God,” Pope Leo XIV insisted. He urged the faithful to welcome the Kingdom embodied in “the little child, Jesus of Nazareth,” who shines as the rising Sun upon human history.
Turning to the concrete spirituality of Advent, the Pope encouraged every person to become “a little light” by welcoming Jesus, learning from Mary, the woman of faithful hope who waited in silence.
Following the traditional Angelus prayer, the Holy Father reflected on his just-concluded apostolic journey to Türkiye and Lebanon — his first international trip. In Türkiye, he joined Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and leaders of other Christian confessions in Iznik (ancient Nicea) to mark 1,700 years since the First Ecumenical Council and the 60th anniversary of the historic lifting of mutual excommunications between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras.
“We give thanks to God and renew our dedication to journeying towards the full visible unity of all Christians,” he said, praising the patient witness of Türkiye’s small Catholic community through dialogue and service to the suffering.
In Lebanon, described as a “mosaic of coexistence,” the Pope encountered vivid Gospel witness: Christians welcoming refugees, visiting prisoners, and sharing food with the needy. Deeply moved by meetings with relatives of victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and by crowds lining the streets, he declared, “The Lebanese people were waiting for a word and a presence of consolation, but it was they who comforted me with their faith and their enthusiasm!”
Concluding his travel reflections, Pope Leo XIV stressed a lesson for the entire world: “All that has happened in these recent days in Türkiye and Lebanon teaches us that peace is possible, and that Christians in dialogue with men and women of other faiths and cultures can contribute to building it up. Let us not forget that peace is possible!”
The Pope also expressed solidarity with the peoples of South and Southeast Asia recently struck by devastating natural disasters, praying for victims and urging international support.
Before imparting his apostolic blessing, he warmly greeted pilgrims from Peru, Poland, Portugal, and numerous Italian parishes and youth groups, wishing all a blessed Advent journey.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican.va
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