Pope Leo XIV at New Year's Vespers says "thank God for...the Jubilee" a Sign of Hope "despite everything, believe in a better tomorrow, because...the future is in the hands" of God
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SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
FIRST VESPERS AND TE DEUM IN THANKSGIVING FOR THE PAST YEAR
FULL TEXT HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday, December 31, 2025
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Dear brothers and sisters!
The liturgy of First Vespers of the Mother of God is singularly rich, deriving both from the dizzying mystery it celebrates and from its placement at the very end of the solar year. The antiphons of the psalms and of the Magnificat insist on the paradoxical event of a God born of a virgin, or, put the other way around, of the divine motherhood of Mary. And at the same time, this solemnity, which concludes the Octave of Christmas, covers the passage from one year to the next and extends over it the blessing of Him "who was, who is, and who is to come" ( Rev 1:8).
Moreover, today we celebrate it at the end of the Jubilee , in the heart of Rome, near the Tomb of Peter, and so the Te Deum that will soon resound in this Basilica will want to expand to give voice to all the hearts and faces that have passed beneath these vaults and through the streets of this city.
In the Bible reading we heard one of the apostle Paul's astonishing syntheses: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" ( Gal 4:4-5). This way of presenting the mystery of Christ brings to mind a plan , a grand plan for human history. A mysterious plan but with a clear center, like a high mountain illuminated by the sun in the midst of a dense forest: this center is the "fullness of time."
And this very word – “plan” – is echoed in the canticle of the Letter to the Ephesians: “His purpose, to unite all things in Christ, / things in heaven and things on earth. / In his good pleasure he had set it forth in Christ, / to bring it about in the fullness of time” ( Eph 1:9-10).
Sisters and brothers, in our time we feel the need for a wise, benevolent, and merciful plan. May it be a free and liberating plan, peaceful and faithful, like the one the Virgin Mary proclaimed in her song of praise: "His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation" ( Luke 1:50).
Other plans, however, today as yesterday, envelop the world. They are rather strategies aimed at conquering markets, territories, and spheres of influence. Armed strategies, cloaked in hypocritical speeches, ideological proclamations, and false religious motives.
But the Holy Mother of God, the smallest and the highest of creatures, sees things with the gaze of God: she sees that with the power of his arm the Most High scatters the plots of the proud, overthrows the mighty from their thrones and exalts the humble, fills the hands of the hungry with good things and empties those of the rich (cf. Luke 1:51-53).
The Mother of Jesus is the woman with whom God, in the fullness of time, wrote the Word that reveals the mystery. He did not impose it: he first proposed it to her heart and, having received her "yes," he wrote it with ineffable love in her flesh. Thus, God's hope was intertwined with the hope of Mary, a descendant of Abraham according to the flesh and above all according to faith.
God loves to hope through the hearts of the little ones, and he does so by involving them in his plan of salvation. The more beautiful the plan, the greater the hope. And indeed, the world continues like this, driven by the hope of so many simple people, unknown but not to God, who, despite everything, believe in a better tomorrow, because they know that the future is in the hands of the One who offers them the greatest hope.
One of these people was Simon, a fisherman from Galilee, whom Jesus called Peter. God the Father gave him such sincere and generous faith that the Lord was able to build his community upon it (cf. Mt 16:18). And we are still here today praying at his tomb, where pilgrims from all over the world come to renew their faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This has happened in a special way during the Holy Year that is about to conclude.
The Jubilee is a great sign of a new world, renewed and reconciled according to God's plan. And in this plan, Providence has reserved a special place for this city of Rome. Not for its glories, not for its power, but because here Peter and Paul and so many other martyrs shed their blood for Christ. This is why Rome is the city of the Jubilee.
What can we wish for Rome? To be worthy of its little ones. The children, the lonely and frail elderly, the families struggling to make ends meet, the men and women who have come from far away hoping for a dignified life.
Today, dearest ones, we thank God for the gift of the Jubilee , which was a great sign of his plan of hope for humanity and the world. And we thank all those who in the months and days of 2025 have worked to serve pilgrims and to make Rome more welcoming. This was, a year ago, the hope of beloved Pope Francis . I would like it to be so again, and I would say even more so after this time of grace. May this city, animated by Christian hope, be at the service of God's plan of love for the human family. May the intercession of the Holy Mother of God, Salus Populi Romani , obtain this for us .
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