Called to sing a new song

Peace be with you all! Dearest brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for the flock of God... This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a disarmed peace and a disarming, humble and persevering peace. It comes from God, God who loves us all unconditionally... God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! We are all in God’s hands.

Peace, and the unconditional love of God: these were the first words spoken to our world by the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, three evenings ago. Peace, which our broken, belligerent, noisy world so desperately needs... And love; the endless, unlimited love and compassion of God in the Heart of Jesus, for each one of us and for all humanity. And from this peace and this love flowed the rest of Pope Leo's short address, with its calls to walk together, and to be missionaries, bringing Christ's love and peace to wherever and whoever most needs them.

And thus our 2025 chimney watching came to a hope-filled, joy-filled end. 

Our new Pope has spoken other words since then, including an explanation of his choice of name, gladdening the heart of this Catholic Social Teaching Lead for Caritas Westminster. But then on Friday, I read the opening words of his first homily - I will sing a new song to the Lord, because he has done marvels... hard on the heels of a well-timed blog by one of my friends at Turvey Abbey written the day before, in which she began by quoting St Augustine: We are told to sing to the Lord a new song. A song is a thing of joy and, if we think carefully about it, a thing of love. So those who have learned to love a new life have learned to sing a new song. 

And isn't that what lies at the heart of discerning and discovering and embracing God's vocation for each one of us? Discovering the song of love - God's love - and of joy, written and already being sung in our deepest being since our first moment: a song which is ancient, but also ever new, because it is ever-renewed and refreshed, as we learn new words, add verses and harmonies; find others with whom to sing with even greater intensity and joy. This is the song we were each created to sing, with all our hearts, to the Lord: and sing it, especially, for the Lord, and to a bruised, aching, unstable and at times loveless world, which, to quote Pope Leo has been entrusted to us, a world in which, as Pope Francis taught us so many times, we are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ the Saviour.

As we come to the end of Vocations Sunday, let us continue to pray for all those who are seeking to discover whatever purpose and new song God has created them for... And may we all bear joyful witness to the God who loves us all unconditionally, and to the Risen Christ, whose greeting and desire is peace.