On Holy Thursday, the pontiff urged Catholics to imitate Christ’s service in a world marked by brutality.
Pope Leo XIV on Holy Thursday returned the Mass of the Lord’s Supper to the Basilica of St. John Lateran, reviving a papal practice last observed there in 2012 under Benedict XVI.
Departing from Pope Francis’ custom of celebrating the liturgy in prisons or migrant centers, Leo celebrated the rite in the cathedral of Rome and washed the feet of 12 priests of the Diocese of Rome.
In his homily, the pope framed the liturgy as the solemn entrance into the Easter Triduum and said Christ’s love, shown in both the Eucharist and the washing of the feet, reveals the justice of God in a world wounded by evil.
“This evening’s solemn liturgy marks our entry into the holy Triduum of the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection,” Leo said. “We cross this threshold not as mere spectators, nor out of habit, but as those personally invited by Jesus himself as guests at the Supper in which bread and wine become for us the sacrament of salvation.”
“His love becomes both gesture and nourishment for all, revealing the justice of God,” the pope said. “In this world, and particularly in those places where evil abounds, Jesus loves definitively — forever, and with his whole being.”
Reflecting on the washing of the feet, Leo said the gesture is not simply a moral lesson but a revelation of God’s own way of loving.
“What the Lord shows us — taking the water, the basin, and the towel — is far more than a moral example,” he said. “He entrusts to us his very way of life. The washing of the feet is a gesture that encapsulates the revelation of God.”
The pope also cited Benedict XVI, recalling that Christians must repeatedly learn that God’s greatness is unlike worldly greatness. “We too must ‘learn repeatedly that God’s greatness is different from our idea of greatness… because we systematically desire a God of success and not of the Passion,’” Leo said.
He warned that human beings are tempted to seek a God who grants success, victory, or usefulness like wealth and power rather than recognizing the divine power revealed in humble service.
“Yet we fail to perceive that God does indeed serve us through the gratuitous and humble gesture of washing feet,” Leo said. “This is the true omnipotence of God.”
The pope said Jesus’ action purifies both humanity’s false image of God and its false image of man.
“For we tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, great when we are feared,” he said. “In contrast, as true God and true man, Christ offers us the example of self-giving, service, and love.”
Leo stressed that Christ gave this example not in a moment of acclaim but “on the night he was betrayed, in the darkness of incomprehension and violence.”
“In this way, it becomes clear that the Lord’s love precedes our own goodness or purity; he loves us first, and in that love, he forgives and restores us,” the pope said.
Quoting St. John’s Gospel, Leo urged Christians to live out mutual service in imitation of Christ: “He does not ask us to repay him but to share his gift among ourselves: ‘You also ought to wash one another’s feet.’”
The pope also referred to Pope Francis’ 2013 Holy Thursday homily, noting that Christian service cannot be reduced to abstraction or empty obligation but must spring from charity.
Allowing oneself to be served by the Lord, Leo said, is a precondition for serving others. “By washing our bodies, Jesus purifies our souls,” he said. “In him, God has given us an example — not of how to dominate, but of how to liberate; not of how to destroy life, but of how to give it.”
In one of the homily’s strongest appeals, the pope turned to the suffering of those crushed by violence and oppression.
“As humanity is brought to its knees by so many acts of brutality, let us too kneel down as brothers and sisters alongside the oppressed,” he said.
Leo said the liturgy of Holy Thursday draws together the institution of the Eucharist and holy orders, revealing “the perfect self-gift of Jesus, the High Priest and living, eternal Eucharist.”
Addressing priests directly, he said: “Beloved brothers in the priesthood, we are called to serve the people of God with our whole lives.”
He concluded by inviting Catholics to spend time in Eucharistic adoration and to ask for the grace to imitate Christ’s love.
“Holy Thursday is therefore a day of fervent gratitude and authentic fraternity,” the pope said. “May this evening’s Eucharistic adoration, in every parish and community, be a time to contemplate Jesus’ gesture, kneeling as he did, and to ask for the strength to imitate his service with the same love.”
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
