The great question for Leo XIV

Who is Jesus Christ?

"I think that the man who has not answered this question can be sure that he has not yet begun to live," says a spiritual author of the twentieth century. 

The apostles at Caesarea Philippi faced this question, and Leo XIV is facing it now. In his first Mass as Pope, that was the question that the Gospel put before the new Bishop of Rome, and with him, the whole Church. 

It is the question of all times. The one that beats, consciously or unconsciously, in the heart of every person. The great question that the Catholic Church, with its leader at the forefront, is called to answer not only with words and theory, but with life and witness. 

"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16). The answer of Peter, the first Pope, to the question of who Jesus is, "expresses in synthesis the patrimony that for two thousand years the Church, through apostolic succession, has guarded, deepened and transmitted," Leo XIV affirmed before the cardinals who elected him to succeed that apostle. 

That's where everything is at stake. It is our patrimony. On the answer we give to that question will depend the turning point of our life, as happened in the case of Peter. Now that Cardinal Prevost has received the highest possible mission, he faces the same challenge as always, but with the horizons of this second quarter of a century. It is he who must guide the whole Church so that she may continue to offer what Christ entrusts to her: safeguarding, deepening and transmitting the answer to the question of who Jesus is. 

These three verbs give a very clear idea of what the Pope is asking of all of us. CustodianIt means protecting and defending what has been given to us, on a par with what the martyrs, true witnesses of the answer to who Christ is, have done. 

DeepenBecause the question about Jesus is inexhaustible, and every Christian is called to face this question without fear, with all the strength of his heart. Otherwise, we have not begun to live. 

Finally, transmit. We live in a world that, according to Leo XIVSome see Jesus as someone "who is totally unimportant, at most a curious character, who can arouse astonishment with his unusual way of speaking and acting. Others see him simply as a good man and "so they follow him, at least as far as they can do so without too much risk and inconvenience. But they consider him only a man and, therefore, at the moment of danger, during the Passion, they too abandon him and leave, disillusioned". 

Ours is a thirsty world, and this thirst can only be quenched by the Name and the Face of Jesus, as Benedict XVI said 20 years ago. The thirst remains the same, perhaps even more voracious today, and for this reason the mission of transmission becomes more urgent every day. 

Although it may not be historically reliable, this anecdote may be illustrative. It is said that the curate of Ars, John Mary Vianney, the future saintly Curé of Ars, was criticized by his brother priests. The reason was that large numbers of people came to him for confession, which affected attendance in neighboring parishes. Vianney is said to have replied: "if you give them water, the sheep come". 

Water is Jesus Christ. Therefore, answering the question of who Jesus is is obviously also a necessity of mine, which led me to write a book which has as its title the question that Jesus asks Peter, Leo XIV, and each personWho do you say I am? This book is, more than anything else, an invitation, as I say in the introduction, to discover in the Gospel a treasure that is waiting for our longing to unearth it. Writing was a way for me to do this, and I hope it will help others to find their own way of immersing themselves in it. 

That is why the phrase of St. Augustine, the spiritual father of the new Pope, is so famous, because it expresses it in a masterly way: God made us for him, and we are restless until we rest in him. In short, I would say that I wrote this book of necessity. There is nothing that makes a person happier than needing Jesus. Because to need him is already to begin to seek him, and he who seeks him with sincerity always finds him, and he who finds him loves him. And he who loves him and lets himself be loved, finds happiness. 

He who truly finds it can say that he has begun to live.