“Let us build bridges where there are walls today,” is the umpteenth call for unity issued by Pope Leo XIV. The occasion was the resumption this morning, June 14, in St. Peter’s Basilica of the Jubilee audiences inaugurated by Pope Francis in January. Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Leo XIV focuses his catechesis on a particular aspect of the theological virtue of hope and on a spiritual figure who bore witness to it.

Let us continue, then, on the path we have undertaken, as pilgrims of hope!

The testimony of the apostles

The Pope enters the Vatican Basilica, greeting and blessing the faithful gathered along the sides of the central nave. Introducing his address, he points out that the hope that unites the faithful in St. Peter’s is the one “transmitted by the Apostles from the beginning.” “The Apostles saw in Jesus the union between earth and heaven: with their eyes, ears, and hands, they welcomed the Word of life. The Jubilee is an open door to this mystery. The Jubilee year connects God’s world more radically with our own.”

It invites us to take seriously what we pray every day: “As it is in heaven, so it is on earth.” This is our hope. This is the aspect we want to explore today: to hope is to connect.

The Gospel comes from outside

The spiritual figure chosen by the Pope is “one of the greatest Christian theologians,” Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon. Born in Asia Minor, he was educated in the school of those who had learned directly from the apostles. He later moved to Lyon, “where a community of Christians from his own land had formed.”

How good it is for us to remember this here in Rome, in Europe! The Gospel was brought to this continent from outside. And even today, migrant communities are presences that rekindle faith in the countries that welcome them. The Gospel comes from outside. Irenaeus connects East and West. This is already a sign of hope, because it reminds us how peoples continue to enrich each other.

Ideas can go crazy

There is also a gift, an even greater “treasure” that Irenaeus left us: the courage not to be defeated by the “doctrinal divisions” within the Christian community, nor by its “external persecutions.” In a world “in fragments,” this double threat was an incentive “to think better, paying ever more attention to Jesus,” Pope Leo recalls. The bishop’s message focused, in fact, on the “flesh” of Jesus, recognizing how in his person “what seems opposed to us is recomposed into unity.”

Jesus is not a wall that separates us, but a door that unites us. We must remain in him and distinguish reality from ideologies. Dear brothers and sisters, even today, ideas can run wild and words can kill.

Love is written in our flesh

The “flesh,” the body, is a trait common to all, a link both to the earth and to one’s neighbor. Jesus’ flesh, Leo XIV reiterates, must be “welcomed and contemplated,” listening to the “cry” of his neighbor’s flesh when it groans in pain, calling each person “by name.”

The commandment we have received from the beginning is to love one another. It is written in our flesh, before any law.

Intelligence connects

The fundamental message of Irenaeus, “master of unity,” therefore teaches “not to oppose, but to connect.”

Intelligence is not found where it separates, but where it connects. Distinguishing is useful, but never dividing. Jesus is eternal life among us: He unites opposites and makes communion possible.

Rebuilding bridges

As pilgrims of hope, Leo XIV invites each of us to “advance toward communion.” “Others will follow us,” the Pontiff concludes.

Like Irenaeus in Lyon in the second century, let us rebuild bridges where walls now stand in each of our cities. Let us open doors, connect worlds, and there will be hope.