The “non-violent” power of Easter in Pope Leo’s appeals for peace
By Isabella H. de Carvalho and Edoardo Giribaldi
As violence and war plague countries across the world, and news headlines report increasing tensions and rising death tolls every day, Pope Leo XIV's incessant appeals for peace rang out during the liturgies and celebrations that marked Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, as he emphasized Christ’s Resurrection and triumph over death.
“Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of peace. A God who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” he said in his homily on Palm Sunday, which marked the beginning of the most important week of the year for Catholics.
From highlighting how God does not listen to the prayer of those who wage war and whose “hands are full of blood" on Palm Sunday; to carrying the weight of people’s suffering by carrying the cross during the Via Crucis at the Colosseum on Good Friday; to calling those who have weapons to lay them down during the Urbi et Orbi message; Pope Leo’s words were invariably addressed to those who have the power to put an end to conflicts, and his thoughts were with those who are suffering under the effects and threat of violence.
Those who take the sword will perish by sword
Holy Week opened with Pope Leo XIV presiding over the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square on March 29. Before him were 40,000 faithful and 120,000 olive branches, raised to symbolize that gentle peace of which Jesus, the King of peace, the Pope recalled, "offers himself to embrace humanity, even as others raise swords and clubs.
It is to them that the Pope addressed the same words spoken by Christ when one of his disciples, according to the Gospel, drew a weapon to defend him: “Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
Jesus “did not arm himself, or defend himself, or fight any war,” the Pope said. "Rather than saving Himself, He allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross, embracing every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history.”
Good cannot come from abuse of power
During the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo instead invoked a peace that touches every dimension of human existence, especially “in this dark hour of history” in a world “torn apart by the powers that ravage it.”
“Neither in the pastoral sphere nor in the social and political spheres can good come from abuse of power,” he said.
“The imperialist occupation of the world is thus disrupted from within; the violence that until now has been the law is unmasked,” he continued, adding that "the poor, imprisoned, rejected Messiah descends into the darkness of death, yet in so doing he brings a new creation to light.”
Christ gives us an example of self-giving, service and love
Then, during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, Pope Leo XIV washed the feet of young priests he himself had ordained almost a year earlier.
He explained how this gesture recalls God’s purificatory power, as he washes not only the blood of conflicts but also the distorted images they produce, such as “idolatry and blasphemy.” This act also purifies “our image of humanity,” the Pope insisted.
“For we tend to consider ourselves powerful when we dominate, victorious when we destroy our equals, and great when we are feared,” he emphasized. But, he continued, "in contrast, as true God and true man, Christ offers us the example of self-giving, service, and love.”
Following in Christ’s footsteps
The Pope’s appeals for peace throughout Holy Week pointed to the ongoing dichotomy between evil and love. Similarly, the meditations written by Father Francesco Patton, former Custos of the Holy Land, for the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, presided over by the Pope, echoed this same tension.
Father Patton retraced the path walked by Jesus among those who shared his faith and those “who deride or insult him,” while emphasizing that “such is the reality of our daily life.”
The Pope also recalled this same path traced by following in Jesus’ “footsteps,” while reciting the prayer Omnipotens composed by St. Francis of Assisi, together with about 30,000 faithful at the Colosseum on Good Friday night.
God does not want our death
Darkness—as a prelude to Easter morning—accompanied instead the vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica, which was filled with 6,000 people. God “does not desire our death,” Pope Leo underlined in the face of narratives of conflict that reduce victims to mere numbers.
“Man can kill the body, but the life of the God of love is eternal life, which transcends death and which no tomb can imprison,” he said.
Leo XIV urged the creation of a “new world of peace and unity,” starting from humanity’s failures, as he referred to the sea through which God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. An element that the Pope described as a “gateway to a new life of freedom,” but also “a place of death.”
Meanwhile, news articles reported on yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean as a boat departing from Libya was shipwrecked, and at least 70 people were killed or went missing. The survivors were taken to Lampedusa—an Italian island in the Mediterranean at the crossroads of migration routes—which the Pope will visit on July 4.
“The Lord is alive and remains with us”
On the morning of Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIV then celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Square under a clear sky and in the presence of 60,000 faithful. He emphasized how “death is always lurking”:
“We see it present in injustices, in partisan selfishness, in the oppression of the poor, in the lack of attention given to the most vulnerable. We see it in violence, in the wounds of the world, in the cry of pain that rises from every corner because of the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys.”
However, he reiterated how one can—and must—accept the Easter invitation to “lift our gaze (...) so that we may discover that Jesus’ tomb is empty, and therefore in every death we experience there is also room for new life to arise,” beyond tombs and suffering.
“The Lord is alive and remains with us,” he said. “Through the cracks of resurrection that open up in the darkness, he entrusts our hearts to the hope that sustains us: the power of death is not the final destiny of our lives.”
“The power with which Christ rose is entirely non-violent”
Lastly, in Pope Leo’s traditional Urbi et Orbi (‘To the City and the World’) message, he issued a final exhortation to not remain indifferent to what is occurring in the world:
“We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow. Indifferent to the economic and social consequences they produce, which we all feel.”
Instead, he pointed to how “the power with which Christ rose is entirely nonviolent,” and the battles of the world should be overcome with this example of Easter, through hands that embrace and that do not take up arms.
An appeal that also reverberated in the appeal Leo XIV addressed to Donald Trump and world leaders last Tuesday in Castel Gandolfo:
“Come back to the table, to dialogue. Let's look for solutions to problems; let's look for ways to reduce the amount of violence that we're promoting so that peace—especially at Easter—might reign in our hearts."
