“I continue with deep concern what is happening in the Middle East and Iran, in these dramatic hours. **Stability and peace are not built with reciprocal threats, nor with weapons**, which sow destruction and death, but only through responsible dialogue.” Pope Leo XIV urged international diplomacy to end the violence in Iran, and also the mutual attacks between **Pakistan and Afghanistan**. “I call on leaders to the moral responsibility of stopping the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable vortex,” he proclaimed during the recitation of the Angelus this Sunday in St. Peter’s Square.
Before, during the prior reflection, Prevost welcomed the account of the Transfiguration, with Christ between Moses and Elijah. “The Word made flesh is found between the Law and the Prophecy; he is the living Wisdom, who fulfills every divine word,” explained Leo XIV, adding that “all that God has commanded and inspired in men finds in Jesus its full and definitive manifestation.”
Thus, Jesus “is not exhibited as a spectacle for the crowds, but as a solemn confidence” before the apostles Peter, James and John. “The Transfiguration anticipates the light of Easter, an event of death and resurrection, of darkness and new light that Christ radiates on all bodies scourged by violence, on bodies crucified by pain, on bodies abandoned in misery,” the Pope insisted.
And that’c because “while evil reduces our flesh to a commodity or an anonymous mass, precisely this same flesh shines with the glory of God,” so that Christ “transforms the wounds of history, illuminating our mind and our heart.” “His revelation is a surprise of salvation! Does it still attract us? Does the true face of God find in us a gaze of admiration and love?” he wondered.
“The Father responds to the desperation of atheism with the gift of the Son, the Savior; the Holy Spirit rescues us from agnostic loneliness by offering us an eternal communion of life and grace; facing our weak faith, there is the announcement of future resurrection. This is what the disciples had seen in the splendor of Christ, but time is needed to understand it,” he concluded. “Time of silence to listen to the Word, time of conversion to taste the company of the Lord.” Time of Lent, ultimately.
“Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I call on leaders to the moral responsibility of stopping the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable vortex,” he implored.
“May diplomacy find its role and the good of the people be promoted, who yearn for peaceful coexistence founded on justice,” he insisted. “We continue to pray for peace,” the pontiff exclaimed, who also underscored the “worrying news” about the clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Thus, he demanded “an immediate return to dialogue,” because “only peace can heal the wounds between peoples.”
Finally, he lamented the “serious floods” in Minas Gerais (Brazil), for the victims and for those committed to rescue operations, and greeted all the faithful present.
**Jesus Bastante**
Religion Digital
English version translated with AI