‘Jesus calls us to give a personal response,’ Pope tells pilgrims
August 24, 2026
Reflecting on the Gospel reading of the day (Matthew 16:13-20), Pope Leo XIV encouraged pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address (video) to ponder Christ’s question, “Who do you say that I am?”
“Brothers and sisters, this is a fundamental question for the disciples of every age, and for each one of us,” Pope Leo said. “Faith is not something given to us once and for all. Rather, we continually need to rediscover the face of Christ and his Gospel, to enter more deeply into his message and to renew the choices we make in our lives, so that they may be consistent with what we profess.”
“The question that is put to us each day—who is Jesus for me, and what does his presence mean in my life?—emerges especially in prayer and when we meditate on the Gospel,” the Pope continued. “Yet it also arises when we encounter the wounds and needs of our brothers and sisters, and in those relationships and situations that most deeply challenge our conscience. In our daily lives, in short, we can discover whether the Lord Jesus is for us merely a great figure of history, who said and did important things, or the Christ of God, the One sent to bring us into the love of the Father and to transform our lives and the world in which we live.”
The Pope added:
At times, when it comes to the Christian faith, we may be content with what we have merely “heard,” with common assumptions or with what has been handed down to us, perhaps even with the best of intentions. Yet Jesus calls us to give a personal response, to know him more closely and to allow ourselves to be shaped by friendship with him through an ever new encounter. This may also ask us to follow unfamiliar paths and to make choices different from those we had imagined.
“Let us invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary, who sought the will of God in her heart through her Son, that she may always guide us along the path of faith,” the Pontiff concluded.
The Pope then recited, in Latin, the Angelus, the Minor Doxology (three times), and the prayer for the faithful departed, before imparting his blessing.
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