The following is the full text of the address to a delegation of Peruvian youth participating in the Jubilee of Youth given by Pope Leo XIV July 28, 2025, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you.
Thank you very much. Happy national holidays to all Peruvians!
Dear young people,
I welcome you to this house of Peter, where you come as pilgrims of hope – all of you are pilgrims of hope – and you come to meet thousands of other young people, to celebrate the Jubilee together. Seeing you, I also think of your families and of the many people in your parish communities who have surely helped you, with great sacrifice and work, to make this long-awaited journey possible. I greet you all with gratitude and joy.
On the eve of this important event for young people around the world, the Gospel of today’s Mass sheds special light on us. These are two parables that help us in our Christian journey: the first speaks of a small mustard seed, and the next of a bit of yeast (cf. Matthew 13:31-35). As we see, these are two elements that we would call almost insignificant; however, with the power of life they carry within them, they can be transformed, grow, and serve the purpose for which they were created.
We too are small, but we are not alone; the Lord has chosen for us to be part of a great family, the family of the Church. Incorporated into it in Christ, like clusters of grapes into the vine, we can grow and bear fruit, aided by the Lord’s grace. Saint Augustine speaks of these two parables in his commentary on one of the psalms, Psalm 68, and he also expresses the power of small things, which, when they grow, take root in a people, the People of God who extend throughout the earth (cf. Commentary on Psalm 68, I, 1).
In these joyful days of the Jubilee for Young People, all of you will have the beautiful experience of feeling part of the People of God, part of the universal Church, which embraces and encompasses the whole earth, without distinction of race, language, or nation; spreading like the mustard bush and fermenting like yeast.
Dear young people, I hope that you will always keep everything you experience during these days in your hearts, but don’t keep it just for yourselves. This is very important: what you are going to experience here, don’t keep it just for yourself. We must learn to share. Please, may all this not remain just a memory, just some pretty photos, just something of the past. I hope that when you return to Peru, you will fill those lands with the joy and strength of the Gospel, with the Good News of Jesus Christ. May all the people you meet see in you the face of Christ who loves and gives himself, who remains present in every baptized person. Therefore, love and serve freely, in everyday things, in small things, in hidden things, because you have experienced the joy of being loved first, and because you have received everything freely from our Father God.
The backpacks that will accompany you during these days, carrying only the essentials, are a sign of the mission the Pope entrusts to you today: be missionaries wherever you go, be a transparency of the Lord’s presence, as our beloved Peruvian saints were. You know that Pope Francis always spoke of Peru as a “holy land,” so many saints, but not only of the past, saints also of today and tomorrow.
May God bless you and may Our Lady of Evangelization protect you always. Thank you.
(Blessing)
Long live Christ!
