White smoke billowed from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel chimney, signaling the election of a new pope. About an hour later, Cardinal Robert Prevost, an Augustinian friar and graduate of Villanova University and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, stepped onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica and greeted the world: “Peace be with you all.”
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Pennsylvania, the Rev. Bill Gabriel, O.S.A., head of Mission and Ministry at Malvern Prep, was accompanying a fellow friar to a medical appointment, watching the new pope’s first address stream across his phone when an unexpected email arrived. The subject line read: “Is this your boy?”
Preaching for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C, Bill finds resonance in his homily between the risen Christ’s parting words—“Peace be with you”—and Pope Leo XIV’s call for “an unarmed and disarming peace.” In his Urbi et Orbi blessing, Pope Leo quoted St. Augustine: “With you I am a Christian; for you I am a bishop”—which Bill explains is the conclusion of a deeper Augustinian confession: “What I am for you terrifies me; what I am with you comforts me.” Bill interprets this as the pope’s vulnerable and human plea to the church: “Pray for me. I don’t have it all together.”
To listen to Fr Bill Gabiel’s chat with the Preach Podcast from America Media, click here or listen below:
To read Fr Bill’s homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C, click here.
“Preach: The Catholic Homilies Podcast,” hosted by Ricardo da Silva, S.J., helps Christian preachers develop their craft and captivate their congregations in more effective ways.
With thanks to America, where this article originally appeared.
