‘Choose life!’: Pope Leo reflects on Mary’s ‘Magnificat’ in homily for Solemnity of the Assumption

During Mass for the Solemnity of the Assumption, Pope Leo XIV gave a stirring homily calling for the faithful to reject “voices of death” and instead choose life, as the Blessed Virgin Mary did. 

“In our day, we are like Mary whenever we do not flee, whenever we make Jesus’ ‘yes’ our own,” Pope Leo said. “That ‘yes’ still lives and resists death in the martyrs of our time, in witnesses of faith and justice, of gentleness and peace. Thus this day of joy becomes also a day that calls us to choose — how and for whom we shall live.”

The liturgy for this high feast day includes the Scripture passage about when Mary prays her “Magnificat,” which the Church continues to pray daily even now, Pope Leo noted. 

“Every human story, even that of the Mother of God, is brief on this earth and comes to an end,” he said. “Yet nothing is lost. When a life ends, its uniqueness shines even more clearly. The Magnificat, which the Gospel places on the lips of the young Mary, now radiates the light of all her days.”

He added that the Magnificat strengthens those who it mentions: “the humble, the hungry, the faithful servants of God.” Such people are living out the Beatitudes — being poor in spirit, meek, peacemakers, and pure in heart — and are able to see the promises of God being fulfilled, Pope Leo said. He added that when “we confront evil with good and death with life, we see that nothing is impossible with God.”

However, he warned, this faith could be at risk by worldly things. 

“Sometimes, unfortunately, where human self-reliance prevails, where material comfort and a certain complacency dull the conscience, this faith can grow old,” he said. “Then death enters in the form of resignation and complaint, of nostalgia and fear. Instead of letting the old world pass away, one clings to it still, seeking the help of the rich and powerful, which often comes with contempt for the poor and lowly.”

“The Church, however, lives in her fragile members, and she is renewed by their Magnificat,” he said. “Even in our own day, the poor and persecuted Christian communities, the witnesses of tenderness and forgiveness in places of conflict, and the peacemakers and bridge-builders in a broken world, are the joy of the Church.”

Noting that such people are “the first fruits of the Kingdom to come” and that many of them are women, like Elizabeth and Mary in the Visitation, he encouraged the faithful to be converted upon seeing their witness. 

“Brothers and sisters, when in this life we ‘choose life,’” he said, quoting Deuteronomy 30:19, “we are right to see in Mary, assumed into heaven, our own destiny. She is given to us as the sign that the Resurrection of Jesus was no isolated event, no mere exception.”

“In Christ, we, too, can ‘swallow up death,’” he continued, referencing 1 Corinthians 15:54. “To be sure, it is God’s work, not ours. Yet Mary is that wondrous union of grace and freedom, which urges each of us to have trust, courage and participation in the life of God’s people.”

“‘He who is mighty has done great things for me’ (Lk 1:49): may each of us know this joy and proclaim it with a new song,” he concluded. “Let us not be afraid to choose life! It may seem risky and imprudent. Many voices whisper: ‘Why bother? Let it go. Think of your own interests.’ These are voices of death. But we are disciples of Christ. It is His love that drives us — soul and body — in our time. As individuals and as the Church, we no longer live for ourselves. This — and only this — spreads life and lets life prevail. Our victory over death begins here and now.”

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