Homily and Kerygma of Peace: The Relevance of the Paschal Mystery in the Face of War Rhetoric, in the Light of the Magisterium of Leo XIV

Abstract

This article proposes an understanding of the homily as a paschal language of peace in the face of the capture of religious speech by discourses of war, fear, and hostility. In light of the initial magisterium of Leo XIV, especially his formulation of Christ's peace as “unarmed” and “disarming,” the article argues that peace is not a peripheral theme of Christian preaching, but a constitutive dimension of the paschal kerygma. The study adopts a liturgical-theological and homiletic perspective, bringing together the Homiletic Directory, the conciliar renewal of the liturgy, contemporary reflection on preaching and the theology of moral conscience. First, it analyzes the crisis of religious language when it is distorted into a language of enmity and legitimation of violence. It then grounds the homily as an integral part of the liturgy and as an actualization of the Word within the horizon of the paschal mystery. Finally, it shows that the homily forms Christian conscience to discern hostile languages, leads to paschal practices of justice, reconciliation, and care for the wounded. The article concludes that the homily must be unarmed because it is born from Christ, and disarming because it forms disciples capable of witnessing to the reconciliation inaugurated by Easter.

Keywords: Homily. Kerygma. Peace. Paschal Mystery. Leo XIV.