Thousands of pilgrims crowded the streets surrounding Cibeles square from six in the morning. The Episcopal Conference reported that more than half a million people had registered to follow the Holy Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV on his second day in Spain and in commemoration of Corpus Christi, the day the Church celebrates the transubstantiation of the body of Christ. However, the attendance exceeded one million citizens -1.2 million, according to the organizers, 1.1, according to the Government Delegation-.
The official day began half an hour past nine in the morning, when the Pope arrived at the Palacio de Cibeles for the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, to present him with the city’s golden key. Leo XIV arrived in the popemobile and, like the previous night, unleashed euphoria among the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in communion.
An impressive stage located on the main facade of the Casa de Correos, headquarters of the Madrid City Council, welcomed the Holy Father and the concelebrating priests. On the altar, a four-meter-high cross and behind the Holy Father’s seat, a painting with a white dove evoking the Holy Spirit. To the right of Leo, the Virgin of Almudena on an altar of flowers. King Felipe and Queen Letizia, accompanied by their daughters, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, were placed to the left of Leo XIV, in a discreet background position. Queen Letizia used the privilege of white again, while her daughters abandoned the black required for the Royal Palace and the princess chose a blue dress, and the Infanta a green suit.
Minutes after ten in the morning, the Holy Mass began with the chords of the piece Pueblo de Reyes. Cardinal Cobo dedicated a few words of welcome to Leo XIV, who spoke for the first time for the penitential act. The moment of the Liturgy of the Word arrived, composed this Sunday of the book of Deuteronomy in the first reading; the responsorial psalm and one of Saint Paul’s letters to the Corinthians in the second reading. It concluded with the Gospel according to Saint John, read by a deacon, and the Holy Father spoke again to deliver an inspiring homily, with the transubstantiation of Christ at its center.
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The Pope reminded attendees that this Corpus Christi festival, so popular in Spain, “is not only about bringing out the monstrance, but about allowing ourselves to be drawn out of selfishness, indifference, a comfortable and private faith, to respond to his invitation to conversion, to change our perspective, to welcome his presence that transforms us and makes us builders of a new world”.
Furthermore, he dedicated “a commission for the Spain of today and tomorrow: that the religiosity that has animated this country for centuries not be a museum of the past to visit, but a school of faith from which to drink even today,” he invited attendees. With that idea, he insisted that this school of faith “teaches us to kneel before God and before our neighbor, because no one can kneel before the Lord and despise their brother; a school that teaches us the gratuitousness of love that becomes a gift, so that it circulates among us and breaks the chains of all selfishness; a school from which we learn that God is a real presence and that we too are called to be present in the situations and challenges of society, not to flee, but to personally commit ourselves to the construction of the common good“.
Leo XIV wanted to conclude his homily by encouraging people to approach God in a new way: “Let us return to Him with sincere love. Let us open ourselves to an encounter with Him, let Him hydrate the dryness of our hearts, so that we can then go out into the paths of life and history and bring among people this current of fresh water, a current of love, peace, justice, and joy.” He then drew applause from the crowd, breaking the solemnity of the moment.
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