A tiny Gospel, a new Pontiff, and a killer papal name!

The Leonine tradition is strong, like really strong.

Welcome back to another Friday post on In Defense of Theology.

I would be remiss if I mentioned nothing about the news of yesterday: Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam!

On Thursday, May 8th, Pope Leo XIV became the 267th pope and the successor of St. Peter.

Today, I would like first to reflect briefly on the Gospel, as that is what we do on Friday’s here, but then I would like to offer a few words about Apostolic Succession and the Regal name of Leo XIV.

The Gospel

We have a profoundly short Gospel this Sunday.

St. John’s Gospel on this 4th Sunday of Easter says:

Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”

In these four verses, Our Lord speaks profoundly of the posture of a disciple: one who knows the voice of the shepherd. It also reveals the nature of who Jesus is: He is the one who gives eternal life, He is the one who eternally receives from the Father, and He is the one who is eternally united with the Father.

In Hans Urs von Balthasar’s profound little book, A Theology of History, he speaks about this eternal receptivity of Jesus. Fr. von Balthasar writes that Our Lord’s “receptivity to everything that comes to him from the Father…” is “the very constitution of his being, by which it is perpetually open to receive his mission from the Father.”¹ From the eternal standpoint, the Son receives everything from the Father. His eternal posture is one of receptivity. In a sense, He has nothing without the Father; not in a way that somehow makes Him dependent—that would be a Christological heresy—but in the sense of WHO the Son is, is to be eternally receiving His sonship from His Father.

In the Incarnation, when the Son takes flesh and makes it His own, His mission, which He receives from His Father, is in perfect continuity and is not at odds with His Being. He is the Son, through and through. So, in John’s account, we see this harmony played out as Jesus says that “the Father and I are one.” In the Godhead, unity abounds. In His humanity, united hypostatically to the Son, Jesus’s mission is received from the Father and that mission is non other than to proclaim who He is.

Since the Father has given everything to the Son, both eternally and temporally—in His humanity—no one can take it from Him.

The posture of the disciple is to listen. One must first have an attuned ear, capable of hearing. Then, one must listen and recognize the voice of the shepherd. As Our Lord states: “I know them, and they follow me.”

Pope Leo XIV

I must say, I was shocked when I watched Cardinal Protodeacon Mamberti announced the now-former Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new Supreme Pontiff. I was then further astounded that he chose as his Papal name: Leo XIV.

While refraining from any speech about who Pope Leo is, or who he was, or what side of the proverbial “aisle” he sits on, I would like to speak briefly on the nature of Apostolic Succession and then on the name Leo (which, I must add, was actually my guess of the name the new Pope would choose!).

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Below you will find a discussion of:

• Apostolic succession

• The name Leo

• The importance of Pope St. Leo the Great

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Apostolic Succession

When Our Lord handed Peter the keys to the Kingdom, He did so because that was to ensure that the Church would continue in perpetuity until the Second Coming.