Dear brothers and sisters,

When Jesus Christ called his disciples, he almost invariably used the words “follow me”. In those few words we can find the deepest purpose of our lives, whether as seminarians, priests or members of consecrated life.

If we reread the Gospel texts about the calling, the first thing we notice is the Lord's absolute initiative. He calls them without any prior merit on their part (cf. Mt 9:9; Jn 1:43), seeing rather that the vocation to which he calls them is an opportunity to bring the Gospel message to sinners and the weak (cf. Mt 9:12-13). In this way, his disciples become instruments of God’s plan of salvation for all people (cf. Jn 1:48).

At the same time, the Gospel exhorts us to be aware of the commitment that responding to this vocation entails. It speaks to us of certain demands that we can identify in the frustrated call to the rich young man (Mt 19:21): the demand for the absolute primacy of God, the only good (v. 17); the requirement of the urgent need for theoretical and practical knowledge of the divine law (vv. 18-19); and the requirement of detachment from all human security, with the consequent offering of all that we are and all that we have (v. 21).

Saint Ambrose, in his exegesis of the surprising passage about the young man whom Jesus does not allow to bury his father (Lk 9:59), assumes that in this demand to leave everything behind—even things that are in themselves just – the Lord does not intend to evade natural duties, sanctioned by God's law, but rather to open our eyes to a new life. In this new life, nothing can take precedence over God, not even what we had previously known as good, and it implies the death of sin and the old worldly man. All this “so that we may be one with Almighty God and see his only begotten Son” (Treatise on the Gospel of Saint Luke, 40).

For Ambrose, this indispensable union with Jesus, far from separating us from our brothers and sisters, leads us back to communion with others. We do not walk alone; we are part of a community. We are not united by bonds of sympathy, shared interests or mutual convenience, but by belonging to the people whom the Lord redeemed at the price of his Blood (cf. 1 Pet 1:18-19). Our union tends towards an eschatological value that will be verified when we imitate “the unity of eternal peace with an unbreakable harmony of souls and in an endless alliance” and fulfil “what the Son of God promised us when he raised this prayer to his Father: ‘May they all be one, as we are one’ (Jn 17:21)” (Treatise on the Gospel of Saint Luke, 40).

Finally, in the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus repeats the words “Follow me” twice to the Apostle Peter. He does so in a very different context, the Resurrection, just after Peter's thrice-repeated confession of love in reparation for his sin. Even though he confessed his love, the Apostle did not fully understand the mystery of the cross, but the Lord already had in mind the sacrifice with which Peter would give glory to God and repeated to him: “Follow me” (Jn 21:19). When, throughout our lives, our vision becomes clouded, as it did for Peter in the middle of the night or during storms (Mt 14:25, 31), it will be the voice of Jesus that sustains us with loving patience.

The second time Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me”, he assures us that the Lord knows our frailty and that, often, it is not the cross that is imposed on us, but our own selfishness that becomes a stumbling block in our eagerness to follow him. The dialogue with the Apostle shows us how easily we judge our brother and even God, without docilely accepting his will in our lives. Here too, the Lord repeats to us, with constancy: “What is that to you? Follow me!” (Jn 21:22).

Brothers and sisters, since we live in a society of noise that distracts us, today more than ever we need servants and disciples who proclaim the absolute primacy of Christ and whose voice is clear in our ears and hearts. This theoretical and practical knowledge of divine law is achieved above all through reading the Holy Scriptures, meditating in the silence of deep prayer, reverently welcoming the voice of legitimate pastors, and attentively studying the many treasures of wisdom offered to us by the Church.

In the midst of joys and difficulties, our motto must be: if Christ went through this, it is also our duty to live what He lived. We must not be driven by applause because its echo is short-lived; nor is it healthy to dwell only on the memory of days of crisis or times of bitter disappointment. Let us rather see that all this is part of our formation and say: if God has willed it for me, I also will it (cf. Ps 40:8). The deep bond that unites us to Christ, whether as priests, consecrated persons or seminarians, is similar to what is said to Christian spouses on their wedding day: “in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth” (Ritual of Marriage, 66).

May the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, Mother of the true God through whom we live, teach us to respond with courage and to keep in our hearts the wonders that Christ has accomplished in us, so that we may go forth without delay to proclaim the joy of having found him, of being one in the One and living stones of a temple for his glory. May Mary Most Holy watch over your journey through Rome and intercede for you, so that everything you learn in Rome may be fruitful in your mission. God bless you.

Vatican, 9 December 2025. Memorial of Saint Juan Diego

LEO PP. XIV

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 12 December 2025