Robert Francis Prevost: The 267th Roman Catholic Pope
Last Thursday, the Roman Catholic Church’s Conclave—a gathering of 135 cardinals at the Vatican—selected the Church’s 267th pope after only two days of deliberations. For the first time in the Church’s history, the pope is an American. He is from Chicago; he is 69 years old; he is a devout Chicago White Sox baseball fan; and his name is Robert Francis Prevost. His predecessor and friend, Pope Francis, had made him a cardinal in 2023. He had ministered in Peru for twenty years as a bishop.
After the white smoke poured forth from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney, signifying that Pope Francis’s successor had been chosen, former Cardinal Prevost appeared in the outside balcony to be received as the new pope by the thousands of joyous worshippers gathered below in Vatican Square. His first words were most significant, “Peace be with you.” How so? Pope Leo XIV surely chose these words to echo what the resurrected Jesus first said three times to his shocked disciples gathered together on both the first and second Easter evenings, “Peace be with you.”
Pope Leo XIV and Jesus Said: “Peace Be With You”
Jesus was crucified on Friday at about 9:00 AM (Mark 15.25). He died on the cross at about 3:00 PM that same day (Matthew 27.45-50; Mark 15.33-37). He was entombed before sundown that evening and thus before the Sabbath had begun (Mark 15.46-47—16.1). He arose from the dead at about sunrise on Sunday morning, thus the “third day” after his death. On that first Easter evening, many of Jesus’s disciples who had accompanied him on the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem to observe the Passover feast were now gathered together, probably in the Upper Room where the apostles had eaten the Last Supper with their Lord Jesus.
It is well known from the last chapter of the Gospel of John what the risen Jesus had said three times to the apostle Peter, who on Thursday evening had denied him three times, “Do you love me?” (John 21.15-17). But it is not so well known that the risen Jesus said three times to all of the gathered disciples on those first two Easter evenings, “Peace be with you” (Luke 24.36; John 20.21, 26).
Jesus Appeared to his Disciples the 1st & 2nd Easter Evenings
We read in the Gospel of John, in John 20.19-29 (NRSV), “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this he showed them his hands and his said. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’
“But Thomas (who was called the Twin), on of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to then, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
“A week alter his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my said. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.'”
Conclusion
I think it is most significant that the first words to the Church and the world by Pope Lew XIV were these that the risen Jesus first said to his gathered disciples. How so? It indicates that, as a former Augustinian bishop, this pope’s emphasis will be, as it should be, on the resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, of whom the apostle Paul wrote, “Christ is the head of the church” (Ephesians 5.23).
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