Several highlights stood out to me during the Holy Thursday Mass with Pope Leo XIV (4/2/2026). First, he continues to challenge many entrenched practices in our Christian lives that do not foster genuine fraternal harmony. He has spoken of true love as something not to be guarded or controlled, but as something to be open and given freely, an insight that resonates with what I encountered in my exploration of mental health counseling at the Townsend Institute, Irvine, particularly the dynamics of attachment, separation, integration, and personal responsibility (adulthood).
During the Holy Mass, Pope Leo XIV was direct and unambiguous about our shared responsibility to dismantle the barriers that divide us. He reminded us, especially priests, that God calls us to be ministers serving a missionary people, not gatekeepers of grace.
This mandate from the Holy Father presses me to examine myself more critically, even in the subtle “vibes” of everyday interactions that can create unequal ground between myself and others. I find myself asking difficult but necessary questions: Do I ever treat another person’s struggle as something to entertain myself, or worse, make light of their vulnerability? One of my strongest takeaways from that Holy Thursday celebration is the renewed conviction that we are all missionaries of hope and ambassadors of God’s grace. As God’s hands, arms, and feet, our vocation is to lift others, not to push them further into the margins or the dregs of despair.
As we reflect on the Pope’s counsel, we must hold onto this truth: wherever we find ourselves in the human story, neglected or supported, struggling or helping, healing or harming, God sees us. And perhaps this is the moment to take honest stock of our lives, to recalibrate our posture, and to return to a path that reflects the dignity and hope that God invites us to embody.
