Detroit Catholic · https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/pope-leos-corpus-christi-mass-and-procession-in-madrid-draws-1-2-million
On June 6, at a vigil in Madrid, Pope Leo XIV gave 500,000 young people a single assignment: be human, as Christ is.
Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus… he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
Philippians 2:5-8
On June 6, half a million young people filled Plaza de Lima in Madrid for an evening vigil. The stage was arranged like a living room. Pope Leo XIV sat and talked with them, and handed them one assignment. "The mission I entrust to you is precisely this: that you be human." Then came the line that turns it. "Be human as Christ is."
That second line matters. The culture these young people grew up in treats being an ordinary person as a problem to fix. Build a brand. Curate the photos. Become something sharper and more impressive than plain flesh and blood. Leo pointed the other way. The assignment is to become fully human, and Christ shows what a full human looks like.
What did that humanity look like up close? He got tired and sat down by a well. He wept at a friend's grave. He cooked breakfast for the men who had run from him. None of it was performance, and none of it was a brand.
Paul once put that fullness into words. Christ did not grasp at being more than human. He went the other direction, downward, into the form of a servant.