Pope Leo XIV has presided over the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly at a Mass, challenging people to ground their love in Christ, which can bring peace to the world.

On June 1, St. Peter's Square was filled with families for the concluding Mass in honor of the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly, Vatican News reported.

Pope Leo presided over the celebration and, in his homily, he reflected on the family as a source of communion and faith.

""As soon as we were born, we needed others in order to live; left to ourselves, we would not have survived," said the pontiff.

"Someone else saved us by caring for us in body and spirit. All of us are alive today thanks to a relationship, a free and freeing relationship of human kindness and mutual care."

The Pope said that the Gospel passage for the day showed Jesus at the Last Supper praying that all "may be one," which he described as "the greatest good that we can desire."

This unity that Jesus prayed for is one that comes from the same love with which God created life and brought salvation into the world – "as such, it is firstly a gift that Jesus comes to bring."

In his homily, Pope Leo emphasized that marriage represents "not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful," The Catholic World Report said.

The pontiff cited Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, noting that conjugal love "makes you one flesh and enables you, in the image of God, to bestow the gift of life."

"God's love," said Pope Leo, "is an infinite love that knows no end. The love God has for each and every one of us is no less than the love He has for His son, Jesus."

'NONE OF US CHOSE TO BE BORN'

Reflecting on the gift of life, Leo called to mind the words of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who explained how we are all sons and daughters, "but none of us chose to be born."

However, this kindness is sometimes betrayed.

Yet, despite the evil that opposes life, Jesus does not stop praying for us and His prayer "makes fully meaningful our experience of love for one another as parents, grandparents, sons and daughters."

Pope Leo underscored that this is the message we are to share with the world.

We are here to be "'one' in our families and in those places where we live, work, and study."

But he clarified that being one does not mean being the same. While we are all different, he said, we are called to be one, always and in every situation and stage of life.

He reiterated that "marriage is not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful."

And this relationship, he urged, should be an example of integrity for children on how to act.

Pope Leo expressed particular joy at welcoming so many children to today's celebration, calling them sources of renewed hope.

He praised grandparents and elderly people as "genuine models of faith and inspiration for young generations."