Ashley Noronha joined John Morales on Morning Air to reflect on Pope Leo XIV’s Wednesday General Audience of November 20, where the Holy Father invited the faithful to contemplate the Resurrection of Christ in light of the trials that define contemporary life. Within this Jubilee of Hope, he urged the Church to approach the complexities of the modern world with eyes shaped by the victory of the Risen Lord.

The Pope explained that the challenges of our time inevitably prompt deep questions within the human heart. They are the same questions Christ offered to Mary Magdalene on that first Easter morning: Why do you weep? Whom do you seek? These questions continue to echo through the centuries, drawing believers back to the One who conquers death and restores hope.

In recalling the encounter outside the empty tomb, the Holy Father noted that Mary initially mistook the risen Christ for a gardener. While she soon recognized Him, the Pope reflected that her first impression carried a deeper truth. In the garden of the new creation, Christ truly is the Gardener, the One who tends the soil of the world and restores life where sorrow and loss once seemed dominant. The Gospel of John even points out that near the place of the Crucifixion there was a garden, reminding the Church that redemption unfolds in a place where new life can take root.

Pope Leo encouraged Christians to recognize the responsibility that comes with this garden imagery. If we do not become caretakers of the garden born from the Resurrection, we risk becoming its destroyers. The Christian who hopes in Christ lives within this sacred space, the garden where the Crucified One was placed like a seed prepared to rise and bear abundant fruit for the salvation of the world. To live in the hope of the Resurrection is to nurture life, to guard what is good, and to allow grace to flourish in a culture often marked by fear and confusion.

As he concluded his reflections, the Holy Father prayed that the Holy Spirit would form our hearts to listen attentively to those whose voices are easily overlooked. In doing so, he reminded the faithful that the fruits of the Resurrection must be shared, especially with the vulnerable and forgotten. True hope draws the Church outward, fostering compassion rooted in Christ’s triumph over death.

In a world burdened by uncertainty, the Holy Father calls believers to return again to the garden of the Resurrection, where Christ stands as the divine Gardener, restoring creation and planting seeds of hope that endure.