Ashley Noronha joined John Morales on Morning Air to share highlights from Pope Leo XIV’s Wednesday general audience from September 17. The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis to the theme of hope, looking particularly at the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ lay in the tomb.
Pope Leo explained that the absence of Christ on Holy Saturday is not meant to leave the faithful with despair, but with expectation. It is not an emptiness, but what he called a restrained fullness. In his teaching, the silence of that day can be likened to the silence of a child in the womb, hidden yet already alive. It is a silence filled with life, waiting to be revealed.
The Pope drew attention to the setting of Christ’s burial. Jesus was placed in a tomb located in a garden. This is no mere detail, he said, but a reminder of the Garden of Eden where humanity first fell. In Eden, man turned away from God and lost communion with Him. In the garden of the Resurrection, however, that separation is healed. Through Christ, the new Adam, God and man are reconciled. The Pope emphasized that what was lost in one garden was restored in another, reminding Christians that the history of salvation is woven with divine intention.
Pope Leo also spoke about how Holy Saturday offers a lesson in waiting. Modern life, he observed, is often marked by restlessness and busyness. Yet this holy day calls us to pause. Waiting is not wasted time when it is given to God. In those moments of stillness, he said, we often discover the greatness of God most clearly. Just as the disciples could not yet see what God was preparing on that silent day, so too we must learn to trust that even in silence, the Lord is at work. It was in the stillness of Holy Saturday that God readied the greatest surprise of all: the Resurrection.
The Pope’s reflections reached beyond spiritual meditation as well. Over the weekend, Pope Leo met with Brian Burch, the American ambassador to the Holy See and former president of CatholicVote.org. Their conversation addressed pressing global concerns, including the wars affecting many regions, Vatican relations with China, and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
The Holy Father also offered words of compassion regarding the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk. He expressed deep sorrow, assuring prayers for the repose of Kirk’s soul, for his wife Erika, and for their two young children. In this moment of tragedy, Pope Leo underlined the Church’s call to entrust the suffering to God’s mercy, holding fast to the hope that death never has the last word.
Pope Leo’s catechesis and his pastoral outreach both return to the same theme: hope that endures through silence, grief, and uncertainty, because Christ has conquered death.