In his first Apostolic Exhortation, “Dilexi te” Pope Leo XIV sets out the foundations of Christian Revelation and of the tradition of the Church.
Already in the title, Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi te, reveals its close connection with Dilexit nos, the final encyclical of Francis, and represents, in a certain sense, its continuation. It is not a text about the Church’s social doctrine, nor does it analyze specific issues. Rather, it sets forth the very foundations of Revelation, highlighting the powerful bond between the love of Christ and His call for us to draw near to the poor.
The centrality of love for the poor is, in fact, at the very heart of the Gospel itself, and therefore cannot be dismissed as a “pet concern” of certain Popes or theological currents, nor be presented as a merely social or humanitarian consequence extrinsic to the Christian faith and its proclamation.
“Love for the Lord… is one with love for the poor,” writes Pope Leo. They are therefore inseparable: Jesus says, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me”. Hence, the Pope continues, “this is not a matter of mere human kindness but a revelation: contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history”.
The Pope observes that, sadly, even Christians risk “succumbing” to worldly attitudes, ideologies, and misleading political or economic approaches. The annoyance we sometimes hear when people refer to commitment to the poor — as if it were a distraction from love and worship directed toward God — reveals how timely this document is.
“The fact that some dismiss or ridicule charitable works, as if they were an obsession on the part of a few and not the burning heart of the Church’s mission,” Pope Leo says, “convinces me of the need to go back and re-read the Gospel, lest we risk replacing it with the wisdom of this world.”
Through biblical citations and the insights of the Fathers of the Church, we are thus reminded that love for the poor “is not optional but a requirement of true worship.” The words of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Augustine continue to enlighten the Church today: the former urges us to honor Jesus in the body of the poor, asking what sense there is in having altars filled with golden vessels while Christ lies exhausted from hunger just outside the church; the latter describes the poor as “the sacramental presence of the Lord,” seeing in the care for the poor tangible evidence of the sincerity of one’s faith: “Anyone who says they love God and has no compassion for the needy is lying.”
Because of this connection with the essence of the Christian message, the final part of Dilexi te contains a call addressed to every baptized person, urging each one to commit concretely to the defense and promotion of the weakest: “All the members of the People of God have a duty to make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve.”
It is a message with profound implications for both Church and society: the current economic-financial system and its “structures of sin” are not inevitable, and it is therefore possible to engage in imagining and building — “by the force of good” — a different and more just society, “by changing mindsets but also, with the help of science and technology, by developing effective policies for societal change.”
Dilexi te was originally begun by Francis. Pope Leo XIV — who, as a religious and later a missionary bishop, has shared so much of his life with the poor, allowing himself to be evangelized by them — has made it his own.
Source: Vaticannews.va
