Pope Leo XIV in his own words
"One cannot pray and offer sacrifice while oppressing the weakest and poorest.”
SUMMARY
Drawing on Biblical stories and insights developed in the church in Latin America, Pope Leo illuminates God as liberator of the oppressed and denouncer of injustices that impoverish and exploit human beings. The pope highlights how Jesus of Nazareth himself lived in poverty and addressed his words of hope and liberation first to struggling people (17, 18, 19).
Pope Leo emphasizes that we cannot love God without loving our neighbors, and that that love requires concrete action to right wrongs (25, 26). He cites the Letter of James: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (29). These calls are clear, and we cannot use convoluted interpretations to excuse ourselves from them. Early Christians understood this and regularly redistributed goods so as to care for all in their communities (32).
Key Quotations
Reflection
Working to transform the system that creates poverty is a way of participating in God’s life-giving love. As Pope Leo makes clear, we love our neighbors by taking concrete action to promote the common good and to structure our society in a way that promotes thriving for all. God’s love became incarnate on Earth, in the person of Jesus Christ and in his radically compassionate witness against empire, elitism, and exclusion. When we advance policies that deliver health care, food, housing, welcome for immigrants, care for people in prisons, clean air and water, and more, we join in making God’s love incarnate.
Question
What does it mean to you that God is a “liberator” of the impoverished, oppressed, and excluded? What does that mean for how Christians are to live out our faith?