Monday, December 1, 2025:  Leo asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest.


SUMMARY from NETWORK": A Reflection on Pope Leo's document "I Have Loved You (Dilexi Te)

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 excuseourselves from them. Early Christians understood this and regularly redistributed goods somas to care for all in their communities (32).

KEY QUOTATIONS

“Wanting to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, fraternity and solidarity, God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest.

"One cannot pray and offer sacrifice while oppressing the weakest and poorest.

“Our relationship with the Lord, expressed in worship, also aims to free us from the risk of living our relationships according to a logic of calculation and self-interest. We are instead open to the gratuitousness that surrounds those who love one another and, therefore, share everything in common.

“Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. - (James 5:3-5)(30)


REFLECTION

Working to transform the system that creates poverty is a way of participating in God’s lifegiving 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?

Hope

JoAnn sent me this link to a global celebration of the dance tune La Bamba. Here are the lyrics in English (which I've always wondered about). I wish us a little grace today.

Here's the link to the song: 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1487467842467787&extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing&mibextid=

[Chorus]

To dance The Bamba (La Bamba)

To dance The Bamba (La Bamba)

You need a little grace

A little grace

For me, for you, come on, and come on

Come on, and come on

For you, I'll be, for you, I'll be, for you, I'll be

[Verse]

I'm no sailor

I'm no sailor, I'm a captain

I'm a captain, I'm a captain

Bamba, bamba

Bamba, bamba

Bamba, bamba, bamba

[Chorus]

To dance The Bamba (La Bamba)

To dance The Bamba (La Bamba)

You need a little grace

A little grace

For me, for you, come on, and come on

[Chorus]

To dance The Bamba (La Bamba)

To dance The Bamba (La Bamba)

You need a little grace

A little grace

For me, for you, come on, and come on

Come on, and come on

For you, I'll be, for you, I'll be, for you, I'll be




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