An urgent word from the Pope

In chapel last week, Campus Pastor Jen Shenk hosted a conversation among different Christian traditions, including non-denominational, Mennonite, Catholic and Presbyterian persons. A strong theme of agreement amongst the panelists was the Christian call to serve the poor. 

In the same week, Pope Leo XIV issued his first major writing to the global Catholic church, an Apostolic Exhortation – an urgent word of encouragement – on love for the poor, Dilexi Te. As a Mennonite, this theme caught my attention. 

Pope Leo has given me and all Christians a much-needed exhortation. With abundant references to the Gospels, he gets to his point clearly and quickly: 

 

“Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor. . . 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. In the poor, he continues to speak to us.” 

 

As economic disparities are rapidly widening and sometimes rationalized through logic claimed as Christian, he calls us to denounce the dictatorship of “an economy that kills.” He writes that we must question whether:

 

“a free market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty. . . . It is easy to perceive the worldliness behind these positions. . . .” 

 

As we at Goshen College and throughout higher education struggle to reconcile budgets with the financial needs of our students, Pope Leo affirms education as part of the church’s mission to the poor: 

 

“For the Christian faith, the education of the poor is not a favor but a duty.” And, “You cannot teach without loving.” 

 

And as immigration is creating violent conflicts here in other nations, he reminds us that: 

 

“The experience of migration accompanies the history of the people of God. . . . “The church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that the proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”

 

I read these words amidst the pain of learning that a fellow member of our campus congregation, College Mennonite Church (CMC), was arrested by ICE last week and transported to an immigration detention facility in Kentucky, far from his wife, who is pregnant, and their two young children. CMC and GC are deeply committed to creating closeness and welcome for the immigrants among us. The pain of violence against immigrant siblings and the separation of parents and children gives way to grief and anger – emotions that are familiar to Biblical people.

And so, may all of us who follow the way of Jesus be inspired by Pope Leo’s closing vision:

 

“Christian love breaks down every barrier, brings close those who were distant, unites strangers, and reconciles enemies. It spans chasms that are humanly impossible to bridge, and it penetrates to the most hidden crevices of society. By its very nature, Christian love is prophetic; it works miracles and knows no limits. It makes what was apparently impossible happen, Love is above all a way of looking at life and a way of living it. A church that sets no limits to love, that knows not enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the church that the world needs today. 

 

May we be such a church universal.

— Rebecca Stoltzfus