Dilexi Te: Pope Leo XIV’s Exhortation on Love, Mercy, and the Church’s Heart for the Poor

October 26, 2025:

Every age receives a word from Heaven. For ours, Pope Leo XIV declares, that word is a whisper that thunders: “I have loved you” (Rev 3:9). These divine words ignite the opening lines of Dilexi Te, his first Apostolic Exhortation — a document that beats with the same merciful heart as his predecessor, Pope Francis, whose Dilexit Nos explored the love flowing from Christ’s wounded Heart.

Given on 4 October 2025, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, Dilexi Te continues that melody, transforming doctrine into song. It is both meditation and mission — a theology of tenderness and a manifesto of mercy. Pope Leo XIV calls the world to recognise that to love Christ is to love the poor, for in every broken life shines the face of the Crucified. The Exhortation unfolds like a pilgrimage — from Bethlehem’s manger to the alleys of our cities, from the ancient Scriptures to the silent tears of the forgotten — in five luminous chapters.

Chapter One: A Few Essential Words

In a world obsessed with measuring worth, the Pope begins with a forgotten gesture — the woman who anointed Jesus with costly perfume (Mk 14:3–9). Her act, he writes, “was small, yet eternal” (DT §4). Love is never wasted; tenderness is never lost.

This opening chapter binds two flames into one: love for the Lord and love for the poor. Jesus’ words — “You will always have the poor with you” (Mt 26:11) and “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20) — reveal a sacred inseparability. Saint Francis of Assisi, the rich young man turned beggar of love, stands as the model of this truth. His kiss of the leper became his doorway to paradise. Pope Leo XIV invites all to recover that same “holy madness of mercy,” reminding the faithful that “No sign of affection, even the smallest, will ever be forgotten by God” (DT §5).

Chapter Two: God Chooses the Poor

Here, the Exhortation turns deeply theological and radiant. The Pope teaches that God’s preference for the poor “is not an ideology but a revelation: the Eternal descends into poverty” (DT §12). In Christ, the Infinite becomes infant; the Creator stoops to cradle the creature.

From Exodus to Calvary, Scripture reveals a God who hears the cry of the oppressed (Ex 3:7–8). Jesus, “the poor Messiah,” possesses nothing but His Father’s love and the trust of the forsaken. His Beatitude — “Blessed are you who are poor” (Lk 6:20) — is not pity but promise.

The Pope insists that the Church must not merely speak about the poor but speak from within their poverty: “To serve them is to dwell in the house of mercy where God Himself abides” (DT §15).

Chapter Three: A Church for the Poor

Echoing Pope Francis’s dream — “How I wish for a Church that is poor and for the poor!” (Evangelii Gaudium §198) — Pope Leo XIV affirms that the Church’s true treasure “is not in chalices but in compassion” (DT §21).

When Saint Lawrence pointed to the poor and said, “These are the treasures of the Church,” he spoke literal truth. The Exhortation recalls the searing words of Saint John Chrysostom:

“Do you wish to honour the Body of Christ? Do not adorn it in church with silk while outside it is naked and cold.”

(Homily 50 on Matthew)

The Eucharist, the Pope writes, “demands hands that both adore and serve” (DT §23). Worship without mercy is a hollow hymn; mercy without worship is rootless activism. Together, they form the rhythm of holiness.

Chapter Four: The Poor and the Saints

Through this chapter march the saints — living icons of mercy. Saint Basil established the Basiliad in Caesarea (c. AD 369), the world’s first hospital. Saint Benedict welcomed the stranger “as Christ Himself” (Rule of St Benedict, Ch. 53). Saint Camillus de Lellis and Saint John of God tended the sick with what they called “a mother’s affection.”

Saint Clare of Assisi, mirror of Francis, clung to Christ as her “one inheritance.” The mendicant founders — Francis, Dominic, and their companions — became troubadours of Gospel freedom, singing of joy born from emptiness.

Education, too, became a form of charity: Saint Joseph Calasanz, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, and Saint John Bosco transformed classrooms into sanctuaries of dignity. “You cannot teach without loving,” Pope Leo XIV reminds educators (DT §32). Through their witness runs one melody: poverty as freedom, charity as justice, and education as redemption.

Chapter Five: A Call to Love, A Call to Hope

The final chapter rises like a hymn of hope. “If we ignore the cry of the poor,” the Pope warns, “we turn away from the very heart of the Gospel” (DT §38). But if we listen, the cry becomes a psalm and compassion becomes resurrection.

The Church, he says, must become “a field hospital, where every wound is kissed by mercy” (DT §40). In the trembling hands of a migrant, the weary heart of an elder, or the bedside of a dying child — Christ waits to be loved back. The poor evangelise us; they teach us the Gospel we claim to preach.

The Exhortation concludes not with policy but with poetry:

“To every poor one, He whispers: Dilexi te — I have loved you. And to every heart that dares to love them in return, He repeats the same eternal vow.” (DT §45)

Conclusion

Dilexi Te is more than an Apostolic Exhortation — it is a symphony of compassion, a bridge between theology and tears. It calls the Church to kneel not in defeat, but in service. It asks every believer to become a verse in the hymn of divine tenderness.

Its message is simple yet demanding: to be close to Christ, we must draw close to the poor; to touch His glory, we must touch their wounds. In this lies the renewal of the Church and the healing of the world.

Let the Church be the heart that never hardens, the hand that never hesitates, and the home where every poor soul finds rest. And may every Christian, hearing Christ whisper Dilexi te, answer with their life:

“Lord, I have loved You in them.”

Fr. Prem Prakash Cutinha CSsR

St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute, Bangalore

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