…No sign of affection, even the smallest, will ever be forgotten – Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi Te
As Nigeria grapples with hardship, rising costs of living, unemployment, and insecurity, Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Dilexi Te (“I Have Loved You”) speaks persuasively to our lived reality. In its opening chapter, the Pope invites the faithful to rediscover the heart of Christian love — love that sees Christ in the poor, listens to their cry, and acts with compassion and justice.
Love and presence amid poverty
The Pope begins with the Gospel image of the woman who anointed Jesus with costly oil — a gesture he calls “love poured out upon love.” Her act, misunderstood by others as wasteful, becomes a timeless lesson on selfless love. For Nigerians, this resonates deeply. Despite scarcity, our culture is marked by generosity — the neighbour who shares garri, the parishioner who still gives at offertory, the widow who feeds others before herself. Pope Leo reminds us that God sees every small act of love, especially when it costs us something. “Her gesture was not wasteful; it was worship.”
Love for the Lord is love for the poor
In Dilexi Te, the Pope draws an unbroken link between love for God and love for the poor: “The poor you will always have with you… and I am with you always.” This message challenges Nigeria’s vibrant but sometimes surface-level religiosity. Faith that fills Churches but ignores the suffering of the poor is incomplete. Every Eucharist, the Pope insists, should strengthen our resolve to serve “the least of these.” True worship must overflow into service.
Saint Francis and the call to simplicity
Recalling Saint Francis of Assisi’s encounter with a leper, Pope Leo calls for conversion through encounter — to see and be seen by the poor. In Nigeria, this means recognizing Christ in those we easily overlook: the okada rider, the street hawker, the displaced family, the elderly mother left behind in the village. Compassion must move from pity to fraternity — from charity as event to love as lifestyle.
Hearing the cry of the poor
The Pope reminds us that when God heard Israel’s cry in Egypt, He sent Moses. Similarly, Nigerians must respond to the cry of today’s poor — the unemployed youth, the displaced farmer, the unpaid teacher. Prayer must lead to action: building just systems, demanding accountability, and fostering communities of care. “So come, I will send you” — God’s call to Moses is God’s call to us.
The many faces of poverty
The Pope widens our understanding of poverty to include not just material want but moral, cultural, and spiritual emptiness. In Nigeria, these faces are everywhere:
Material poverty — families skipping meals, artisans struggling to survive.
Social poverty — insecurity and corruption that crush the weak. Moral poverty — the “fast money” culture that mocks hard work.
Spiritual poverty — despair that dims the light of hope. Our response must combine charity (feeding, clothing, helping) and justice (fighting corruption, building fair systems).
The inequality challenge
The encyclical denounces the widening gulf between rich and poor — “a wealthy elite living in another world.” Nigerians know this all too well: luxury convoys passing beggars, politicians flying abroad for healthcare while local hospitals rot. The Pope calls “blind and cruel” any system that blames the poor for their poverty. His words rebuke our nation’s growing indifference — where suffering becomes social media content instead of a call to conscience.
A needed change of mentality
The Pope warns against the illusion of happiness built on wealth and comfort. In Nigeria, it is the obsession with “making it” and flaunting success. Yet, joy comes from communion — solidarity, service, and shared humanity. We must rediscover our communal ethos — the African ubuntu: “I am because we are.”
Women: Hidden heroes of poverty
Pope Leo’s words about women echo Nigeria’s reality. Market women, widows, displaced mothers — all embody resilience and generosity amid suffering. They are the “saints of the everyday,” bearing the weight of poverty with quiet dignity. Their witness challenges society to defend their dignity and empower their strength.
Beyond ideology: The gospel of mercy
Dilexi Te cautions against ideologies — capitalist or socialist — that distort our vision of the poor. The Gospel’s logic is different: mercy, not merit. In Nigeria, where the poor are often blamed for their misfortune, the Church must continue proclaiming Christ’s compassionate truth: that every person, regardless of wealth or status, bears the image of God.
Living Dilexi Te in Nigeria
To live Dilexi Te in Nigeria means:
•Seeing Christ in the poor;
•Translating worship into service;
•Resisting greed and indifference;
•Building compassionate, just communities.
Despite hardship, Nigerians still smile, share, and hope. The Pope reminds us that no act of love is ever wasted. Like the woman who anointed Christ, our love, too, can become an offering that changes the world. “You have but little power, yet I have loved you.”
God chooses the poor: A Nigerian reflection on Dilexi Te … God’s heart has a special place for the poor – Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi Te
A message for our times
Pope Leo XIV’s first Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te (“I Have Loved You”), arrives at a moment of deep social and moral testing for Nigeria. With growing poverty, unemployment, insecurity, and disillusionment, many Nigerians wonder where God is in their suffering. Chapter Two, “God Chooses the Poor,” offers an answer that is both consoling and challenging: God not only sees the poor — He chooses them. In this powerful reflection, the Pope reminds the Church that love for God cannot be separated from love for the poor, and that faith without compassion is hollow. In Nigeria’s struggling society, this is a wake-up call to rediscover what it means to be Christian — and to make the Church a true home for the broken, forgotten, and excluded.
God’s heart beats with mercy
Pope Leo XIV begins by revealing the nature of God’s love — merciful, compassionate, and descending. God’s plan of salvation, he writes, is not about domination but solidarity: “He became poor to share our poverty.” In Nigeria, where economic pressures crush ordinary families and where corruption widens the gap between rich and poor, this divine descent takes on flesh. Every hungry child, every unpaid worker, every displaced family in the North-East reminds us that God’s concern is not abstract. He takes sides — not out of favoritism, but out of love for justice. “God’s choice of the poor is not exclusionary — it is a demand for compassion.”
The poor messiah: God among the lowly
Jesus’ own life, the Pope notes, was marked by poverty from the start — born in a manger, raised by working-class parents, fleeing persecution, and dying as an outcast. His radical humility was not accidental but essential: the Gospel itself was born poor. In Nigeria, this image of the “poor Messiah” confronts a dangerous cultural trend — the prosperity gospel and the obsession with wealth as proof of God’s favor. Dilexi Te insists that Jesus’ poverty reveals the truth about God’s kingdom: it belongs first to those who have nothing to cling to but faith. “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Lk 6:20) This truth challenges the Nigerian Church to move beyond comfort zones — to stand with those who suffer, not just to preach to them.
Faith without mercy is dead
Drawing from Scripture, Pope Leo recalls that love for God is meaningless without love for neighbor. As St. John bluntly puts it: “Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” This teaching resonates deeply in Nigeria, where public religion is vibrant — churches filled, crusades broadcast, devotions flourishing — yet social injustice and indifference persist. The Pope’s words pierce through pious pretense: worship that ignores the poor is hypocrisy. True holiness, he writes, is measured not by titles or tithes, but by mercy — feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, caring for widows, defending the oppressed.
