WORDS FROM FATHER YOHANES: Dilexi Te

By Father Yohanes Akoit

I Have Loved You," or Dilexi Te, is the title of the first Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Leo XIV, published on October 9, 2025. This declaration of love is drawn from The Book of Revelation 3:9. According to Pope Leo, the exhortation was originally be-gun by Pope Francis as a continuation of his earlier encyclical, Dilexit Nos. Pope Leo explained that in the last month of Pope Francis’ life, he was preparing this Apostolic Exhortation under the title Dilexi Te. Building on what Pope Francis had already started, Pope Leo embraced this declaration of love, adding his own reflections and making it his own.

One way to read and understand the content of this Apostolic Exhortation is through a grammatical lens. This approach offers a foundational insight into the richness of the document. Gram-matically, Dilexi Te, or I Have Loved You, is in the present perfect tense, which indicates that the act of love began in the past and continues into the present. In other words, this love is vi-brant, enduring, and everlasting. The grammatical meaning of the title - I Have Loved You, captures the central theme of Pope Leo’s Apostolic Exhortation. It proclaims that God's love for humanity, especially for the poor and those who cry out to Him, has no end.

Pope Leo reminds us once again that the Old Testament history of God’s preferential love for the poor finds its fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth. The revelation continues: the depositum fidei en-trusted by Jesus to the Apostles has been carried forward through the saints and, most recently, by the late Pope Francis. Now, through this Apostolic Exhortation - Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV affirms his mission to continue proclaiming this enduring declara-tion of God’s love for the poor.

Pope Leo encourages us to take part in the Church’s mission and become messengers of God’s love for the poor. He sincerely calls on us to keep alive the Church’s charism through various forms of service: caring for the sick, supporting the poor, ministering to those in prison, educating underserved communities, accompanying migrants, and more.

Every member of the Church has a duty to carry out these missions. Each of us must be aware and attentive to this calling, because poverty takes many forms: the poverty of those who lack material means of survival; the poverty of those who are socially marginalized and denied the opportunity to express their dignity and talents; moral and spiritual poverty; cultural poverty; and the poverty of those who are stripped of rights, space, and freedom. According to Pope Leo, all these types of poverty are a sickness that must be cured. There can be no delay or postponement. The more we delay, the more we risk falling into new crises, and the more this sickness will bring further suffering to our society.

Pope Leo suggests that in order to truly develop a sense of compassion for the poor, we must mingle with them. That connection will move our hearts and inspire acts of charity. The best example to learn from is the life of St. Francis of Assisi: Though he was once wealthy and self-confident, his direct contact with the poor transformed his entire life. He underwent a profound conversion and dedicated himself completely to serving the poor. So, Pope Leo invites us to follow this example - to allow our-selves to be close to the poor. Such encounters will teach us how best to serve them. And if we are able to help them (the poor), then they will come to realize that Jesus’ words are address personally to each of them; I Have Love You.

Father Yohanes Akoit is pastor of St. Julian and St. Anthony Catholic churches in Kentucky.