As we draw near to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church once again invites us to return to the heart of the Gospel: love. Not an abstract or sentimental love, but a love that stoops low, enters suffering, and takes flesh among the poor.
In his Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te (“I have loved you”), the Holy Father Leo XIV reminds all Christians that love for the poor is not an optional devotion or secondary concern; it is a direct response to the love with which Christ has first loved us. To love Christ is to love those with whom He chose to identify: the poor, the forgotten, the wounded, and the marginalized.
For us as the Community of Warrior Penitents, this call resonates deeply with our Rule of Life and our lived experience as veterans.
Christ Chose Poverty
The mystery of Christmas is not merely that God became man, but that God became poor.
Jesus was born not in a palace, but in a stable. He was laid not in fine linens, but in a manger. From His first breath, Christ aligned Himself with those who have little, those who depend entirely on the mercy of others.
In Dilexi Te, the Holy Father emphasizes that this was no accident of history. It was a deliberate revelation of God’s heart. Christ reveals that true strength is found in humility, and true glory is found in self-gift.
This truth echoes the life of St. Francis of Assisi, a soldier turned penitent, who recognized Christ most clearly in the poor and chose to live among them, not as a benefactor above them, but as a brother beside them.
Veterans and the Poor: A Shared Wound
Many veterans understand, perhaps more than most, what it means to be unseen, misunderstood, or forgotten. The transition from military life to civilian life often brings a loss of structure, identity, and community. In this sense, many veterans encounter a form of poverty. Whether that experiential poverty is material, relational, or spiritual, it is still experienced to the core of the veteran.
The Holy Father reminds us that the poor are not only those without money. Poverty includes loneliness, despair, addiction, displacement, and loss of meaning.
As Warrior Penitents, our own wounds become places of encounter. Having known hardship, we are uniquely positioned to recognize Christ in those who struggle. Our Rule of Life calls us not to retreat inward, but to allow our healing to become mission.
Active Contemplation: Love Made Visible
At the heart of our community is active contemplation, the union of prayer and action, where love for God flows naturally into love for neighbor.
Dilexi Te reinforces this truth: prayer that does not lead to mercy is incomplete, and service that is not rooted in prayer risks becoming empty activism. Christ calls us to both.
As Advent invites us into watchful waiting, we are challenged to ask:
Do our prayers open our hearts, or harden them?
Do we recognize Christ in the poor, or only in the sanctuary?
Are we willing to be inconvenienced by love?
To love the poor is not merely to give alms, but to give ourselves, our time, our presence, our attention, and our dignity.
Preparing a Place for Christ
As we prepare our homes, our liturgies, and our hearts for Christmas, the Holy Father urges us to remember that there is no room for Christ where there is no room for the poor.
The manger still stands before us as a question:
Will we make space?
For the Community of Warrior Penitents, this means recommitting ourselves to the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, comforting the sorrowful, and walking patiently with those who suffer.
It means living simply, giving generously, and loving concretely.
“I Have Loved You”
Dilexi Te is not first a command, it is a reminder.
“I have loved you.”
From that love flows everything else.
As we approach the birth of Jesus, may we allow His love to reorder our priorities, soften our hearts, and sharpen our readiness to serve. May we recognize Him not only in the manger, but in the faces of the poor He continues to love through us.
Come, Lord Jesus.
May You find room among us
In Christ and Prayer,
WP
The Community of Warrior Penitents 