Pope Leo exercised his role as universal pastor of the Roman Catholic Church during his Angelus talk. In expressing his deep concern, he urged the US and Iran to return to diplomacy and to find a way to both peace and justice. In what was truly an expression of Christian charity and justice, Leo's heartfelt prayer and exhortation remind us of the witness Christians are called to bear as we take seriously that this is God's good creation, and, as essentially sacramental, it is shot through with the glory of God. At the same time, though the powers and principalities have been essentially defeated by Christ, the victory he achieved must still be internalized by each of us, and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, extended throughout our world so that God might be All in All.
In Christ, despite the suffering the US government's actions cause all of us in so many ways, in our deep compassion for the whole of God's creation, we must find ways to bring peace and justice throughout; we must find ways to love our world into wholeness. And that task just got immeasurably harder and more painful. Evenso, this newly-exploded situation is the cross we are specifically asked to pick up this Lent and beyond. What Pope Leo asked us all to do in his reference to diplomacy was what Matthew's Jesus referred to as being gentle as doves and clever as serpents in the name of the God whose creation this truly is. After all, negotiating this world with love, prudence, intelligence, faith, hope, and compassion so that God might truly be Emmanuel, is what it means to be Christ's own who are both within and yet not of this world.
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