This Pope Loves Peace

and maybe also read my book?

A friend texted me earlier today (he knows who he is) asking if Pope Leo XIV had read the early proofs of my new book, Finding Peace Here and Now: How Ignatian Spirituality Leads Us to Healing and Wholeness.

My response—because I’m kind of a jerk—was that I wish he had and that he’d post about it so we could sell more copies.

But man, oh man! It’s hard to contain my excitement about what our new pope is saying about peace! The very first moment of his papacy was literally a greeting of peace:

“It is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.”

Those four words, though: Unarmed. Disarming. Humble. Persevering. Let these words be our mantra for being peace in the world! We carry no weapons, inviting others to lay down their own arms, trusting in the God who loves both oppressed and oppressor. We do so pursuing that downward mobility of Christ, the Standard of Christ that St. Ignatius of Loyola calls us to, the one that celebrates humility, calling us into companionship and never one-upmanship. And we do so consistently; we never tire of calling for peace, of working for peace, of building bridges of peace because it’s only in a world built on sustainable peace that we all—every member of God’s beloved creation—can fully flourish.

Even in a world so ravaged by war, seemingly trapped in the mindset of violence and warmongering, Pope Leo challenges us to continue insisting on peace: “In today’s dramatic context of a third world war fought piecemeal,” he said on Sunday, echoing the words of Pope Francis, “I too appeal to the powerful of the world by repeating these ever-relevant words: never again war!”

Where do we begin? Today, Pope Leo addressed the media. He said this: “Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: we must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war.”

Peace is here, now, waiting! It’s in each of us! And we have the power to birth it more fully into our weary world. But it starts by how we treat ourselves, how we govern ourselves in our most intimate relationships, and then it all flows from there. Our small acts of peace are the sparks that can reorient the worldwide paradigm built on violence.

Here’s what I wrote in the introduction to Finding Peace Here and Now: “Peace is a challenge. It’s a reordering of things, a desire to better mirror God’s dream for our lives: a dream built on justice and compassion, one in which every aspect of creation can flourish. And so we pray for peace… We want to make ourselves available to being surprised by God, surprised by the Spirit breathing something new into our hearts and minds.”

I think we were all surprised last Thursday, May 8^th, when a Chicago native stepped out onto that balcony as Pope Leo XIV. Let us all lean into that surprise, into a disposition that allows surprise to blossom into curiosity and wonder and peace.