Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

God Is Using the Weak To Shame the Strong

The Gospel doesn’t flatter tyrants or excuse cruelty. It names sin, restores shame, and sides with the innocent.

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Christopher Hale
Feb 01, 2026
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Dear friends —

Letters from Leo’s Sunday Reflection Series are essays grounded in the Mass readings — offering a clear-eyed way to follow Jesus amid today’s political realities, not by retreating from public life or baptizing any ideology, but by letting the Gospel shape our conscience, courage, and compassion.

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“God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong.” — (cf. Corinthians 1:27)

Today’s Readings

Some days it feels as though the Mass readings are written directly into the headlines of our lives. Today is one of those days.

Paul’s words are not poetic comfort. They are a judgment. God does not merely prefer the weak; God chooses them. Not as symbols. Not as metaphors. But as agents of revelation. In these days in this country, God is choosing the weak to shame the strong.

Consider the story of Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old boy caught in the machinery of President Trump and Vice President Vance’s godless immigration deportation raids. No power. No voice. No leverage.

And yet his suffering exposes everything. In him we see three things at once:

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