The line being quoted the most from Pope Leo XIV’s Palm Sunday homily is the one about God not listening to the prayers of people who wage war because their hands are full of blood. He is actually quoting a line from the prophet Isaiah who, in his first chapter, is forcefully criticizing his own people in words much more pointed than Leo quoted in his homily. Isaiah is a priest and prophet in Jerusalem and his opening chapter describes his own people as a nation that has thoroughly abandoned God and is almost beyond redemption. The country is an untreated and infected wound “Just bruise and welt and oozing wound, not drained, or bandaged, or eased with salve” (Is 1: 6b) and is now a nation exposed and about to be laid waste by other nations. The prophet goes on in verses 11 through 15 to explain that even though the people are doing a whole lot of worship and prayer, God is most definitely not listening and even finds it loathsome. The media has focused on the Pope proclaiming that God rejects the prayers of those whose “hands are full of blood” (Is 1: 15b), but has not read on to see how one might wash their hands clean. The way a nation stained in blood can wash itself clean according to Isaiah is to “Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;  cease doing evil;learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.” (Is1: 16-17)