Talk About the Poor Not in the Abstract — Pope Francis

November 14 marks the fifth year of the observance of the World Day of the Poor by the Catholic Church established by Pope Francis beginning in 2017. Celebrated every 33rd Sunday of the Ordinary Time, the Holy Father had it established at the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2016. “A Church of the poor, for the poor” which has been a salient feature of his Pontificate, Pope Francis underscores the poor being a ‘sacrament of Christ; they represent his person and point to him’”.

“The poor you will always have with you” from the gospel of Mark (Mk 14:7) is this year’s verse in focus to which the Holy Father underlines Jesus’ teachings about the poor, that ‘poverty is not the result of fate but a concrete sign pointing to His presence among us, the face of God the Father whom He revealed, whom we see in the lives of the poor, in their sufferings and needs, often in the inhuman conditions where they are forced to live.’”

The call to conversion is also reiterated by the Holy Father, to open our hearts recognizing the different forms of poverty and manifest the Kingdom of God in our lifestyle consistent with the faith we profess. For too often, we are held back from true conversion; we are inclined to view the poor as persons apart, as a ‘category’ in need of charitable services, to talk about them in the abstract or as statistics, or in the documentary films we watch exposing their harsh realities as perpetrated by the culture of indifference. Pope Francis urges us to change this way of thinking and instead embrace the challenge of mutual sharing and involvement.

Pope Francis in his message also points out the severe consequences brought about by the pandemic which “multiplied the numbers of the poor: the pandemic which continues to affect millions of people especially those who are unemployed whose numbers include many fathers, mothers and young people.”

The pope continues to say with a challenge requiring a “different approach to poverty where governments and world institutions need to take up with a farsighted social model, one which generates development processes in which the abilities of all are valued, so that complementarity of skills and diversity of roles can lead to a common resource of mutual participation.” He cites the rich who in one sense have “some forms of poverty which might be relieved by the wealth of the poor” only when both ‘meet and get to know each other’! Referring to the poor, the Pope said that, “none are so poor that they cannot give something of themselves in mutual exchange; the poor may be people who lack some things, often many things, yet they do not lack everything for they retain the dignity of God’s children that nothing and no one can take away from them.”

In closing his message, the Holy Pontiff hopes that this year’s observance “will grow in our local Churches, and inspire a movement of evangelization that meets the poor personally wherever they may be. We cannot wait for them to knock on our door but to reach them in their homes, in hospitals and nursing homes, on the streets and in the dark corners where they sometimes hide, in shelters and reception centers. How evangelical it would be if we could say with all truth: we too are poor, because only this way will we truly be able to recognize them, to make them part of our lives and an instrument of our salvation.” (Cynthia Chu)