In 2016, during the closing of the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis established the XXXIII Sunday of Ordinary Time of the Liturgy as the World Day of the Poor. This year it corresponds to Sunday, November 17.
With the World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis seeks to call the attention of believers and non-believers alike to the real drama that poverty implies every day in the lives of those who experience it. He does this through the message he shares year after year, but also through his constant messages, his catecheses and homilies, his encyclica letters and exhortations.
If there is one thing that has stood out in Francis’ papacy: it is a real and continuous concern for the poor, the marginalized, the excluded and his fight against the throwaway culture. Pope Francis is deeply saddened by the suffering of the poor, as we all should be. He points out the harshness of their lives, their fragility in the face of the lack of the most basic resources for living, and even points out a weakness in our own Church:
[…] the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care. The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith. Our preferential option for the poormust mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care. (Evangelii Gaudium, 200)
But if we understand the Church as a community of believers, then we must also understand that it is not only the task of priests and religious to care for the poor and watch over them, but everyone’s; every lay believer’s task. The problem, as His Holiness pointed out in his message last year, is that the poor often catch our attention for a moment, “yet when we encounter them in flesh and blood on our streets, we are annoyed and look the other way.” (World Day of the Poor 2023 Message, #4)
Just look around to see the face of poverty: people begging for a morsel of food or a few cents; people sleeping on the streets for want of a roof over their heads; hungry children attending school only to find their dining halls empty because resources have been allocated to other things; families unable to obtain medical care because they lack the resources to pay for it because their governments prefer to cut costs in the care of their citizens, while pardoning taxes for those who have the most.
When it comes to poverty we all fail in some way. We all somehow contribute to marginalization and exclusion, and it is a reality that runs through us, that reaches across our own families and extends to what the Pope often describes as the “Peripheries”.
It happens when we look the other way, when we ourselves fall to the demands of the market without it; without looking a little further and analyzing how even the development of new technologies, which we acquire at exorbitant prices, contributes to the creation of more poverty in other regions where people are exploited; where child labor and misery are the norm.
In his message this year, Pope Francis exhorts us to go beyond ourselves and to turn the preferential option for the poor into a pastoral mission. To welcome, care for, and nourish them, beyond what is currently being done. Because it should not only be the action of some pastoral or ecclesial groups destined to it, whose work he recognizes with admiration, but every Christian should be able to assume as his own the pain of the poor, understanding that Our Lord Jesus Christ was also born to a poor home; in a small and simple manger He showed us the most genuine humility when He became incarnate. Moreover, He sustained this humility throughout his life, watching over the poor, feeding their hearts and stomachs, restoring their health, and supporting them in their sorrows.
This is also what the life of the believer is about: to watch over others, to welcome them, to care for them. This is what the Church’s Option for the Poor is all about: welcoming their fragility, caring for them, praying with them, bringing them closer to the Father. Praying for them is also an action. Charity that “becomes an encounter and closeness” because “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). This is what Pope Francis asks of us; this is what Jesus asks of us: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).
In the perfect charity of God’s love, the poor have a privileged place. God is with them, watches over them, cares for them, and accompanies them. He recognizes their thirst for God in their humility. Pope Francis invites us to live in humility; to open our hearts to those in need and to understand that we are also in need of God. Only a humble soul can understand how much it needs God. In that understanding the poor have an entire theology to teach us.
The Year of Prayer is drawing to a close and the Pope asks us especially that our prayer for the poor be turned into action. May prayer be the support we need to work for the poor; that we may join apostolic movements that look after them, to create new plans of accompaniment, evangelization and assistance, to establish concrete aid initiatives. May we, as believers, see that our work for and with the poor is also work for God.
Material poverty is not only the result of lack of resources or economic problems of countries. It also arises from wars, forced migrations, broken families, and the market that creates more and more things for consumption every day, and that makes us believe that these things are the path to happiness when clearly this is not so.
In a world increasingly loaded with consumerism and waste, where Christian values seem to have fallen into disuse and where even many Christians fall into excess, the temptation to have, selfishness, and the throwaway culture, it is worthwhile to stop for a moment and think: How can I support those who live in poverty in my daily life? Understanding that we are all the Church, how do I live the Preferential Option for the Poor? What values do I teach my children? How do I act towards the brothers or sisters who suffer, who beg, who knock on the door and ask me for some food? Do I share what I have, what I have left over or what I need? Just like the widow in the Gospel of Mark 12:38-44, therein lies the difference.
We recently celebrated All Saints’ Day and on social networks there were many publications about the call to holiness that all believers have. Well, the path to holiness is a path of love, which implies charity, service, dedication and making faith come alive through deeds. May we learn to live this path, step by step, alongside our brothers and sisters who are most in need, following the best example, that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and understanding that, as His Holiness expresses, “the calling of every Christian is to become personally involved.” (World Day of the Poor Message 2023, #4)
