By Elise Harris
Vatican City, Jun 14, 2018 / 05:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In
his message for this year's World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis challenged
Catholics on their attitude toward the impoverished, asking whether they really
listen to and love the needy, or engage in charity only to please
themselves.
“The condition of poverty cannot be expressed in a word, but
becomes a cry which crosses the heavens and reaches God. What does the cry of
the poor express if not their suffering and solitude, their delusion and hope?”
the pope said in his message.
“How it is that this cry, which rises to the presence of
God, is unable to penetrate our ears and leaves us indifferent and impassive?”
he asked, saying the World Day of the Poor is a call “to make a serious
examination of conscience in order to understand if we are really capable of
hearing them.”
Francis stressed the importance of being silent in order to
really listen to those in need, saying that speaking too much of oneself will
make a person deaf to the voice and the cry of the poor.
The pope expressed concern that at times initiatives aimed at
helping the poor, which in themselves are “meritorious and necessary,” are
carried out with an intention “more to please those who undertake them than to
really acknowledge the cry of the poor.”
“If this is the case, when the cry of the poor rings out our
reaction is incoherent and we are unable to empathize with their condition. We
are so entrapped in a culture which obliges us to look in the mirror and to
pamper ourselves that we believe that a gesture of altruism is sufficient
without compromising ourselves directly.”
Pope Francis' message, titled “This poor man cried and the
Lord heard him,” is based on Psalm 34 and was published June 14 in anticipation
of the second World Day of the Poor, which he instituted at the close of the
Jubilee of Mercy. The event now takes
place throughout the world on the 34th Sunday of ordinary time, which this year
falls on Nov. 18.
In his message, Pope Francis said that when it comes to
serving the poor, “the last thing we need is a battle for first place.”
Rather, one must humbly recognize that it is the Holy Spirit
who inspires people to be a concrete sign of God's closeness, since he is the
one who opens eyes and hearts to conversion.
The poor, he said, “have no need of protagonists, but of a
love which knows how to hide and forget the good which it has done.” The true
protagonists, he said, “are the Lord and the poor. He who desires to serve is
an instrument in God’s hands in order to make manifest His presence and
salvation.”
Pointing to St. Paul's affirmation in the First Letter to
the Corinthians that “the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,'
nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you,'” Francis said this
phrase goes not only for the different charisms of the Church, but it also goes
for the poor and vulnerable in society.
True disciples of Christ, then, must not harbor “sentiments
of contempt or pietism towards the poor,” but instead are called “to honor
them, giving them precedence, out of the conviction that they are a real
presence of Jesus in our midst.”
Francis also highlighted three verbs used by King David, the
author of psalm 34, which are “to cry,” “to answer” and “to free.”
Not only are Christians called to hear the cry of the poor,
but they must also answer, he said, noting that God's answer to the poor is
highlighted throughout salvation history.
“God’s answer to the poor is always an intervention of
salvation in order to heal the wounds of body and soul, restore justice and
assist in beginning anew to live life with dignity,” he said, adding that this
response is also an appeal for believers to do the same.
The World Day of the Poor is “a small answer” which the
entire Church gives to poor people throughout the world as a sign of solidarity
and shared concern, he said, and stressed the importance of having a personal
encounter with those in need.
“It is not delegated power of which the poor have need, but
the personal involvement of as many hear their cry,” he said, adding that “the
concern of believers in their regards cannot be limited to a kind of assistance
– as useful and as providential as this may be in the beginning – but requires
a loving attentiveness which honors the person as such and seeks out his best
interests.”
Pope Francis also spoke of the need to free the poor from
the causes of poverty, which are frequently rooted in “selfishness, pride,
greed and injustice.”
“These are evils as old as man himself, but also sins in which
the innocents are caught up, leading to consequences on the social level which
are dramatic,” he said.
To help migrants escape pride and injustice, then, means to
free them from “the snare of the fowler” and to “subtract them from the trap
hidden on their path, in order that they might proceed expeditiously and look
serenely upon life.”
Like the poor blind man Bartimaeus from Mark's Gospel who
was sitting on the side of the road begging when Jesus passed by, many poor
people today are also sitting by the road waiting for someone to come and
listen to their needs, Francis said.
“Unfortunately, often the opposite happens and the poor are
reached by voices rebuking them and telling them to shut up and to put up.”
These voices, the pope said, are “out of tune” and are
guided by “a phobia of the poor, considered not only as destitute, but also as
bearers of insecurity and instability, detached from the habits of daily life
and, consequently, to be rejected and kept afar.”
By distancing oneself from the poor, one also distances
oneself from God, he said, and urged greater solidarity on the part of
Catholics through initiatives such as sharing a meal with the poor and needy.
Pope Francis closed his message saying it is often the poor
who “undermine our indifference, which is the daughter of a vision of life
which is too imminent and bound up with the present.”
Only by becoming rich before God, putting material wealth in
secondary place, can a person truly grow in humanity and become capable of
sharing with others, he said, and urged both consecrated persons and laity to
“make tangible the Church’s response to the cry of the poor.”
“The poor evangelize us, helping us to discover every day
the beauty of the Gospel,” he said. “Let us not waste this opportunity for
grace.”
