“Blessed are the hands open to welcome the poor and help them: they are hands that bring hope. Blessed are the hands that, spilling the oil of consolation over the wounds of the humanity, overcome the walls of culture, religion and nationality. Blessed are the hands open without asking anything in return, without «objections” or «conditions»: they are hands that bring God’s blessing upon their brothers ”. (Saint Paul VI; opening speech of the second session of the Second Vatican Council, on September 29, 1963).
At the end of the Jubilee of Mercy, in the year 2017, Pope Francis institutes, on the XXXIII Sunday of ordinary time, the World Day of the Poor, whose aim is that “the Christian communities throughout the world, become a more and better concrete sign of Christ’s love for the least ones and most needy ”.
Every year, on the World Day of the Poor, the Pope proposes a phrase of the Holy Scripture that enlightens and helps us to be compassionate before our brothers’ suffering. I like to highlight, here, some parts of the five messages.
On the First World Day, since the biblical text: «Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deeds and truth” (1Jn 3,18), he invites us to the coherence of life and insists that «Love has no alibi. Whenever we set out to love as Jesus loved, we have to take the Lord as our example; especially when it comes to loving the poor”.
It is very significant for us, the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters, that in several writings about the First World Day of the Poor, the Pope present Saint Francis of Assisi as a reference of love for the poor because of his coherence of life . On this occasion he says about him: “Because He kept his gaze fixed on Christ, Francis was able to see and serve Him in the poor” (cf. Test 1-3) and he puts into evidence that Francis of Assisi’s testimony is a proof of the transforming power of charity and of the Christian way of life.
Through the biblical text of the Second World Day «This poor man called, and the Lord heard him” (cf. Ps 34,7), the Pope emphasizes that God «listens», «responds» and «sets free” the poor. “God’s salvation is a hand held out to the poor, a hand that welcomes, protects and enables them to experience the friendship they need. From this concrete and tangible proximity, a genuine path of liberation emerges”. Through this message he also asks us a question: “What does the cry of the poor express, if not their suffering and their solitude, their disappointment and their hope? We can ask ourselves how their plea, which rises to the presence of God, can fail to reach our own ears, or leave us cold and indifferent”.
On the Third World Day he again takes up a psalm: «The hope of the poor shall not perish forever» (cf. Ps 9,19). The Pope, with realism and the prophetic spirit characterizing him, denounces the numerous forms of new slavery to which are subjected, today, millions of men, women, young people and children. Above all, he insists about people who must leave their homeland: “How can we overlook, too, the millions of immigrants who fall victim to any number of concealed interests, often exploited for political advantage, and are refused solidarity and equality? And all the homeless and ostracized persons who roam the streets of our cities?” He also makes reference to the stigmatization that, like a cross, in all times and places, the poor must carry over their lives: “Frequently judged parasites on society, the poor are not even forgiven their poverty. Judgment is always around the corner. They are not allowed to be timid or discouraged; they are seen as a threat or simply useless, simply because they are poor”. And again he places Jesus as a poor and with the poor: “Yet, faced with countless throngs of the poor, Jesus was not afraid to identify with each of them: “Whatever you did to one of the least of these my brethren, you did to me” (Mt 25,40). If we refuse to make this identification, we falsify the Gospel and water down God’s revelation”.
In the Fourth World Day , referring to the text: “Stretch forth your hand to the poor” (cf. Si 7,32), the Pope insists that “the Christian community is called to be involved in this kind of sharing and to recognize that it cannot be delegated to others. In order to help the poor, we ourselves need to live the experience of evangelical poverty. We cannot feel “alright” when any member of the human family is left behind and in the shadows. The silent cry of so many poor men, women and children should find the people of God at the forefront, always and everywhere, in efforts to give them a voice, to protect and support them in the face of hypocrisy and so many unfulfilled promises, and to invite them to share in the life of the community”. He also reminds to all the Christian people that “the great value of the common good is a vital commitment, expressed in the effort to ensure that no one whose human dignity is violated in its basic needs will be forgotten”.
This year, on the Fifth World Day, Pope Francis has chosen a controversial evangelical text: «The poor you will always have with you” (Mk 14:7). There are persons that, may be to elude their commitment to the poor and, what is more serious, to justify poverty, say: If Jesus said «You will always have the poor with you», and if it is a reality that they will always be with us, we should not worry about them … they will always be there and that is a reality that cannot be got over …
But Pope Francis contextualizes this text and helps us to understand better: “Jesus spoke these words at a meal in Bethany … As the Evangelist recounts, a woman came in with an alabaster flask full of precious ointment and poured it over Jesus’ head. This caused great amazement and gave rise to two different interpretations.
The first was indignation on the part of some of those present, including the disciples, who, considering the value of the ointment – about 300 denarii, equivalent to the annual salary of a worker – thought it should have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. In Saint John’s Gospel, Judas takes this position: “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? … It was no accident that this harsh criticism came from the mouth of the traitor: it shows those who do not respect the poor betray Jesus’ teaching and cannot be his disciples.
But Jesus said: “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mk 14:6)… Jesus was reminding them that he was the first poor, the poorest of the poor, because he was representing all of them. It was also for the sake of the poor, the lonely, the marginalized and the victims of discrimination, that the Son of God accepted the woman’s gesture. With a woman’s sensitivity, she alone understood what the Lord was thinking. That nameless woman, meant perhaps to represent all those women who down the centuries would be silenced and suffer violence, thus became the first of those women who were significantly present at the supreme moments of Christ’s life: his crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection. Women, so often discriminated against and excluded from positions of responsibility, are seen in the Gospels to play a leading role in the history of revelation.
This strong «empathy» between Jesus and the woman, and the way in which He interpreted his anointing that was in contrast with the scandalized vision of Judas and the others, opens a fruitful path of reflection about the inseparable bond existing among Jesus, the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel… I never tire of repeating, the poor are true evangelizers, for they were the first to be evangelized and called to share in the Lord’s joy and his kingdom (cf. Mt 5:3)”.
Sisters and brothers, as a Capuchin Tertiary Family, are we ready to accept the concrete and urgent call the Lord is making to us, through Pope Francis on the Fifth World Day of the Poor? Are we ready to respond to Him? “We cannot wait for the poor to knock on our door; we need urgently to reach them in their houses, in hospitals and nursing homes, on the streets and in the dark corners where they sometimes hide, in shelters and reception centers. It is important to understand how they feel, what they are experiencing and what their hearts desire”.
Sr. LILIA CELINA BARRERA RAMÍREZ, TC