THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL DECLARING THE FIRST WORLD DAY OF THE POOR

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14 Nov 2017  Tue
“Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18). 

Our Holy Father Pope Francis declared this 19 Nov Sunday as the First Day of the Poor. 

He said in his encyclical:
At the conclusion of the Jubilee of Mercy, I wanted to offer the Church a World Day of the Poor, so that throughout the world Christian communities can become an ever greater sign of Christ’s charity for the least and those most in need.  I invite the whole Church...to turn their gaze on this day to all those who stretch out their hands and plead for our help and solidarity.

He has some important messages for us, and I attempt to share my takeaways with you….
(Words in brown are extracted directly from the Pope’s encyclical.   The full encyclical can be found in the link at the bottom of this sharing.)

What this World Day of the Poor is to mean for us all…

This Day of the Poor is meant, above all, 
  • to encourage believers to react against a culture of discard and waste, 
  • to embrace the culture of encounter.  

At the same time, everyone is invited to 
  • openness and sharing with the poor 
  • through concrete signs of solidarity and fraternity.  

God created the heavens and the earth for all; yet sadly some have erected barriers, walls and fences, betraying the original gift meant for all humanity, with none excluded.


We truly encounter Christ through our brothers and sisters in need…

We may think of the poor simply as the beneficiaries of our occasional volunteer work, or of impromptu acts of generosity that appease our conscience. …but these acts 
  • make us sensitive to people’s needs and the injustices that are often their cause.  
  • lead to a true encounter with the poor and a sharing that becomes a way of life….

This way of life gives rise to joy and peace of soul...

If we truly wish to encounter Christ, we have to touch his body in the suffering bodies of the poor…The Body of Christ, broken in the sacred liturgy, can be seen, through charity and sharing, in the faces and persons of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.  

I ask the poor in our cities and our communities not to lose the sense of evangelical poverty that is part of their daily life.


What we are called to do….

We are called, then, 
  • to draw near to the poor, 
  • to encounter them, 
  • to meet their gaze, 
  • to embrace them and 
  • to let them feel the warmth of love that breaks through their solitude.  

Their outstretched hand is also an invitation for us
  • to step out of our certainties and comforts, 
  • and to acknowledge the value of poverty in itself.

We are also called to follow Jesus in His own poverty…It means 
  • walking behind him and beside him, 
  • a journey that leads to the beatitude of the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 5:3; Lk 6:20).  


We are all in poverty….what does poverty mean...

Poverty 
  • means having a humble heart that accepts our creaturely limitations and sinfulness 
  • is an interior attitude that avoids looking upon money, career and luxury as our goal in life and the condition for our happiness.  
  • creates the conditions for freely shouldering our personal and social responsibilities, despite our limitations, with trust in God’s closeness and the support of his grace.  
  • is the yardstick that allows us to judge how best to use material goods and to build relationships that are neither selfish nor possessive.



At the heart of this all is prayer…

The Pope also reminds us that at the heart of all the many concrete initiatives carried out on this day should always be prayer.

Let us not forget that the Our Father is the prayer of the poor.  Our asking for bread expresses our entrustment to God for our basic needs in life….

The Our Father is a prayer said in the plural: the bread for which we ask is “ours”, and that entails sharing, participation and joint responsibility.  

In this prayer, all of us recognize our need to overcome every form of selfishness, in order to enter into the joy of mutual acceptance.


The Pope encourages us all to make every effort to create moments of encounter and friendship, solidarity and concrete assistance, to invite the poor and volunteers to take part together in the Eucharist on this Sunday, in such a way that there be an even more authentic celebration of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, on the following Sunday.  

This new World Day, therefore, should
  • become a powerful appeal to our consciences as believers, 
  • allowing us to grow in the conviction that sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel.  
  • make us realise that the poor are not a problem:  they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practise in our lives the essence of the Gospel

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.


Lord to set our hearts on fire,  
led us to love back, 
despite our limitations and sins.   
Thiscan only happen 
If we welcome God’s grace, 
his merciful charity, 
as fully as possible into our hearts, 
so that our will and even our emotions 
aredrawn to love both God 
andour neighbour.  
May the mercy that wells up 
fromthe heart of the Trinity 
shape our lives 
and bring forth compassion 
and works of mercy 
for the benefit of our brothers and sisters in need.

Lord, have mercy on us in each of our own poverty.

(Prayer adapted from the words of the Pope…)


Link to the Holy Father’s encyclical declaring the first World Day of the Poor:
 

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