Poor

«The most serious poverty,» says Leo XIV in his message for the World Day of the Poor, "is not knowing God". This is a bombshell in the midst of a society that considers God as its archenemy and also erroneously believes that poverty can be fought with money.

God has been considered by some as the opium of the people, a childish fantasy that distances human beings from the struggle for justice, that alienates them from rebelling against the powerful, when the opposite is true. Faith, if it is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, enlightens men and women to make us aware of our own dignity and that of our brothers and sisters.

Believing in a common Father makes us brothers and sisters, makes us neighbors, predisposes us to the just distribution of wealth because we belong to the same family. There are Caritas, Manos Unidas and so many organizations born in the heart of the Catholic community leading, year after year, the fight against poverty. They do it with works known to all; but also with prophetic words, denouncing the unjust situation in which millions of our brothers and sisters live. And they do it, being consistent, from evangelical poverty, from simplicity, without the powerful means that other institutions have.

Meanwhile, ideologies and -economically doped by them- social agents engage in their own struggles with the poor as their banner. They all believe they have the solution to end poverty; some by raising taxes on the rich to distribute among the poor; others by promoting the generation of more wealth so that there is more to distribute to those who have less; but, in both cases, from the idolatry of money, as if money alone had the power to end poverty.

But this is not the case. Just take a look at the statistics of people who have gone bankrupt after winning a lottery prize. According to one study, up to 70 percent of them end up bankrupt within five years. The reason? There is a human poverty that is superior to any material poverty and that makes us not be able to dominate money, but that it dominates us. If, with little, no one is free from falling into the temptation of satisfying absurd, selfish, if not harmful desires, how much more so if a shower of money falls on us! The same thing is happening to our rich societies. There is more and more money, but we are more and more indebted and the poor are getting poorer and poorer. How is this possible? The love of money distances us from God and therefore from everything that makes us human: solidarity, belonging to a community, sobriety, self-control. We squander on absurd policies and do not invest in what really generates wealth: people.  

The very word «solidarity», wielded by many who start out in the world of politics or organizations that fight against poverty, loses steam as they move up the social ladder until, with honorable exceptions, the glitter of the money they have earned and their vanity prevent them from seeing the poverty from which they have only just emerged. Poor little people, they have nothing but money that drags them down and dominates them. 

A week before the celebration of the feast of Christ the King, a king who appears poor and humble, with a crown of thorns and a heart pierced with love for mankind, the World Day of the Poor invites us to reign with him over the human powers that be, those who manage money, because «you cannot serve two masters». And he encourages us to imitate him in his poverty, in his detachment from all human security, relying only on the Father whose Providence is more powerful than any bank or any fund. Next Generation.

It is the freedom felt by so many saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Roch, detaching themselves from their riches in order to live authentic freedom. From there, we can begin to see the poor not as a hindrance, not just as a problem to be solved, but as a richness because they are, Leo XIV reminds us, «the most beloved brothers and sisters, because each one of them, by their existence, and even by their words and the wisdom they possess, provokes us to touch with our hands the truth of the Gospel». 

«The Lord prophesied, »You will always have the poor among you". And he did not say it so that we would throw in the towel because it is a problem without a solution, but so that we would be aware that our freedom, our salvation, is always within reach. We do not have to go very far to find a poor person, as do those who prefer to ease their conscience without getting involved.

Sometimes they sleep in the arcades of the center of big cities, yes, but sometimes they have the face of an acquaintance who is unemployed and whose benefits have run out. Sometimes they are in mission countries, yes, but other times they take the form of a relative who demands care that is incompatible with our standard of living. Sometimes they are in jail, yes, but sometimes they live in our own home imprisoned by video game addiction because no one pays attention to them. Sometimes they are in the psychiatric hospital, yes, but others are friends or neighbors who need our affection, time and understanding because they suffer from mental problems and living together becomes difficult... 

«The Lord prophesied: »You will always have the poor among you". And the fact is that wherever there is a poor person, a needy person, a person who suffers, nearer or farther away from us, He will be waiting for us to help us to get out of ourselves, to help us, therefore, to get out of the most severe poverty that is to live without Him.