On November 14, 2021, the V World Day of the poor will be held under the motto: "The poor are always with you" (Mc 14,7)
"The poor will always have you with you." With this simple expression of Jesus, pronounced a few days before the events of passion, death and resurrection, the Lord's thought can be synthesized over the poor. Given the shocked disciples because a woman had wrapped a large sum of money by spilling the perfume of a glass of alabaster on the head of Jesus, he affirms that the first poor poor to whom you have to pay all the attention is precisely him. The Son of God, not only asks to recognize in him the person who represents all the poor, identifies himself as the poorest among the poor. "The face of God he reveals is that of a father for the poor and close to the poor" (n. 2).
As Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization In the presentation of the message, «Pope Francis proposing this expression in the V World Day of the Poor It causes believers to keep the look in Jesus to discover that in Him and his words there is not only the true meaning of poverty, but above all the ability to recognize the poor. It is a strongly Christological vision that condenses in this Message that, as always, analyzes some current issues, so that the whole Church prepares to live the event of the World journey with the awareness of who knows that one of the central contents of the Gospel is collected here ».
Animation guidelines for the world day of the poor
MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
V World Day of the Poor
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 14, 2021
"The poor are always with you" (Mc 14,7)
1. "The poor are always with you" (Mc 14.7). Jesus pronounced these words in the context of a meal in Bethany, at the house of one Simon, called "El Leproso", a few days before Easter. According to the evangelist, a woman entered with an alabaster bottle full of a very valuable perfume and spilled it on the head of Jesus. That gesture raised great astonishment and gave rise to two diverse interpretations.
The first was the outrage of some of those present, including the disciples who, considering the value of the perfume - about 300 denarii, equivalent to the annual salary of a worker - thought that it would have been better to sell it and give the collections to the poor. According to the Gospel of John, it was Judas who became an interpreter of this opinion: "Why has this perfume been sold for three hundred denarius to give them to the poor?" And the evangelist points out: "He did not say it because he cared the poor, but because he was a thief and, as he had the money bag in common, he stole what they threw in it" (12,5-6). It is no accident that this hard criticism leaves the traitor's mouth, it is proof that those who do not recognize the poor betray the teaching of Jesus and cannot be their disciples. In this regard, we remember the overwhelming words of origins: «Judas seemed to worry about the poor […]. If there is still someone who has the church bag and speaks in favor of the poor as Judas, but then takes what they put inside, then, who has their part with Judas »(Commentary to the Gospel of Matthew, XI, 9).
The second interpretation was given by Jesus himself and allows to capture the deep meaning of the gesture made by the woman. He said: «Leave it! Why do they bother her? Has done a good work with me »(Mc 14.6). Jesus knew that his death was close and saw in that gesture the anticipation of the anointing of his lifeless body before being deposed in the grave. This vision goes beyond any expectation of diners. Jesus reminds them that the first poor is he, the poorest among the poor, because he represents them all. And it is also in the name of the poor, of the people alone, marginalized and discriminated against, that the Son of God accepted the gesture of that woman. She, with her feminine sensitivity, proved to be the only one that understood the mood of the Lord. This anonymous woman, perhaps destined for this to represent the entire female universe who will not have a voice and suffer violence, inaugurated the significant presence of women who participate in the culminating moment of Christ's life: their crucifixion, death and burial, and their appearance as resurrected. Women, so often discriminated and maintained outside the positions of responsibility, in the pages of the gospels are, however, protagonists in the history of revelation. And the final expression of Jesus is eloquent, who associated this woman with the great evangelizing mission: "I assure you that, to honor her memory, anywhere in the world where the good news is proclaimed, what she has just done with me will be told" (Mc 14,9).
2. This strong "empathy" between Jesus and the woman, and the way in which he interpreted his anointing, in contrast to the scandalized vision of Judas and others, opens a fruitful path of reflection on the inseparable link between Jesus, the poor and the announcement of the Gospel.
The face of God that He reveals, in fact, is that of a father for the poor and close to the poor. The whole work of Jesus states that poverty is not the result of fatality, but a specific sign of its presence among us. We do not find it when and where we would like, but we recognize it in the life of the poor, in their suffering and destitution, in the sometimes inhuman conditions in which they are forced to live. I do not get tired of repeating that the poor are true evangelizers because they were the first to be evangelized and called to share the bliss of the Lord and his kingdom (cf. Mt 5,3).
The poor of any condition and any latitude in the evangelizan, because they allow us to always rediscover the most genuine features of the father's face. «They have a lot to teach us. In addition to participating in feeling of faith, in their own pain they know the suffering Christ. It is necessary that we all let ourselves evangelize for them. The new evangelization is an invitation to recognize the salvific force of their lives and put them in the center of the Church road. We are called to discover Christ in them, to give them our voice in their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, interpret them and to collect the mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate through them. Our commitment does not consist exclusively of actions or promotion and assistance; What the spirit mobilizes is not an activist overflow, but above all a attention put in the other "considering it as one with it." This lover attention is the beginning of a true concern for his person, from which he wants to effectively seek his good ”(exhort. AP. the gospel of joy, 198-199).
3. Jesus is not only from the poor, but Share with them The same fate. This is also an important lesson for your disciples of all time. Their words "always have them with you" also indicate that their presence in us is constant, but that should not lead us to an accustoming that becomes indifference, but to get involved in sharing life that does not admit delegations. The poor are not "external" people to the community, but brothers and sisters with whom to share suffering to relieve their discomfort and marginalization, to return lost dignity and ensure the necessary social inclusion. On the other hand, it is known that a charity presupposes a benefactor and a beneficiary, while sharing generates fraternity. Alms is occasional, while sharing is durable. The first runs the risk of gratifying who performs and humiliate who receives it; The second reinforces solidarity and feels the necessary bases to achieve justice. In short, believers, when they want to see and feel Jesus in person, know where to direct, the poor are the sacrament of Christ, represent his person and refer to him.
We have many examples of saints and holy who have made their life project with the poor. I think, among others, in Father Damián de Vauster, Holy Apostle of Los Leprosos. With great generosity he responded to the call to go to the island of Molokai, turned into an accessible ghetto only to the lepers, to live and die with them. He got to work and did everything possible so that the life of those poor, sick and marginalized, reduced to extreme degradation, was worthy of being lived. He became a doctor and nurse, without repairing the risks he ran, and led the light of love to that "death colony", as the island was called. Lepra also affected him, a sign of a total sharing with the brothers and sisters for whom he had given his life. His testimony is very current in our day, marked by the Coronavirus pandemic. The grace of God certainly acts in the hearts of many who, without appearing, are spent by the poorest in a concrete sharing.
4. We need, then, to adhere with full conviction to the invitation of the Lord: "become and believe in good news" (Mc 1.15). This conversion It consists, first, to open our heart to recognize the multiple expressions of poverty and manifest the kingdom of God through a lifestyle consistent with the faith we profess. Often the poor are considered separate people, as a category that requires a particular charitable service. Following Jesus implies, in this sense, a change of mentality, that is, to host the challenge of sharing and participating. Becoming his disciples implies the option of not accumulating treasures on Earth, which give the illusion of security in fragile and ephemeral reality. On the contrary, it requires the availability to free yourself from any link that prevents reaching true happiness and bliss, to recognize what is lasting and cannot be destroyed by anything or anyone (cf. Mt 6,19-20).
The teaching of Jesus also in this case will be against the counter, because it promises what only the eyes of faith can see and experiment with absolute certainty: "And everyone who leaves houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or fields for my cause, will receive a hundred times more and inherit eternal life" (Mt 19,29). If it is not chosen to become poor of ephemeral riches, worldly power and vaiglory, life can never be given for love; A fragmentary existence will be lived, full of good purposes, but ineffective to transform the world. It is, therefore, to open with decision to the grace of Christ, who can witness us of his charity without limits and return credibility to our presence in the world.
5. The Gospel of Christ drives to be especially attentive to the poor and asks to recognize the multiple and too many forms of moral and social disorder that always generate New forms of poverty. It seems that the idea that the poor are not only responsible for their condition is being imposed, but also constitute an intolerable burden on an economic system that puts the interests of some privileged categories in the center. A market that ignores or selects ethical principles creates inhuman conditions that go over people who already live in precarious conditions. This is thus the creation of new traps of indigence and exclusion, produced by unscrupulous economic and financial actors, lacking humanitarian sense and social responsibility.
Last year, in addition, another plague was added that produced further poorer: pandemic. This continues to play at the gates of millions of people and, when it does not bring suffering and death, it is anyway carrier of poverty. The poor have increased disproportionately and, unfortunately, will continue to increase in the coming months. Some countries, because of the pandemic, are suffering very serious consequences, so that the most vulnerable people are deprived of the essential goods. The long lines in front of the dining rooms for the poor are the tangible sign of this deterioration. An attentive look demands that the most appropriate solutions be found to combat the virus worldwide, without pointing to partisan interests. In particular, it is urgent to give concrete answers to those who suffer from unemployment, which dramatically hits many parents, women and young people. The social solidarity and generosity of which many people are capable, thank God, together with long -term human promotion projects, they are contributing and will provide a very important contribution at this juncture.
6. However, the question remains open, which is not obvious at all: how is it possible to give a tangible solution to the millions of poor people who often only find indifference, or even annoyed, in response? What path of justice is necessary to travel so that social inequalities are overcome and human dignity is restored, so many times trampled? An individualistic lifestyle is complicit in the generation of poverty, and often discharges all responsibility for their condition on the poor. However, poverty is not the result of fate but a consequence of selfishness. Therefore, it is decisive to give life to Development processes in those that are valued everyone's capabilities, so that the complementarity of the competences and the diversity of the functions give place to a common resource of participation. There are many poverty of the "rich" that could be cured by the richness of the "poor", if they were only and known! None is so poor that I cannot give something of itself in reciprocity. The poor cannot be just those who receive; You have to put them in a position to be able to give, because they know how to correspond. How many examples of sharing are before our eyes! The poor often teach us solidarity and sharing. It's true, they are people who are missing something, they frequently lack a lot and included it necessary, but they don't lack all, because they retain the dignity of children of God that nothing and no one can remove them.
7. That is why it is required A different approach to poverty. It is a challenge that governments and world institutions must face with a social forecast social model, capable of responding to the new forms of poverty that affect the world and that will mark the next decades decisively. If the poor are marginalized, as if they were the culprits of their condition, then the very concept of democracy is put in crisis and all social policy becomes a failure. With great humility we should confess that in relation to the poor we are often incompetent. They talk about them in abstract, we stop in statistics and think about provoking shock with some documentary. Poverty, on the contrary, should raise creative planning, which allows increasing effective freedom to be able to perform existence with each person's own abilities. To think that freedom is granted and increased by the possession of money is an illusion from which you have to get away. Serving the poor effectively drives the action and allows to find the most appropriate means to raise and promote this part of humanity, too anonymous and without voice, but that is printed in itself the face of the Savior who asks for help.
8. "The poor are always with you" (Mc 14.7). It is an invitation to never lose sight of the opportunity offered to do good. In the background you can glimpse the old biblical mandate: «If there was a poor brother among yours, do not be inhuman or deny your help to your brother the poor. On the contrary, turn your hand and lend what you need, what you miss. […] You will give him, and not reluctantly, because that is why the Lord, your God, will bless you in everything you do and undertake. Since they will not miss poor on earth »(Dt 15.7-8.10-11). The apostle Paul is in the same line when he urges Christians from his communities to help the poor of the first community of Jerusalem and to do it "not reluctantly or by obligation, because God loves who gives with joy" (2 Co 9.7). It is not about relieving our conscience giving some alms, but rather to contrast the culture of indifference and injustice with which we treat the poor.
In this context it is also good to remember the words of St. John Crisóstomo: «The one who is generous should not ask for accounts of behavior, but only to improve the condition of poverty and satisfy the need. The poor only has a defense: his poverty and the condition of need in which he is. Do not ask for anything else; But even if it was the most evil man in the world, if he lacks the necessary food, let's get rid of hunger. […] The merciful man is a port for whom he is in need: the Puerto welcomes and releases all the shipwrecked; Whether they are evil, good, that is, as are those that are in danger, the port protects them inside their bay. Therefore, also you, when you see on land a man who has suffered the shipwreck of poverty, do not judge, do not ask for accounts of his behavior, but free him from misfortune »(Speeches about poor Lazarus, II, 5).
9. It is decisive that the sensitivity is increased to understand the needs of the poor, in continuous change as are the conditions of life. In fact, today, in the economically more developed areas of the world, it is less willing than in the past to face poverty. The state of relative well -being to which it is accustomed makes more difficult to accept sacrifices and deprivations. It is capable of everything, in order not to lose what has been the result of an easy conquest. Thus, it falls into forms of resentment, of spasmodic nervousness, of claims that lead to fear, anguish and, in some cases, violence. This should not be the criteria on which the future is built; However, these are also forms of poverty that you cannot look away. We must be open to read the signs of the times that express new modalities of how to be evangelizers in the contemporary world. The immediate help to meet the needs of the poor should not prevent us from being predictive when it comes to implementing new signs of love and Christian charity in response to the new forms of poverty that today's humanity experiences.
I want the World Day of the Poor, that reaches its fifth edition, closers more and more in our local churches and opens up an evangelization movement that in the first instance comes to meet the poor, wherever they are. We cannot wait for them to call our door, it is urgent that we go to find them in their homes, in hospitals and in welfare residences, in the streets and in the dark corners where sometimes they hide, in the centers of refuge and welcome ... It is important to understand how they feel, what they perceive and what wishes they have in the heart. Let's make our pressing words of Don Primo Mazzolari: «I would like to ask them not to ask me If there are poor, who they are And how many are, because I fear that such questions represent a distraction or the pretext to depart from an accurate indication of consciousness and heart. […] I have never told the poor, because they cannot be counted: the poor are hugged, they are not told ”(“ adesso ”n. 7 - April 15, 1949). The poor are among us. What an evangelical it would be if we could say with all truth: we are also poor, because only then will we really recognize them and make them part of our life and instruments of salvation.
Rome, San Juan de Letán, June 13, 2021, Liturgical Memory of San Antonio de Padua.
I entrust all the sick and their families to the intercession of Mary