Message from Pope Francis for the 8th World Day of the Poor
8th WORLD DAY OF THE POOR
Sunday XXXIII of Ordinary Time — November 17, 20204
“The prayer of the poor rises up to God” (If 21, 5)
Dear brothers and sisters!
1. The prayer of the poor rises up to God (cf. Si 21, 5). In this year dedicated to prayer, in view of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025, this expression of biblical wisdom is even more appropriate to prepare us for the VIIIE World Day of the Poor, which will take place on November 17. Christian hope also embraces the certainty that our prayer reaches the presence of God; but not just any prayer: The prayer of the poor ! Let us reflect on this Word and “read” it on the faces and in the stories of the poor we encounter during our days, so that prayer may become a way of communion with them and of sharing their sufferings.
2. The Book of Siracid, to which we refer, is little known and deserves to be discovered for the richness of the themes it addresses, especially when it comes to man's relationship with God and with the world. Its author, Ben Sira, is a master, a scribe from Jerusalem, who probably wrote to the IIE century BC. He is a wise man, rooted in the tradition of Israel, who teaches in various areas of human life: from work to the family, from living in society to the education of young people; he is interested in issues related to faith in God and the observance of the Law. It faces the difficult problems of freedom, evil, and divine justice, which are still very topical for us today. Ben Sira, inspired by the Holy Spirit, intends to transmit to everyone the path to follow for a wise and dignified life before God and his brothers.
3. One of the themes to which this sacred author devotes the most space is The prayer. He does it with great enthusiasm, because he tells us about his personal experience. In fact, no writing about prayer could be effective and fruitful if it did not come from those who, every day, stand in the presence of God and listen to his Word. Ben Sira declares that he sought wisdom from his youth: “When I was still young and I did not wander here and there, in the eyes of everyone I sought Wisdom in my prayer” (Si 51, 13).
4. During his journey, he discovered one of the fundamental realities of revelation, namely that the poor occupy a privileged place in the heart of God, so much so that, in the face of their suffering, God is “impatient” as long as he has not done justice to them: “The poor man's prayer crosses the clouds; until it has reached its goal, he remains inconsolable. He perseveres as long as the Most High has not cast his eyes on him, nor pronounced the sentence in favor of the just and has done justice. The Lord will not delay; he will remain impatient” (Si 35, 21-22). God knows the sufferings of his children, because he is an attentive and benevolent Father for all. As a Father, he takes care of those who need him most: the poor, the marginalized, the suffering, the forgotten... But no one is excluded from his heart, because before him, we are all poor and needy. We are all beggars, because without God we would be nothing. We wouldn't even have life if God didn't give it to us. And yet, how often do we live as if we were masters of life or as if we had to conquer it! The worldly mentality wants us to become someone, to make a name for ourselves in spite of everything and everyone, to break social rules to achieve wealth. What a sad illusion! Happiness is not achieved by trampling on the rights and dignity of others.
The violence caused by wars clearly shows how arrogant those who believe they are powerful before men, when they are miserable in the eyes of God, guide those who believe they are powerful. How many new poor people are the product of this bad policy made with guns, how many innocent victims! However, we cannot back down. The disciples of the Lord know that each of these “little ones” bears the face of the Son of God, and our solidarity and the sign of Christian charity must reach each one of them. “Each Christian and each community is called to be instruments of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, so that they can be fully integrated into society; this means that we are docile and attentive to listen to the cry of the poor and to help them.” (Exhort. ap. Evangelii gaudium, no. 187).
5. In this year dedicated to prayer, we must Make the prayer of the poor our own and pray with them. It is a challenge that we must take up and a pastoral action that must be encouraged. Indeed, “the worst discrimination the poor suffer from is the lack of spiritual attention. The vast majority of the poor have a particular openness to the faith; they need God and we cannot fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his Word, the celebration of the Sacraments and the proposal of a path of growth and maturation in faith. The preferential option for the poor must be reflected primarily in privileged and priority religious attention” (ibid., no. 200).
All this requires A humble heart who has the courage to become a beggar. A heart ready to recognize itself as poor and needy. Indeed, there is a correspondence between poverty, humility and trust. The true poor are the humble, as Saint Bishop Augustine said: “The poor have nothing to get sick of; in the rich there is something to fight for. So listen to me. Be a real poor person, be pious, be humble” (Sermon 14, 4). Humble men do not have to boast or claim, they know that they cannot rely on themselves, but they firmly believe that they can appeal to the merciful love of God, before whom they stand like the prodigal son who returns home, repentant, to receive the embrace of his father (cf. Lc 15, 11-24). The poor, who has nothing to rely on, receives strength from God and puts all their trust in Him. In fact, humility engenders trust that God will never abandon us and will not leave us unanswered.
6. To the poor who live in our cities and who are part of our communities, I say: do not lose this certainty! God is attentive to each one of you and is close to you.s. He does not forget you and will never be able to. We all experience a prayer that seems to go unanswered. Sometimes we ask for deliverance from a misery that makes us suffer and humbles us, and God seems not to hear our invocation. But God's silence is not a distraction from our suffering; rather, it contains a word that needs to be accepted with trust, abandoning us to Him and to His will. It is again Siracid who testifies to this: “God's judgment will be in favor of the poor” (cf. 21:5). It is therefore from poverty that the most authentic song of hope can spring. Let us remember that “when our interior life is closed to our own interests, there is no more room for others, the poor no longer enter, we no longer listen to the voice of God, we no longer enjoy the sweet joy of his love, the enthusiasm for doing good no longer pulsates. [...] It is not the life in the Spirit that springs from the heart of the risen Christ” (Exhort. ap. Evangelii gaudium, n. 2).
7. La World Day of the Poor has become an appointment for every ecclesial community. It is a pastoral opportunity that should not be underestimated, as it encourages every believer to listen to the prayers of the poor, to become aware of their presence and their needs. It is a good opportunity to implement initiatives that help the poor in a concrete way, but also to recognize and support the many volunteers who are passionately dedicated to the poor. We need to thank the Lord for the people who make themselves available to listen to and support the poorest. They are priests, consecrated persons and lay people who, through their testimony, give voice to God's response to the prayers of those who turn to Him. The silence is therefore broken every time a brother in need is welcomed and embraced. The poor still have a lot to teach, because in a culture that has put wealth first and that often sacrifices the dignity of people at the altar of material goods, they row against the tide by indicating that what is essential for life is something else entirely.
Prayer finds the verification of its authenticity in charity, which becomes encounter and proximity. If prayer does not translate into concrete action, it is in vain ; in fact, “faith without works is dead” (Jc 2, 26). However, Charity without prayer risks becoming a philanthropy that is rapidly running out of steam.. “Without daily prayer lived with fidelity, our action becomes empty, loses its profound soul, is reduced to simple activism” (Benedict XVI, Catechesis, April 25, 2012). We must avoid this temptation and always be vigilant with the strength and perseverance that come from the life-giving Holy Spirit.
8. In this context, it is good to recall the testimony that we have left Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a woman who gave her life for the poor. The saint kept saying that Prayer was the place where she drew strength and faith for its mission of service to the most disadvantaged. During her speech at the UN General Assembly on October 26, 1985, showing everyone the rosary that she was still holding in her hand, she declared: “I am just a poor nun who prays. By praying, Jesus puts his love in my heart and I am going to give it to all the poor that I meet on my way. Pray too! Pray and you will realize the poor people you have next to you. Maybe on the same level of your home. Maybe even in your homes there are those waiting for your love. Pray, and the eyes will be opened and the heart will be filled with love.”
And how can we not recall here, in the city of Rome, Saint Benedict Joseph Labre (1748-1783), whose body rests and is venerated in the parish church of Santa Maria ai Monti. A pilgrim from France to Rome, rejected by many monasteries, he spent the last years of his life poor among the poor, spending hours and hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, with the rosary, reciting the breviary, reading the New Testament and theImitation of Christ. Not even having a small room, he usually slept in a corner of the ruins of the Colosseum, like a “God wanderer”, making his existence an incessant prayer that rose up to Him.
9. On the way to the Holy Year, I urge everyone to become a Pilgrim of Hope, giving tangible signs of a better future. Let us not forget to cherish “the small details of love” (Exhort. ap. Cheeky and exultate, n. 145): stopping, approaching, giving a little attention, a smile, a caress, a word of comfort... These gestures cannot be improvised, but require daily fidelity, often hidden and silent, but made strong by prayer. At this moment, when the song of hope seems to give way to the din of arms, to the cry of so many injured innocent people and to the silence of the countless victims of wars, let us address to God our invocation for peace. We are poor in peace and we reach out our hands to welcome it as a precious gift, while striving to re-establish it in our daily lives.
10. We are called in all circumstances to be Friends of the poor, following in the footsteps of Jesus who was the first to show solidarity with the latter. May the Holy Mother of God, Mary Most Holy, who by appearing in Banneux, who by appearing in Banneux left us the message not to be forgotten: “I am the Virgin of the poor”, support us on this journey. To her, whom God looked at for her humble poverty, accomplishing great things through her obedience, we entrust our prayer, convinced that it will rise to heaven and be heard.
Rome, Saint-Jean-de-Lateran, June 13, 2024, Memory of Saint Anthony of Padova, Patron of the Poor.
FRANÇOIS
(Source)
Find the Pope's messages for the previous World Days of the Poor:
— 7th World Day of the Poor
— 6th World Day of the Poor
