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Message of the Holy Father Francis for the 6th
World Day of the Poor, 14.06.2022
The following is the text of the Holy Father
Francis’ Message for the 6th World Day of the
Poor, to be held on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary
Time – this year, 13 November 2022 – on the
theme For your sakes Christ became poor (cf. 2
Cor 8:9):
Message of the Holy Father
For your sakes Christ became poor (cf. 2 Cor
8:9)
1.
“Jesus Christ… for your sakes became poor” (cf.
2 Cor 8:9).
With these words, the Apostle Paul
addresses the first Christians of Corinth in
order to encourage their efforts to show
solidarity with their brothers and sisters in
need.
The World Day of the Poor comes this year
as a healthy challenge, helping us to reflect on
our style of life and on the many forms of
poverty all around us.
Several months ago, the world was
emerging from the tempest of the pandemic,
showing signs of an economic recovery that could
benefit millions of people reduced to poverty by
the loss of their jobs.
A patch of blue sky was opening that,
without detracting from our sorrow at the loss
of our dear ones, promised to bring us back to
direct interpersonal relations and to
socializing with one another once more without
further prohibitions or restrictions.
Now, however, a new catastrophe has
appeared on the horizon, destined to impose on
our world a very different scenario.
The war in Ukraine has now been added to
the regional wars that for years have taken a
heavy toll of death and destruction.
Yet here the situation is even more
complex due to the direct intervention of a
“superpower” aimed at imposing its own will in
violation of the principle of the
self-determination of peoples.
Tragic scenarios are being reenacted and
once more reciprocal extortionate demands made
by a few potentates are stifling the voice of a
humanity that cries out for peace.
2.
What great poverty is produced by the
senselessness of war!
Wherever we look, we can see how violence
strikes those who are defenseless and
vulnerable.
We think of the deportation of thousands
of persons, above all young boys and girls, in
order to sever their roots and impose on them
another identity.
Once more the words of the Psalmist prove
timely.
Contemplating the destruction of
Jerusalem and the exile of the Hebrew youth, he
sang: “By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat
down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our
harps.
For there our captors asked us for songs,
and our tormentors for mirth…
How could we sing the Lord’s song in a
foreign land?” (Ps 137:1-4).
Millions of women, children and elderly
people are being forced to brave the danger of
bombs just to find safety by seeking refuge as
displaced persons in neighbouring countries.
How many others remain in the war zones,
living each day with fear and the lack of food,
water, medical care and above all human
affections?
In these situations, reason is darkened
and those who feel its effects are the countless
ordinary people who end up being added to the
already great numbers of those in need.
How can we respond adequately to this
situation, and to bring relief and peace to all
these people in the grip of uncertainty and
instability?
3.
In this situation of great conflict, we
are celebrating the Sixth World Day of the Poor.
We are asked to reflect on the summons of
the Apostle to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, who
“though he was rich, yet for [our] sakes became
poor, so that by his poverty [we] might become
rich” (cf. 2 Cor 8:9).
During his visit to Jerusalem, Paul met
with Peter, James and John, who had urged him
not to forget the poor.
The community of Jerusalem was
experiencing great hardship due to a food
shortage in the country.
The Apostle immediately set about
organizing a great collection to aid the
poverty-stricken.
The Christians of Corinth were very
understanding and supportive.
At Paul’s request, on every first day of
the week they collected what they were able to
save and all proved very generous.
From that time on, every Sunday, during
the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we have
done the same thing, pooling our offerings so
that the community can provide for the needs of
the poor.
It is something that Christians have
always done with joy and a sense of
responsibility, to ensure that none of our
brothers or sisters will lack the necessities of
life.
We find a confirmation of this from Saint
Justin Martyr, who wrote in the second century
to the Emperor Antoninus Pius and described the
Sunday celebration of Christians.
In his words, “On Sunday we have a common
assembly for all our members, whether they live
in the city or in the outlying districts.
The recollections of the apostles or the
writings of the prophets are read, as long as
there is time…
The Eucharist is distributed, everyone
present communicates, and the deacons take it to
those who are absent.
The wealthy, if they wish, may make a
contribution, and they themselves decide the
amount.
The collection is placed in the custody
of the presider, who uses it to help the orphans
and widows and all who for any reason are in
distress, whether because they are sick,
imprisoned, or away from home.
In a word, care is provided to all who
are in need” (First Apology, LXVII, 1-6).
4.
As for the community of Corinth, after
the initial outburst of enthusiasm, their
commitment began to falter and the initiative
proposed by the Apostle lost some of its
impetus.
For this reason, Paul wrote them, asking
in impassioned terms that they relaunch the
collection, “so that your eagerness may be
matched by completing it according to your
means” (2 Cor 8:11).
I think at this time of the generosity
that in recent years has led entire populations
to open their doors to welcome millions of
refugees from wars in the Middle East, Central
Africa and now Ukraine.
Families have opened their homes to make
room for other families, and communities have
generously accepted many women and children in
order to enable them to live with the dignity
that is their due.
Even so, the longer conflicts last, the
more burdensome their consequences become.
The peoples who offer welcome find it
increasingly difficult to maintain their relief
efforts; families and communities begin to feel
burdened by a situation that continues past the
emergency stage.
This is the moment for us not to lose
heart but to renew our initial motivation.
The work we have begun needs to be
brought to completion with the same sense of
responsibility.
5.
That, in effect, is precisely what
solidarity is: sharing the little we have with
those who have nothing, so that no one will go
without.
The sense of community and of communion
as a style of life increases and a sense of
solidarity matures.
We should also consider that in some
countries, over the past decades, families have
experienced a significant increase in affluence
and security.
This is a positive result of private
initiatives and favouring economic growth as
well as concrete incentives to support families
and social responsibility.
The benefits in terms of security and
stability can now be shared with those who have
been forced to leave behind their homes and
native countries in search of safety and
survival.
As members of civil society, let us
continue to uphold the values of freedom,
responsibility, fraternity and solidarity.
And as Christians, let us always make
charity, faith and hope the basis of our lives
and our actions.
6.
It is interesting to observe that the
Apostle does not desire to oblige Christians to
perform works of charity: “I do not say this as
a command” (2 Cor 8:8).
Paul is instead “testing the genuineness
of [their] love” by earnestness of [their]
concern for the poor (ibid.).
Certainly, Paul’s request is prompted by
the need for concrete assistance; nonetheless,
his desire is much more profound.
He asks the Corinthians to take up the
collection so that it can be a sign of love, the
love shown by Jesus himself.
In a word, generosity towards the poor
has its most powerful motivation in the example
of the Son of God, who chose to become poor.
Indeed, the Apostle makes it clear that
this example on the part of Christ, this
“dispossession”, is a grace: “the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 8:9).
Only by accepting it can we give concrete
and consistent expression to our faith. The
teaching of the entire New Testament is
unanimous in this regard.
Paul’s teaching finds an echo in the
words of the apostle James: “Be doers of the
word, and not merely hearers who deceive
themselves.
For if any are hearers of the word and
not doers, they are like those who look at
themselves in the mirror; for they look at
themselves and, on going away, immediately
forget what they were like.
But those who look into the perfect law,
the law of liberty, and persevere, being not
hearers who forget but doers who act – they will
be blessed in their doing” (Jas 1:22-25).
7.
Where the poor are concerned, it is not
talk that matters; what matters is rolling up
our sleeves and putting our faith into practice
through a direct involvement, one that cannot be
delegated.
At times, however, a kind of laxity can
creep in and lead to inconsistent behaviour,
including indifference about the poor.
It also happens that some Christians, out
of excessive attachment to money, remain mired
in a poor use of their goods and wealth.
These situations reveal a weak faith and
feeble, myopic hope.
We know that the issue is not money
itself, for money is part of our daily life as
individuals and our relationships in society.
Rather, what we need to consider is the
value that we put on money: it cannot become our
absolute and chief purpose in life.
Attachment to money prevents us from
seeing everyday life with realism; it clouds our
gaze and blinds us to the needs of others.
Nothing worse could happen to a Christian
and to a community than to be dazzled by the
idol of wealth, which ends up chaining us to an
ephemeral and bankrupt vision of life.
It is not a question, then, of
approaching the poor with a “welfare mentality”,
as often happens, but of ensuring that no one
lacks what is necessary.
It is not activism that saves, but
sincere and generous concern that makes us
approach a poor person as a brother or sister
who lends a hand to help me shake off the
lethargy into which I have fallen.
Consequently, “no one must say that they
cannot be close to the poor because their own
lifestyle demands more attention to other areas.
This is an excuse commonly heard in
academic, business or professional, and even
ecclesial circles…
None of us can think we are exempt from
concern for the poor and for social justice” (Evangelii
Gaudium, 201).
There is an urgent need to find new
solutions that can go beyond the approach of
those social policies conceived as “a policy for
the poor, but never with the poor and never of
the poor, much less part of a project that
brings people together” (Fratelli Tutti, 169).
We need instead to imitate the attitude
of the Apostle, who could write to the
Corinthians: “I do not mean that there should be
relief for others and pressure on you, but it is
a question of a fair balance” (2 Cor 8:13).
8.
There is a paradox that today, as in the
past, we find hard to accept, for it clashes
with our human way of thinking: that there
exists a form of poverty that can make us rich.
By appealing to the “grace” of Jesus
Christ, Paul wants to confirm the message that
he himself preached.
It is the message that true wealth does
not consist in storing up “treasures on earth,
where moth and rust consume, and where thieves
break in and steal” (Mt 6:19), but rather in a
reciprocal love that leads us to bear one
another’s burdens in such a way that no one is
left behind or excluded.
The sense of weakness and limitation that
we have experienced in these recent years, and
now the tragedy of the war with its global
repercussions, must teach us one crucial thing:
we are not in this world merely to survive, but
to live a dignified and happy life.
The message of Jesus shows us the way and
makes us realize that there is a poverty that
humiliates and kills, and another poverty,
Christ’s own poverty, that sets us free and
brings us peace.
The poverty that kills is squalor, the
daughter of injustice, exploitation, violence
and the unjust distribution of resources.
It is a hopeless and implacable poverty,
imposed by the throwaway culture that offers
neither future prospects nor avenues of escape.
It is a squalor that not only reduces
people to extreme material poverty, but also
corrodes the spiritual dimension, which, albeit
often overlooked, is nonetheless still there and
still important.
When the only law is the bottom line of
profit at the end of the day, nothing holds us
back from seeing others simply as objects to be
exploited; other people are merely a means to an
end.
There no longer exist such things as a
just salary or just working hours, and new forms
of slavery emerge and entrap persons who lack
alternatives and are forced to accept this toxic
injustice simply to eke out a living.
The poverty that sets us free, on the
other hand, is one that results from a
responsible decision to cast off all dead weight
and concentrate on what is essential.
We can
easily discern the lack of satisfaction that
many people feel because they sense that
something important is missing from their lives,
with the result that they wander off aimlessly
in search of it.
In their desire to find something that
can bring them satisfaction, they need someone
to guide them towards the insignificant, the
vulnerable and the poor, so that they can
finally see what they themselves lack.
Encountering the poor enables us to put
an end to many of our anxieties and empty fears,
and to arrive at what truly matters in life, the
treasure that no one can steal from us: true and
gratuitous love.
The poor, before being the object of our
almsgiving, are people, who can help set us free
from the snares of anxiety and superficiality.
A Father and Doctor of the Church,
Saint John Chrysostom, whose writings are filled
with sharp criticisms of the conduct of
Christians towards the poor, once wrote: “If you
are unable to believe that poverty can make you
rich, think of your Lord and stop your doubting.
Had he not been poor, you would not be
rich.
Here is something astonishing: poverty
has become the source of abundant wealth.
What Paul means by “wealth” [cf. 2 Cor
8:9] is the knowledge of piety, purification
from sin, justice, sanctification and a thousand
other good things that have been given us now
and always.
All these things we have thanks to
poverty” (Homilies on II Corinthians, 17, 1).
9.
The words of the Apostle chosen as the
theme of this year’s World Day of the Poor
present this great paradox of our life of faith:
Christ’s poverty makes us rich.
Paul was able to present this teaching,
which the Church has spread and borne witness to
over the centuries, because God himself, in his
Son Jesus, chose to follow this path.
Because Christ became poor for our sakes,
our own lives are illumined and transformed, and
take on a worth that the world does not
appreciate and cannot bestow.
Jesus’ treasure is his love, which
excludes no one and seeks out everyone,
especially the marginalized and those deprived
of the necessities of life.
Out of love, he stripped himself of glory
and took on our human condition.
Out of love, he became a servant,
obedient to the point of accepting death, death
on a cross (cf. Phil 2:6-8).
Out of love, he became the “bread of
life” (Jn 6:35), so that all might have what
they need and find nourishment for eternal life.
Just as it was difficult for the Lord’s
disciples to accept this teaching (cf. Jn 6:60),
so it is for us today as well.
Yet Jesus’s words are clear: if we want
life to triumph over death, and dignity to be
redeemed from injustice, we need to follow
Christ’s path of poverty, sharing our lives out
of love, breaking the bread of our daily
existence with our brothers and sisters,
beginning with the least of them, those who lack
the very essentials of life.
This is the way to create equality, to
free the poor from their misery and the rich
from their vanity, and both from despair.
10.
On 15 May last, I canonized Brother
Charles de Foucauld, a man born rich, who gave
up everything to follow Jesus, becoming, like
him, a poor brother to all.
Charles’ life as a hermit, first in
Nazareth and then in the Saharan desert, was one
of silence, prayer and sharing, an exemplary
testimony to Christian poverty.
We would do well to meditate on these
words of his: “Let us not despise the poor, the
little ones, the workers; not only are they our
brothers and sisters in God, they are also those
who most perfectly imitate Jesus in his outward
life.
They perfectly represent Jesus, the
Worker of Nazareth.
They are the firstborn among the elect,
the first to be called to the Saviour’s crib.
They were the regular company of Jesus,
from his birth until his death…
Let us honour them; let us honour in them
the images of Jesus and his holy parents…
Let us take for ourselves [the condition]
that he took for himself…
Let us never cease to be poor in
everything, brothers and sisters to the poor,
companions to the poor; may we be the poorest of
the poor like Jesus, and like him love the poor
and surround ourselves with them” (Commentary on
the Gospel of Luke, Meditation 263).[1]
For Brother Charles, those were not
merely words, but a concrete way of living that
led him to share with Jesus the offering of his
very life.
May this 2022 World Day of the Poor be
for us a moment of grace.
May it enable us to make a personal and
communal examination of conscience and to ask
ourselves whether the poverty of Jesus Christ is
our faithful companion in life.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 13 June 2022 Memorial
of Saint Anthony of Padua
FRANCIS
[1] Meditation No. 263 on Lk 2 :8-20: C. DE
FOUCAULD, La Bonté de Dieu.
Méditations sur les saints Evangiles (1),
Nouvelle Cité, Montrouge 1996, 214-216.
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