Today, VIII Day of the Poor, Bergoglio dedicated his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica to the weak and excluded. By encountering them we run the risk of “not realizing the presence of God.” Faith is not “harmless devotion.” He remembered the words of Card. Martini: “The Church is such to the extent that it serves the poor.” Today the Pope shared lunch in the Nervi Hall with 1,300 poor people with the collaboration of the Italian Red Cross.
Vatican City () – “I was looking at a photograph by a Roman photographer: it portrayed an adult couple, almost elderly, leaving a restaurant in winter. The lady was well covered in a fur coat and so was the man. At the door was a poor lady, lying on the floor, begging for alms, and they were both looking the other way… This happens every day.”
Today, VIII World Day of the Poor, in the homily of the 10 a.m. Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis focused on the duel between “anguish and hope” that occurs in the heart of every person. Indeed, just as today’s Gospel (Mk 13:24-32) says that “the sun will darken, the moon will stop shining”, our time is also marked by “drama”: “We see hunger and famine that oppress many brothers and sisters who have nothing to eat, we see the horrors of war, we see the innocent deaths. Then, just as happens to the Roman couple in the photograph, in the face of so much suffering we run the risk of “sinking into discouragement and letting the presence of God go unnoticed within the drama of history.” But Jesus “opens the horizon, broadens our vision,” and ignites hope, even “in the midst of that apocalyptic picture.”
The symbol of this day is the lunch with 1,300 poor people in the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican – with the theme “The prayer of the poor ascends to God” (cf. Ecclesiasticus 21,5) – which the Holy Father shared after the Angelus with the collaboration of the Italian Red Cross. “The poor cannot wait,” he told the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square this morning. The meal was organized by the Dicastery for Charity, and the Dicastery for Evangelization will serve those most in need with various aid initiatives. “I thank all those who in the dioceses and parishes have organized initiatives of solidarity with the most disadvantaged,” Bergoglio said from the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace after reciting the Marian prayer. “I ask a question, and each one can ask himself this question: do I deprive myself of something to give to the poor? When I give alms, do I touch the poor person’s hand and look into his eyes? “said the Pontiff.
“While part of the world is condemned to live in the marginal sectors of history, while inequalities grow and the economy punishes the weakest, while society devotes itself to the idolatry of money, it happens that the poor and “Excluded people cannot do anything other than continue waiting,” he said during the homily. In this context undermined by indifference and selfishness, the Christian faith is in danger of separating itself from charity and becoming a “harmless devotion.” At the end of his speech in the main papal basilica, Francis recalled a reflection by Card. Martini to point out the need to overcome this separation. “He said that we must be careful not to think that first there is the Church, already consolidated in itself, and then the poor that we choose to take care of. In reality, we become the Church of Jesus to the extent that we serve the poor,” said the bishop of Rome.
On the basis of hope each Christian must take charge of this urgency, because “Where there seems to be only injustice, pain and poverty, precisely in that dramatic moment the Lord approaches to free us from slavery and make life shine.” Indeed, the Kingdom of God becomes a reality if an “active faith in charity” is put into play. That is why we need “Christians who do not look the other way.” Christianity is “not a spirituality that flees from the world, but, on the contrary, a faith that opens our eyes to the suffering of the world and to the unhappiness of the poor, to exercise the same compassion of Christ.” But this attention and care should not be directed only to the great global problems, but “to the little that we can all do in our daily lives: with our lifestyle, with attention and care for the environment in which we live, with constant search for justice, sharing our goods with the poorest, committing ourselves socially and politically to improve the reality that surrounds us.”
“I say it to the Church, I say it to the Governments, I say it to the international Organizations, I say it to each one and everyone: please, let us not forget the poor,” he concluded in his homily. At the end of the reflection after the Angelus, the Pope, as always, did not forget to ask for prayers for peace “in the tormented Ukraine, in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, in Myanmar, in Sudan.” “War makes people inhuman and induces them to tolerate unacceptable crimes. Let the rulers listen to the cry of the people who ask for peace,” he insisted, addressing all those who are called to govern the nations that suffer the violence of conflicts. .
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