SUMMARY:
-
POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: AN INVITATION TO EVANGELICAL POVERTY IN
OUR TIME
-
PRESENTATION OF THE POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: “POVERTY AND
DESTITUTION ARE DIFFERENT”
______________________________________
POPE'S
MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: AN INVITATION TO EVANGELICAL POVERTY IN OUR
TIME
Vatican
City, 4 February 2014 (VIS) – “He became poor, so that by his
poverty you might become rich” is the title of the Holy Father's
Message for Lent 2014. The title is drawn from the Second Letter of
St. Paul to the Corinthians in which the apostle encourages them to
show their generosity by helping their brothers in Jerusalem, who
were experiencing difficulties. In the document, dated 26 December,
feast of St. Stephen protomartyr, the Pope explores the meaning of
St. Paul's invitation to evangelical poverty in our times. The full
text of the message is published below:
“Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
As
Lent draws near, I would like to offer some helpful thoughts on our
path of conversion as individuals and as a community. These insights
are inspired by the words of Saint Paul: 'For you know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he
became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich'. The
Apostle was writing to the Christians of Corinth to encourage them to
be generous in helping the faithful in Jerusalem who were in need.
What do these words of Saint Paul mean for us Christians today? What
does this invitation to poverty, a life of evangelical poverty, mean
to us today?
Christ’s
grace
First
of all, it shows us how God works. He does not reveal himself cloaked
in worldly power and wealth but rather in weakness and poverty:
'though He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor …'. Christ,
the eternal Son of God, one with the Father in power and glory, chose
to be poor; he came amongst us and drew near to each of us; he set
aside his glory and emptied himself so that he could be like us in
all things. God’s becoming man is a great mystery! But the reason
for all this is his love, a love which is grace, generosity, a desire
to draw near, a love which does not hesitate to offer itself in
sacrifice for the beloved. Charity, love, is sharing with the one we
love in all things. Love makes us similar, it creates equality, it
breaks down walls and eliminates distances. God did this with us.
Indeed, Jesus 'worked with human hands, thought with a human mind,
acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the
Virgin Mary, he truly became one of us, like us in all things except
sin'.
By
making himself poor, Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake but,
as Saint Paul says 'that by his poverty you might become rich'. This
is no mere play on words or a catch phrase. Rather, it sums up God’s
logic, the logic of love, the logic of the incarnation and the cross.
God did not let our salvation drop down from heaven, like someone who
gives alms from their abundance out of a sense of altruism and piety.
Christ’s love is different! When Jesus stepped into the waters of
the Jordan and was baptised by John the Baptist, he did so not
because he was in need of repentance, or conversion; he did it to be
among people who need forgiveness, among us sinners, and to take upon
himself the burden of our sins. In this way he chose to comfort us,
to save us, to free us from our misery. It is striking that the
Apostle states that we were set free, not by Christ’s riches but by
his poverty. Yet Saint Paul is well aware of the 'the unsearchable
riches of Christ', that he is 'heir of all things'.
So
what is this poverty by which Christ frees us and enriches us? It is
his way of loving us, his way of being our neighbour, just as the
Good Samaritan was neighbour to the man left half dead by the side of
the road. What gives us true freedom, true salvation and true
happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of his love.
Christ’s poverty which enriches us is his taking flesh and bearing
our weaknesses and sins as an expression of God’s infinite mercy to
us. Christ’s poverty is the greatest treasure of all: Jesus wealth
is that of his boundless confidence in God the Father, his constant
trust, his desire always and only to do the Father’s will and give
glory to him. Jesus is rich in the same way as a child who feels
loved and who loves its parents, without doubting their love and
tenderness for an instant. Jesus’ wealth lies in his being the Son;
his unique relationship with the Father is the sovereign prerogative
of this Messiah who is poor. When Jesus asks us to take up his 'yoke
which is easy', he asks us to be enriched by his 'poverty which is
rich' and his 'richness which is poor', to share his filial and
fraternal Spirit, to become sons and daughters in the Son, brothers
and sisters in the first-born brother.
It
has been said that the only real regret lies in not being a saint (L.
Bloy); we could also say that there is only one real kind of poverty:
not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.
Our
witness
We
might think that this 'way' of poverty was Jesus’ way, whereas we
who come after him can save the world with the right kind of human
resources. This is not the case. In every time and place God
continues to save mankind and the world through the poverty of
Christ, who makes himself poor in the sacraments, in his word and in
his Church, which is a people of the poor. God’s wealth passes not
through our wealth, but invariably and exclusively through our
personal and communal poverty, enlivened by the Spirit of Christ.
In
imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the
poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own
and to take practical steps to alleviate it. Destitution is not the
same as poverty: destitution is poverty without faith, without
support, without hope. There are three types of destitution:
material, moral and spiritual. Material destitution is what is
normally called poverty, and affects those living in conditions
opposed to human dignity: those who lack basic rights and needs such
as food, water, hygiene, work and the opportunity to develop and grow
culturally. In response to this destitution, the Church offers her
help, her diakonia, in meeting these needs and binding these wounds
which disfigure the face of humanity. In the poor and outcast we see
Christ’s face; by loving and helping the poor, we love and serve
Christ. Our efforts are also directed to ending violations of human
dignity, discrimination and abuse in the world, for these are so
often the cause of destitution. When power, luxury and money become
idols, they take priority over the need for a fair distribution of
wealth. Our consciences thus need to be converted to justice,
equality, simplicity and sharing.
No
less a concern is moral destitution, which consists in slavery to
vice and sin. How much pain is caused in families because one of
their members – often a young person - is in thrall to alcohol,
drugs, gambling or pornography! How many people no longer see meaning
in life or prospects for the future, how many have lost hope! And how
many are plunged into this destitution by unjust social conditions,
by unemployment, which takes away their dignity as breadwinners, and
by lack of equal access to education and health care. In such cases,
moral destitution can be considered impending suicide. This type of
destitution, which also causes financial ruin, is invariably linked
to the spiritual destitution which we experience when we turn away
from God and reject his love. If we think we don’t need God who
reaches out to us though Christ, because we believe we can make do on
our own, we are headed for a fall. God alone can truly save and free
us.
The
Gospel is the real antidote to spiritual destitution: wherever we go,
we are called as Christians to proclaim the liberating news that
forgiveness for sins committed is possible, that God is greater than
our sinfulness, that he freely loves us at all times and that we were
made for communion and eternal life. The Lord asks us to be joyous
heralds of this message of mercy and hope! It is thrilling to
experience the joy of spreading this good news, sharing the treasure
entrusted to us, consoling broken hearts and offering hope to our
brothers and sisters experiencing darkness. It means following and
imitating Jesus, who sought out the poor and sinners as a shepherd
lovingly seeks his lost sheep. In union with Jesus, we can
courageously open up new paths of evangelisation and human promotion.
Dear
brothers and sisters, may this Lenten season find the whole Church
ready to bear witness to all those who live in material, moral and
spiritual destitution the Gospel message of the merciful love of God
our Father, who is ready to embrace everyone in Christ. We can so
this to the extent that we imitate Christ who became poor and
enriched us by his poverty. Lent is a fitting time for self-denial;
we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to
help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that
real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of
penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.
May
the Holy Spirit, through whom we are 'as poor, yet making many rich;
as having nothing, and yet possessing everything', sustain us in our
resolutions and increase our concern and responsibility for human
destitution, so that we can become merciful and act with mercy. In
expressing this hope, I likewise pray that each individual member of
the faithful and every Church community will undertake a fruitful
Lenten journey. I ask all of you to pray for me. May the Lord bless
you and Our Lady keep you safe”.
PRESENTATION
OF THE POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: “POVERTY AND DESTITUTION ARE
DIFFERENT”
Vatican
City, 4 February 2014 (VIS) – A press conference was held in the
Holy See Press Office this morning to present the Holy Father's
Message for Lent 2014. The speakers were Cardinal Robert Sarah,
president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”, Msgr. Giampietro
Dal Toso and Msgr. Segundo Tejado Munoz, respectively secretary and
under-secretary of the same dicastery, and the couple Davide Dotta
and Anna Zumbo, missionaries in Haiti.
Before
the presentation, the president of Cor Unum announced that he will
visit Haiti again in March, in order to open a school financed on
behalf of the Pope as a sign of his closeness to the Haitian
population, afflicted in 2010 by an earthquake which claimed more
than 220,000 victims and affected a total of more than 3 million
people.
Cardinal
Sarah then went on to explain that the text of this year's Message
from the Pope for Lent focuses on poverty, and Christ's poverty in
particular; a concept very dear to Pope Francis, who since the
beginning of his pontificate has attempted to emphasise this
dimension of Christian life. “Certainly, the Christian vision of
poverty is not the same as that which is commonly held. Too often we
consider poverty from a sociological perspective, and it is
understood as a lack of material goods. Furthermore, the concept of a
“poor Church for the poor” is often evoked as a sort of challenge
to the Church, unfortunately also setting a Church of the poor, a
good Church … against a Church of preaching and truth, a Church
dedicated to prayer and to the defence of doctrine and morals”.
“The
first point of reference for a Christian to understand poverty is
indeed Christ, who made himself poor so that he could enrich us
through his poverty. … The choice of poverty by Christ suggests to
us that there exists a positive dimension of poverty; this resonates
throughout the Gospel, which proclaims that the poor are blessed. It
is clear that in this dimension of poverty there is an aspect of
despoliation and sacrifice. But this is possible because 'Jesus’
wealth lies in his being the Son'. We cannot set our bourgeois
consciences at rest, the Pope means, by denouncing material lack on
the part of others or denouncing poverty as a system. … The Lenten
Message we are presenting here today makes an important distinction
between poverty and destitution. It is not poverty, which is an
evangelical attitude, but rather destitution that we wish to combat.
The Holy Father, in his Message, lists three forms of destitution:
material, moral and spiritual. The first 'affects those living in
conditions opposed to human dignity'. Faced with this form of
destitution, the Church offers her service, 'her diakonia, in meeting
these needs and binding these wounds which disfigure the face of
humanity'. Moral destitution consists in slavery to vice and sin.
This form of destitution is also the cause of economic ruin, and is
always linked to spiritual destitution, which occurs when we drift
away from God and refuse His love”.
“I
believe that this broad view of poverty, of destitution, and as a
consequence the help that the Church may offer humanity, help us also
to arrive at a more complete vision of man and his needs, without
falling in the trap of anthropological reductionism which claims to
resolve all the problems of the human person simply by resolving the
problems of physical and material well-being”.
The
president of Cor Unum recalled that in the Apostolic Exhortation
“Evangelii Gaudium”, Pope Francis writes that “Our preferential
option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and
preferential religious care”. He affirmed that this concept is
fundamental “so as not to transform the Church into that
non-governmental organisation that Pope Francis spoke about in his
first Holy Mass as Pontiff with the Cardinal Fathers. It would be a
great pity if our gaze upon those in need failed to acknowledge the
spiritual poverty that often lurks in the heart of man and pains him
deeply, even though he may be in a condition of material comfort. …
But if we wish to fully grasp Pope Francis' Message, we must not
consider it only in terms of its anthropological value. Man is by
nature the son of God. This is his wealth! The great flaw of modern
culture is that it has imagined mankind capable of being happy
without God, thus denying that which is most profound in the human
person: that is, his existential bond with the Father Who grants him
life. … Thus, it is a crime to deprive the poor of the presence of
God, just as it is a crime to consider man and allow man to live as
if God did not exist, to negate his being as a creation and therefore
his fundamental belonging and affiliation with God. … Therefore,
work in development cannot be simply that of creating new needs, but
rather taking a serious look at what the person truly is”.
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