Letter to be read out at Masses
either at the weekend of 11th/12th or 18th/19th November 2017
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I write to let you know that Pope Francis has inaugurated an annual “World Day of the Poor”. This Sunday [next Sunday] is the first.
Pope Francis is well known for the many ways he has reached out to meet people in situations of poverty. He has gone to their hostels, joined them in the lunch queue, taken a tray of food in the canteen and ate with them at table. He has travelled to Lampedusa, an island in the South of Italy where migrants and refugees land. He regularly visits prisons. He often speaks out about the many new forms of poverty in our society not least through human trafficking and drug abuse.
A line from one of the psalms, “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him” (Ps 34:6) prompts Pope Francis to remind us that we too are called to hear the cry of the poor. As he puts it, “love has no alibi”. We have no excuses. One of the distinguishing signs of the early Christian community was that they shared their goods, and helped the poor. As Pope Francis put is, “this is certainly one of the first signs of the entrance of the Christian community upon the world’s stage: the service of the poor.”
Throughout the centuries we have great examples of outreach to the poor. The most outstanding example is that of Francis of Assisi, followed by many other holy men and women over the centuries. In Ireland we can think of great women such as Catherine McAuley and Nano Nagle.
Today the call to hear the cry of the poor reaches us. In our Diocese we are blessed to have the Limerick Social Services Council that responds in many ways. There are many other initiatives that reach out to the homeless, refugees, people in situations of marginalisation.
But none of us can leave it to be outsourced to others to do. Each of us has to do our part. Today many of us live a privileged life in the material sense compared to generations gone by, needing pretty much nothing. Yet there are people in our towns, in our villages for whom the need is very great.
Homelessness has become a crisis in Irish society and is that way now for a number of years. But somehow, week in week out that crisis deepens and yet we hear at the same time boasts of how our economy is growing. There’s a huge disparity here and it needs to be dealt with. It is almost unjust and unchristian for us as a nation to be aspiring to become one of the great economic success stories of Europe while at the same time we have a hidden story, in many cases, of new forms of poverty and homelessness. This must be addressed and we pray that we will do our part to help our political leaders to address the various scenarios of neglect that our country still suffers.
Pope Francis writes, “If we want to help change history and promote real development, we need to hear the cry of the poor and commit ourselves to ending their marginalization.” Apart from any particular action we might do, the Pope wants each of us to look at our lifestyle and attitudes.
And so he continues, “We are called, then, to draw near to the poor, to encounter them, to meet their gaze, to embrace them and to let them feel the warmth of love that breaks through their solitude. Their outstretched hand is also an invitation to step out of our certainties and comforts, and to acknowledge the value of poverty in itself.”
This Day of the Poor is meant, Pope Francis says, “above all, to encourage believers to react against a culture of discard and waste, and to embrace the culture of encounter… God created the heavens and the earth for all; yet sadly some have erected barriers, walls and fences, betraying the original gift meant for all humanity, with none excluded.”
There is no special collection today. Instead, let each of us in our heart decide what is it we can do in our daily lives to respond to Pope Francis’ invitation on this First World Day of the Poor.
With kind regards
+Brendan Leahy
Bishop of Limerick