It is appropriate that on Sunday, after mass, we do the training for all of those who are volunteering to be part of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. This is a group dedicated to helping those in material need, though helping with food parcels, serving at soup kitchens, promoting and supporting recycling, food gardens and environmental action in our neighborhood and so much more. It is also why next Sunday I will be unpacking for the community exactly what Pope Leo says in his exhortation Dilexi Te, “On Love for the Poor”.
I include below two paragraphs that are rich with meaning and worth reflecting on and praying over. The first, paragraph 111, is the rationale for our ministry to the materially poor and those who are socially marginalized and lack the means of giving voice to their dignity and abilities. It is the basis for what the document calls “our preferential option for the poor.” This is the kind of poverty that an organization like SSVP focuses on.
There are obviously many other kinds of poverty. In paragraph 9 of DT Pope Leo speaks of moral and spiritual poverty, cultural poverty, the poverty of those who find themselves in a condition of personal or social weakness or fragility, and the poverty of those who have no rights, no space, no freedom.
As a Church community we are called upon to address all and every kind of poverty, in its complicated diversity. This may at times lead to tensions between different groups within the church who may focus on different aspects of the life of our community, whether it is feeding bodies, feeding minds, feeding souls or feeding hearts. We need to remember that what unites our service and guides our priorities is the love which Pope Leo speaks of in DT 120. The process of creating and casting a vision that our parish has gone through has led us to vision which resonates strongly with this paragraph. It is a promise, a hope and an invitation.
- By her very nature the Church is in solidarity with the poor, the excluded, the marginalized and all those considered the outcast of society. The poor are at the heart of the Church because “our faith in Christ, who became poor, and was always close to the poor and the outcast, is the basis of our concern for the integral development of society’s most neglected members.” In our hearts, we encounter “the need to heed this plea, born of the liberating action of grace within each of us, and so it is not a matter of a mission reserved only to a few.”
- Christian love breaks down every barrier, brings close those who were distant, unites strangers, and reconciles enemies. It spans chasms that are humanly impossible to bridge, and it penetrates to the most hidden crevices of society. By its very nature, Christian love is prophetic: it works miracles and knows no limits. It makes what was apparently impossible happen. Love is above all a way of looking at life and a way of living it. A Church that sets no limits to love, that knows no enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today. Experience Christ’s love through Worship, Service and Community!
