Pastoral aid
Presentation
This poor cries and the Lord listens to him
«This poor cries and the Lord hears him», these are the words of Psalm 34 that frame the Second World Day of the Poor and around which the Message that Pope Francis wanted to offer to the Church can be summarized in three words: shout, respond and free.
These are three verbs that identify God's action and reveal his merciful love for man. Poverty does not remain a word, but "it becomes a cry that crosses the heavens and reaches God" (n.2). The Lord, in turn, not only listens to this desperate request for help, but responds by participating in the condition of the poor to "restore justice and to help resume life with dignity" (No. 3). The hope of the poor does not remain disappointed and God intervenes in his favor to give him back the lost dignity and to make him feel free from the "imprisonment of poverty" (No. 4).
These verbs also concern us and should make us ready to understand that poors, even in our time, cry every day. Considering the blind Bartimaeus as his icon (see Mark 10.46-52), Pope Francis emphasizes how many poor people can be identified in this poor man on the edge of the road, which many wanted to silence. Even today, in fact, "the voices that are heard are those of the reproach and of the invitation to be silent and to suffer" (n.5). This cry, however, often fails to reach our ears and touch our hearts, leaving us indifferent and unable to respond. In fact, poors, too many times are considered "not only as indigent people, but also as bearers of insecurity, instability, disorientation from daily habits and, therefore, they are rejected and kept away" (n.5). Yet the salvation of God should take form of our helping hand towards the poor, making him feel the friendship he needs and making him experience the closeness that makes him feel free: "Every Christian and every community are called to be God's instruments for the liberation and promotion of the poor "(Evangelii gaudium, 187).
This instrument intends to be a simple help offered to dioceses, parishes and to all the various ecclesial realities, to prepare to live the Second World Day of the Poor, because once again this moment can be a stronger one to look more towards poors , listen to their cry and do not let them miss our help and our closeness.
+ Rino Fisichella
President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization