Thursday, June 27, 2013
520. By what is love for the poor inspired? (part 3 continuation)
(Comp 520 repetition) Love for the poor is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes and by the
example of Jesus in his constant concern for the poor. Jesus said, “Whatever
you have done to the least of my brethren, you have done to me” (Matthew
25:40). Love for the poor shows itself through the struggle against material
poverty and also against the many forms of cultural, moral, and religious
poverty. The spiritual and corporal works of mercy and the many charitable
institutions formed throughout the centuries are a concrete witness to the
preferential love for the poor which characterizes the disciples of Jesus.
“In brief”
(CCC 2462) Giving alms to the poor is a witness to fraternal
charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 2449) Beginning with the Old Testament, all kinds of
juridical measures (the jubilee year of forgiveness of debts, prohibition of
loans at interest and the keeping of collateral, the obligation to tithe, the
daily payment of the day-laborer, the right to glean vines and fields) answer
the exhortation of Deuteronomy:
"For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you,
'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in
the land'" (Deut 15:11). Jesus makes these words his own: "The poor
you always have with you, but you do not always have me" (Jn 12:8). In so
doing he does not soften the vehemence of former oracles against "buying
the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals…," but invites us
to recognize his own presence in the poor who are his brethren (Am 8:6; cf. Mt
25:40): When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at
home, St. Rose of Lima said to her: "When we serve the poor and the sick,
we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we
serve Jesus (P. Hansen, Vita mirabilis
(Louvain, 1668).
Reflection
(CCC 2448) "In its various forms - material
deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death - human misery is the obvious sign of the
inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds
himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion
of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself
with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are
the object of a preferential love on
the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of
many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and
liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always
and everywhere (CDF, instruction, Libertatis
conscientia, 68). [END]
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