Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 449 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 449 – Part II. What significance do the poor have for Christians?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Love for the poor must be in every age the distinguishing mark of Christians. The poor deserve not just a few alms; they have a claim to justice. For Christians there is a special obligation to share their goods. Our example in love for the poor is Christ.    

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2444) "The Church's love for the poor… is a part of her constant tradition." This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor (CA 57; cf. Lk 6:20-22, Mt 8:20; Mk 12:41-44). Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to "be able to give to those in need" (Eph 4:28). It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty (Cf. CA 57).     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3) - that is the first sentence in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. There is material, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual poverty. Christians must look after the needy of this earth with great consideration, love, and perseverance. After all, on no other point will they be evaluated by Christ so decisively as on their way of treating the poor: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).   

 (CCC Comment)

(CCC 2446) St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs" (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Lazaro 2, 5: PG 48, 992). "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity" (AA 8 § 5): When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice (St. Gregory the Great, Regula Pastoralis. 3, 21: PL 77, 87).  

(The next question is:  What are the “corporal works of mercy”?)