World Day of the Poor

We are celebrating the fifth World Day of the Poor, an initiative strongly desired by Pope Francis, at the conclusion of the 2016 Jubilee of Mercy, to urge the Church and the faithful to “go out”, to encounter poverty in the various meanings in which it manifests itself in the modern world and to reach out to those most in need.

The motto chosen to promote the Day this year comes from Mark’s Gospel,

“The poor you always have with you” (Mk 14:7), released by Pope Francis in his message of 13 June:

“The poor of every condition and every latitude evangelise us, because they allow us to rediscover in an ever new way the most genuine features of the Father’s face”.

“Jesus reminds them that the first poor person is Himself, the poorest of the poor because He represents them all.
And it is also in the name of the poor, of the lonely, marginalised and discriminated against that the Son of God accepts the gesture of that woman.

With her feminine sensitivity, she shows that she is the only one who understands the Lord’s state of mind. This anonymous woman, destined perhaps for this reason to represent the entire female universe which throughout the centuries will have no voice and will suffer violence, inaugurates the significant presence of women who take part in the culminating moment of Christ’s life: his crucifixion, death and burial and his appearance as the Risen One. Women, so often discriminated against and kept away from positions of responsibility, in the pages of the Gospels are instead protagonists in the history of revelation.

And the concluding expression of Jesus is eloquent, associating this woman with the great evangelising mission: “Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, for the whole world, in remembrance of her it will also be said what she did” (Mk 14:9).

This strong “empathy” between Jesus and the woman, and the way he interprets her anointing, in contrast to the scandalised view of Judas and others, opens up a fruitful avenue for reflection on the inseparable link between Jesus, the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel.” 

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF POPE FRANCIS WE PUT INTO CIRCULATION

“COMMITMENTS WITHOUT PROTAGONISM” …BY WOMEN