Not surprisingly Pope Francis chose a passage from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians for his first Lenten message as our Holy Father. The passage, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9), addresses Jesus’ self-impoverishment in setting aside his divinity to become human and what this message to evangelical poverty means to us today.
Pope Francis explains that God did not let our salvation drop down from heaven, “like someone who gives alms from their abundance out of a sense of altruism and piety. Christ’s love is different! When Jesus stepped into the waters of the Jordan and was baptized by John the Baptist, he did so not because he was in need of repentance, or conversion; he did it to be among people who need forgiveness, among us sinners, and to take upon himself the burden of our sins.”
“This poverty by which Christ frees us and enriches us,” Pope Francis continues, “is his way of loving us, his way of being our neighbor, just as the Good Samaritan was neighbor to the man left half dead by the side of the road (cf. Lk 10:25ff). What gives us true freedom, true salvation and true happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of His love.”
Today, the Holy Father reminds us, “In imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own, and to take practical steps to alleviate it. Destitution is not the same as poverty: destitution is poverty without faith, without support, without hope.”
Two of the three types of destitution to be addressed today are Material Destitution, normally called poverty, which strips people of their human dignity and basic rights such as work, food, water and hygiene; and Moral Destitution, which consists of “slavery to vice and sin.” The latter type also causes financial ruin, which is invariably linked to the third type of destitution: Spiritual Destitution, which the Holy Father says, “we experience when we turn away from God and reject his love.”
As Christians, we are called by Pope Francis to bring Jesus’ mercy, compassion and love to the destitute brothers and sisters who live among us every day.
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