The wisdom of the poor

Notes for a homily for the US from Honduras 

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 

If I were in the U.S. I’d be tempted to give a homily like this today. 

A prominent US personality recently said,

“’Why'd you appoint rich person to be in charge of the economy?” I said, 'Because that's the kind of thinking we want, because they are representing the country…'"
"I love all people -- rich or poor -- but in those particular positions, I just don't want a poor person. Does that make sense? If you insist, I'll do it -- but I like it better this way."

But the wisdom of Jesus is radically different:

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones.”

What are our blinders - we who are rich or relatively rich in terms of the rest of the world? What can’t we see? What is hidden from us? Why might our assumed knowledge be disastrous for the impoverished of the world?

As the US bishops wrote in 1986 in Economic Justice for All, ¶87:

As individuals and as a nation, therefore, we are called to make a fundamental "option for the poor." The obligation to evaluate social and economic activity from the viewpoint of the poor and the powerless arises from the radical command to love one's neighbor as one’s self. Those who are marginalized and whose rights are denied have privileged claims if society is to provide justice for all. This obligation is deeply rooted in Christian belief. As Paul VI stated:

In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others.

John Paul II has described this special obligation to the poor as "a call to have a special openness with the small and the weak, those that suffer and weep, those that are humiliated and left on the margin of society, so as to help them win their dignity as human persons and children of God."

Enough said.

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The statue is found in front of St. Francis of Assisi Church, New York City.

US bishops on the poor thirty years ago

Thirty years ago, on November 14, 1986, the U. S. Catholic Bishops released one of their most prophetic documents, Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy.

It would be good for the bishops and all followers of Christ to read it again – or for the first time. It is available here. There are parts that reflect the reality of the 1980s but there is much in its theology and spirituality, as well in its elaboration of Catholic Social Teaching which holds true.

I would suggest that one of the most important paragraphs of this document is found in the section on “Poverty, Riches, and the Challenges of Discipleship.” Paragraph 52 reads:

Such perspectives provide a basis for what is called the “preferential option for the poor.” Though in the Gospels and in the New Testament as a whole the offer of salvation is extended to all peoples, Jesus takes the side of those most in need, physically and spiritually. The example of Jesus poses a number of challenges to the contemporary Church. It imposes a prophetic mandate to speak for those who have no one to speak for them, to be a defender of the defenseless, who in biblical terms are the poor. It also demands a compassionate vision which enables the Church to see things from the side of the poor and powerless, and to assess lifestyles, policies, and social institutions in terms of their impact on the poor. It summons the Church also to be an instrument in assisting people to experience the liberating power of God in their own lives so that they may respond to the Gospel in freedom and dignity. Finally, and most radically, it calls for an emptying of self, both individually and corporately, that allows the Church to experience the power of God in the midst of poverty and powerlessness.

The option for the poor is rooted not in politics or economics but in Jesus, God made human among the poor. This option challenges the church to speak prophetically, to provide a vision of compassion, to speak from the side of the poor, to help people experience the liberating power of God in all aspects of their lives.

These are still challenges for us – not just for the institutional church, but for all members of the People of God.

Are we prophets on the side of the poor, offering hope and assisting liberation for all forms of slavery?

But, more than this, are we willing to empty ourselves of power and wealth, leaving these to the side, not letting them control us and our choices?

The bishops based their option of the poor on the emptying of Christ (Philippians 2).

But are we all too easily swayed by wealth and power, not wanting to appear weak?

Have we forgotten the call of Pope Saint John XXIII to be a “church of the poor” and the call of Pope Francis to be a “poor church” and a “church for the poor”?

Have we closed our ears to the call Pope Francis made to the Popular Movements a few weeks ago to show a real austerity in the way we live and work?

Can we take up again the preferential option for the poor by emptying ourselves – as Jesus did?