“I tried to speak, to tell him something, but I couldn’t. The emotion was too strong,” says Vinicio Riva, the disfigured man embraced by Pope Francis in images that went viral. “It all lasted not more than a minute, but it seemed an eternity,” Riva told the Italian magazine Panorama this weekend. Riva, whose body is covered with tumors due to a rare disease, said his unusual appearance has led to a lifetime of living on the margins. That is, until he showed up at St. Peter’s Square on November 6.
My eyes lingered over this.
*******************************************
For the Church, the option for the poor is primarily a theological category rather than a cultural, sociological, political or philosophical one. God shows the poor “his first mercy”.[ JOHN PAUL II, Homily at Mass for the Evangelization of Peoples in Santo Domingo (11 October 1984)] This divine preference has consequences for the faith life of all Christians, since we are called to have “this mind… which was in Jesus Christ” (Philemon 2:5).
Inspired by this, the Church has made an option for the poor which is understood as a “special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness”.[JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30 December 1987)] This option – as Benedict XVI has taught – “is implicit in our Christian faith in a God who became poor for us, so as to enrich us with his poverty”.[Address at the Inaugural Session of the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops (13 May 2007)]
This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us. Not only do they share in the sensus fidei, but in their difficulties they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the centre of the Church’s pilgrim way. We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them.
Our commitment does not consist exclusively in activities or programmes of promotion and assistance; what the Holy Spirit mobilizes is not an unruly activism, but above all an attentiveness which considers the other “in a certain sense as one with ourselves”.[Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, q. 27, a. 2.]
This loving attentiveness is the beginning of a true concern for their person which inspires me effectively to seek their good. This entails appreciating the poor in their goodness, in their experience of life, in their culture, and in their ways of living the faith. True love is always contemplative, and permits us to serve the other not out of necessity or vanity, but rather because he or she is beautiful above and beyond mere appearances: “The love by which we find the other pleasing leads us to offer him something freely”.[Ibid., I-II, q. 110, a. 1.]
The poor person, when loved, “is esteemed as of great value”,[Ibid., I-II, q. 26, a. 3.] and this is what makes the authentic option for the poor differ from any other ideology, from any attempt to exploit the poor for one’s own personal or political interest.
Only on the basis of this real and sincere closeness can we properly accompany the poor on their path of liberation. Only this will ensure that “in every Christian community the poor feel at home. Would not this approach be the greatest and most effective presentation of the good news of the kingdom?” [JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001), 50: AAS 93 (2001)], Without the preferential option for the poor, “the proclamation of the Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today’s society of mass communications”.[Ibid]
Since this Exhortation is addressed to members of the Catholic Church, I want to say, with regret, that the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care. The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith. Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care.
No one must say that they cannot be close to the poor because their own lifestyle demands more attention to other areas. This is an excuse commonly heard in academic, business or professional, and even ecclesial circles. While it is quite true that the essential vocation and mission of the lay faithful is to strive that earthly realities and all human activity may be transformed by the Gospel, [Cf. Propositio 45.] none of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice: “Spiritual conversion, the intensity of the love of God and neighbor, zeal for justice and peace, the Gospel meaning of the poor and of poverty, are required of everyone”.[ CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Instruction Libertatis Nuntius (6 August 1984), XI, 18: AAS 76 (1984)]
I fear that these words too may give rise to commentary or discussion with no real practical effect. That being said, I trust in the openness and readiness of all Christians, and I ask you to seek, as a community, creative ways of accepting this renewed call.
