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VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - N° 23
DATE 04-02-2014
Summary:
- POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: AN INVITATION TO EVANGELICAL POVERTY IN OUR
TIME
- PRESENTATION OF THE POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: “POVERTY AND
DESTITUTION ARE DIFFERENT”
___________________________________________________________
POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: AN INVITATION TO EVANGELICAL POVERTY IN OUR TIME
Vatican City, 4 February 2014 (VIS) – “He became poor, so that by
his poverty you might become rich” is the title of the Holy Father's
Message for Lent 2014. The title is drawn from the Second Letter of St. Paul
to the Corinthians in
which the apostle encourages them to show their generosity by helping their
brothers in Jerusalem, who were experiencing difficulties. In the document,
dated 26 December, feast of St. Stephen protomartyr, the Pope explores the
meaning of St. Paul's
invitation to evangelical poverty in our times. The full text of the message
is published below:
“Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As Lent draws near, I would like to offer some helpful thoughts on our path of
conversion as individuals and as a community. These insights are inspired by
the words of Saint Paul: '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'. The Apostle was writing to the Christians of Corinth to
encourage them to be generous in helping the faithful in Jerusalem who were in
need. What do these words of
Saint Paul mean for us Christians today? What does this invitation to poverty,
a life of evangelical poverty, mean to us today?
Christ’s grace
First of all, it shows us how God works. He does not reveal himself cloaked in
worldly power and wealth but rather in weakness and poverty: 'though He was
rich, yet for your sake he became poor …'. Christ, the eternal Son of
God, one with the
Father in power and glory, chose to be poor; he came amongst us and drew near
to each of us; he set aside his glory and emptied himself so that he could be
like us in all things. God’s becoming man is a great mystery! But the
reason for all this
is his love, a love which is grace, generosity, a desire to draw near, a love
which does not hesitate to offer itself in sacrifice for the beloved. Charity,
love, is sharing with the one we love in all things. Love makes us similar, it
creates equality,
it breaks down walls and eliminates distances. God did this with us. Indeed,
Jesus 'worked with human hands, thought with a human mind, acted by human
choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, he truly became
one o
f us,
like us in all things except sin'.
By making himself poor, Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake but, as
Saint Paul says 'that by his poverty you might become rich'. This is no mere
play on words or a catch phrase. Rather, it sums up God’s logic, the
logic of love, the logic
of the incarnation and the cross. 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 baptised 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. In this way he chose to
comfort us, to save us, to free us from our misery. It is striking that the
Apostle states that we were set free, not by Christ’s riches but by his
poverty. Yet Saint Paul is well aware of the 'the unsearchable riches of Christ
',
that he is 'heir of all things'.
So what is this poverty by which Christ frees us and enriches us? It is his
way of loving us, his way of being our neighbour, just as the Good Samaritan
was neighbour to the man left half dead by the side of the road. What gives us
true freedom, true
salvation and true happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of
his love. Christ’s poverty which enriches us is his taking flesh and
bearing our weaknesses and sins as an expression of God’s infinite mercy
to us. Christ’s
poverty is the greatest treasure of all: Jesus wealth is that of his boundless
confidence in God the Father, his constant trust, his desire always and only
to do the Father’s will and give glory to him. Jesus is rich in the same
way as a child who
feels loved and who loves its parents, without doubting their love and
tenderness for an instant. Jesus’ wealth lies in his being the Son; his
unique relationship with the Father is the sovereign prerogative of this
Messiah wh
o is
poor. When Jesus asks us to take up his 'yoke which is easy', he asks us to be
enriched by his 'poverty which is rich' and his 'richness which is poor', to
share his filial and fraternal Spirit, to become sons and daughters in the
Son, brothers and
sisters in the first-born brother.
It has been said that the only real regret lies in not being a saint (L.
Bloy); we could also say that there is only one real kind of poverty: not
living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.
Our witness
We might think that this 'way' of poverty was Jesus’ way, whereas we who
come after him can save the world with the right kind of human resources. This
is not the case. In every time and place God continues to save mankind and the
world through
the poverty of Christ, who makes himself poor in the sacraments, in his word
and in his Church, which is a people of the poor. God’s wealth passes
not through our wealth, but invariably and exclusively through our personal
and communal poverty,
enlivened by the Spirit of Christ.
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. There are three types of destitution:
material, moral and spiritual. Material destitution is what is normally called
poverty, and affects those living in conditions opposed to human dignity:
those who lack basic
rights and needs such as food, water, hygiene, work and the opportunity to
develop and grow culturally. In response to this destitution, the Church
offers her help, her diakonia, in meeting these needs and binding these wounds
which disfigure the face
of humanity. In the poor and outcast we see Christ’s face; by loving and
helping the poor, we love and serve Christ. Our efforts are also directed to
ending violations of human dignity, discrimination and abuse in the world, for
these
are so often the cause of destitution. When power, luxury and money become
idols, they take priority over the need for a fair distribution of wealth. Our
consciences thus need to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity and
sharing.
No less a concern is moral destitution, which consists in slavery to vice and
sin. How much pain is caused in families because one of their members –
often a young person - is in thrall to alcohol, drugs, gambling or
pornography! How many people
no longer see meaning in life or prospects for the future, how many have lost
hope! And how many are plunged into this destitution by unjust social
conditions, by unemployment, which takes away their dignity as breadwinners,
and by lack of equal access
to education and health care. In such cases, moral destitution can be
considered impending suicide. This type of destitution, which also causes
financial ruin, is invariably linked to the spiritual destitution which we
experience when we turn away from
God and reject his love. If we think we don’t need God who reaches out
to us though Christ, because we believe we can make do on our own, we are
headed for a fall. God alone can truly save and free us.
The Gospel is the real antidote to spiritual destitution: wherever we go, we
are called as Christians to proclaim the liberating news that forgiveness for
sins committed is possible, that God is greater than our sinfulness, that he
freely loves us at
all times and that we were made for communion and eternal life. The Lord asks
us to be joyous heralds of this message of mercy and hope! It is thrilling to
experience the joy of spreading this good news, sharing the treasure entrusted
to us, consoling
broken hearts and offering hope to our brothers and sisters experiencing
darkness. It means following and imitating Jesus, who sought out the poor and
sinners as a shepherd lovingly seeks his lost sheep. In union with Jesus, we
can courageously open up
new paths of evangelisation and human promotion.
Dear brothers and sisters, may this Lenten season find the whole Church ready
to bear witness to all those who live in material, moral and spiritual
destitution the Gospel message of the merciful love of God our Father, who is
ready to embrace everyone
in Christ. We can so this to the extent that we imitate Christ who became poor
and enriched us by his poverty. Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we
would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich
others by our own
poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real
without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and
does not hurt.
May the Holy Spirit, through whom we are 'as poor, yet making many rich; as
having nothing, and yet possessing everything', sustain us in our resolutions
and increase our concern and responsibility for human destitution, so that we
can become merciful
and act with mercy. In expressing this hope, I likewise pray that each
individual member of the faithful and every Church community will undertake a
fruitful Lenten journey. I ask all of you to pray for me. May the Lord bless
you and Our Lady keep you
safe”.
___________________________________________________________
PRESENTATION OF THE POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: “POVERTY AND
DESTITUTION ARE DIFFERENT”
Vatican City, 4 February 2014 (VIS) – A press conference was held in the
Holy See Press Office this morning to present the Holy Father's Message for
Lent 2014. The speakers were Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the
Pontifical Council “Cor
Unum”, Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso and Msgr. Segundo Tejado Munoz,
respectively secretary and under-secretary of the same dicastery, and the
couple Davide Dotta and Anna Zumbo, missionaries in Haiti.
Before the presentation, the president of Cor Unum announced that he will
visit Haiti again in March, in order to open a school financed on behalf of
the Pope as a sign of his closeness to the Haitian population, afflicted in
2010 by an earthquake which
claimed more than 220,000 victims and affected a total of more than 3 million
people.
Cardinal Sarah then went on to explain that the text of this year's Message
from the Pope for Lent focuses on poverty, and Christ's poverty in particular;
a concept very dear to Pope Francis, who since the beginning of his
pontificate has attempted to
emphasise this dimension of Christian life. “Certainly, the Christian
vision of poverty is not the same as that which is commonly held. Too often we
consider poverty from a sociological perspective, and it is understood as a
lack of material
goods. Furthermore, the concept of a “poor Church for the poor” is
often evoked as a sort of challenge to the Church, unfortunately also setting
a Church of the poor, a good Church … against a Church of preaching and
truth, a Church
dedicated to prayer and to the defence of doctrine and morals”.
“The first point of reference for a Christian to understand poverty is
indeed Christ, who made himself poor so that he could enrich us through his
poverty. … The choice of poverty by Christ suggests to us that there
exists a positive
dimension of poverty; this resonates throughout the Gospel, which proclaims
that the poor are blessed. It is clear that in this dimension of poverty there
is an aspect of despoliation and sacrifice. But this is possible because
'Jesus’ wealth lies
in his being the Son'. We cannot set our bourgeois consciences at rest, the
Pope means, by denouncing material lack on the part of others or denouncing
poverty as a system. … The Lenten Message we are presenting here today
makes an important
distinction between poverty and destitution. It is not poverty, which is an
evangelical attitude, but rather destitution that we wish to combat. The Holy
Father, in his Message, lists three forms of destitution: material, moral and
spiritua
l. The
first 'affects those living in conditions opposed to human dignity'. Faced
with this form of destitution, the Church offers her service, 'her diakonia,
in meeting these needs and binding these wounds which disfigure the face of
humanity'. Moral
destitution consists in slavery to vice and sin. This form of destitution is
also the cause of economic ruin, and is always linked to spiritual
destitution, which occurs when we drift away from God and refuse His
love”.
“I believe that this broad view of poverty, of destitution, and as a
consequence the help that the Church may offer humanity, help us also to
arrive at a more complete vision of man and his needs, without falling in the
trap of anthropological
reductionism which claims to resolve all the problems of the human person
simply by resolving the problems of physical and material well-being”.
The president of Cor Unum recalled that in the Apostolic Exhortation
“Evangelii Gaudium”, Pope Francis writes that “Our
preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and
preferential religious care”. He
affirmed that this concept is fundamental “so as not to transform the
Church into that non-governmental organisation that Pope Francis spoke about
in his first Holy Mass as Pontiff with the Cardinal Fathers. It would be a
great pity if our gaze
upon those in need failed to acknowledge the spiritual poverty that often
lurks in the heart of man and pains him deeply, even though he may be in a
condition of material comfort. … But if we wish to fully grasp Pope
Francis' Message, we must not
consider it only in terms of its anthropological value. Man is by nature the
son of God. This is his wealth! The great flaw of modern culture is that it
has imagined mankind capable of being happy without God, thus denying that whi
ch is
most profound in the human person: that is, his existential bond with the
Father Who grants him life. … Thus, it is a crime to deprive the poor
of the presence of God, just as it is a crime to consider man and allow man to
live as if God did not
exist, to negate his being as a creation and therefore his fundamental
belonging and affiliation with God. … Therefore, work in development
cannot be simply that of creating new needs, but rather taking a serious look
at what the person truly
is”.
___________________________________________________________
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VISnews140204
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE YEAR XXII - N° 23DATE 04-02-2014
Summary: - POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: AN
INVITATION TO EVANGELICAL
POVERTY IN OUR TIME - PRESENTATION OF THE POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014:
“POVERTY AND DESTITUTION ARE DIFFERENT”
POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2014: AN INVITATION TO EVANGELICAL POVERTY IN OUR
TIME
Vatican City, 4 February 2014 (VIS) – “He became poor, so that
by his poverty you might become rich” is the title of the Holy Father's
Message for Lent 2014. The title is drawn from the Second Letter of St. Paul
to the Corinthians
in which the apostle encourages them to show their generosity by helping their
brothers in Jerusalem, who were experiencing difficulties. In the document,
dated 26 December, feast of St. Stephen protomartyr, the Pope explores the
meaning of St. Paul's
invitation to evangelical poverty in our times. The full text of the message
is published below:
“Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As Lent draws near, I would like to offer some helpful thoughts on our path
of conversion as individuals and as a community. These insights are inspired
by the words of Saint Paul: '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'. The Apostle was writing to the Christians of Corinth to
encourage them to be generous in helping the faithful in Jerusalem who were in
need. What do these words of
Saint Paul mean for us Christians today? What does this invitation to poverty,
a life of evangelical poverty, mean to us today?
Christ’s grace
First of all, it shows us how God works. He does not reveal himself cloaked
in worldly power and wealth but rather in weakness and poverty: 'though He was
rich, yet for your sake he became poor …'. Christ, the eternal Son of
God, one with the
Father in power and glory, chose to be poor; he came amongst us and drew near
to each of us; he set aside his glory and emptied himself so that he could be
like us in all things. God’s becoming man is a great mystery! But the
reason for all this
is his love, a love which is grace, generosity, a desire to draw near, a love
which does not hesitate to offer itself in sacrifice for the beloved. Charity,
love, is sharing with the one we love in all things. Love makes us similar, it
creates equality,
it breaks down walls and eliminates distances. God did this with us. Indeed,
Jesus 'worked with human hands, thought with a human mind, acted by human
choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, he
truly became one of us, like us in all things except sin'.
By making himself poor, Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake but, as
Saint Paul says 'that by his poverty you might become rich'. This is no mere
play on words or a catch phrase. Rather, it sums up God’s logic, the
logic of love, the
logic of the incarnation and the cross. 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 baptised 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. In this way he
chose to comfort us, to save us, to free us from our misery. It is striking
that the Apostle states that we were set free, not by Christ’s riches
but by his poverty. Yet Saint Paul is well aware of the 'the
unsearchable riches of Christ', that he is 'heir of all things'.
So what is this poverty by which Christ frees us and enriches us? It is his
way of loving us, his way of being our neighbour, just as the Good Samaritan
was neighbour to the man left half dead by the side of the road. What gives us
true freedom, true
salvation and true happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of
his love. Christ’s poverty which enriches us is his taking flesh and
bearing our weaknesses and sins as an expression of God’s infinite mercy
to us. Christ’s
poverty is the greatest treasure of all: Jesus wealth is that of his boundless
confidence in God the Father, his constant trust, his desire always and only
to do the Father’s will and give glory to him. Jesus is rich in the same
way as a child who
feels loved and who loves its parents, without doubting their love and
tenderness for an instant. Jesus’ wealth lies in his being the Son; his
unique relationship with the Father is the sovereign prerogative of this
Messiah
who is poor. When Jesus asks us to take up his 'yoke which is easy', he asks
us to be enriched by his 'poverty which is rich' and his 'richness which is
poor', to share his filial and fraternal Spirit, to become sons and daughters
in the Son, brothers
and sisters in the first-born brother.
It has been said that the only real regret lies in not being a saint (L.
Bloy); we could also say that there is only one real kind of poverty: not
living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.
Our witness
We might think that this 'way' of poverty was Jesus’ way, whereas we
who come after him can save the world with the right kind of human resources.
This is not the case. In every time and place God continues to save mankind
and the world through
the poverty of Christ, who makes himself poor in the sacraments, in his word
and in his Church, which is a people of the poor. God’s wealth passes
not through our wealth, but invariably and exclusively through our personal
and communal poverty,
enlivened by the Spirit of Christ.
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. There are three types of
destitution: material, moral and spiritual. Material destitution is what is
normally called poverty, and affects those living in conditions opposed to
human dignity: those who lack
basic rights and needs such as food, water, hygiene, work and the opportunity
to develop and grow culturally. In response to this destitution, the Church
offers her help, her diakonia, in meeting these needs and binding these wounds
which disfigure the
face of humanity. In the poor and outcast we see Christ’s face; by
loving and helping the poor, we love and serve Christ. Our efforts are also
directed to ending violations of human dignity, discrimination and abuse in
the world,
for these are so often the cause of destitution. When power, luxury and money
become idols, they take priority over the need for a fair distribution of
wealth. Our consciences thus need to be converted to justice, equality,
simplicity and sharing.
No less a concern is moral destitution, which consists in slavery to vice
and sin. How much pain is caused in families because one of their members
– often a young person - is in thrall to alcohol, drugs, gambling or
pornography! How many
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