Vatican City, Nov 19, 2017 / 02:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the first World Day for the Poor, Pope Francis said caring for the needy has a saving power, because in them we see the face of Christ, and urged Christians to overcome indifference and seek ways to actively love the poor that they meet.
“In the poor, we find the presence of Jesus, who, though rich, became poor,” the Pope said Nov. 19. Because of this, “in their weakness, a saving power is present. And if in the eyes of the world they have little value, they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven.”
“They are our passport to paradise,” he said, explaining that it is an “evangelical duty” for Christians to care for the poor as our true wealth.
And to do this doesn’t mean just giving them a piece of bread, but also “breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to them,” Francis said, adding that to love the poor “means to combat all forms of poverty, spiritual and material.”
Pope Francis spoke during Mass marking the first World Day of the Poor, which takes place every 33rd Sunday of Ordinary time and is being organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.
Established by Pope Francis at the end of the Jubilee of Mercy, the World Day for the Poor this year has the theme “Love not in word, but in deed.”
In the week leading up to the event, the poor and needy had access to free medical exams at a makeshift center set up in front of St. Peter’s Square.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Council for Evangelization, led a Nov. 18 prayer vigil at Rome’s parish of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls the night before the big event. After Mass with Pope Francis, the poor will be offered a three-course lunch at different centers and organizations around Rome, including the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.
According to the Council for Evangelization, some 6-7,000 poor from around Europe, as well as some migrants from around the world, were estimated to attend the Mass along with the organizations that care for them.
In his homily, Pope Francis said no matter our social condition, everyone in life is a beggar when it comes to what is essential, which is God’s love, and which “gives meaning to our lives and a life without end. So today too, we lift up our hands to him, asking to receive his gifts.”
Turning to the day’s Gospel passage from Matthew recounting the parable of the talents, the Pope noted how in God’s eyes, everyone has talents, and consequently, “no one can think that he or she is useless, so poor as to be incapable of giving something to others.”
“God, in whose eyes no child can be neglected, entrusts to each of us a mission,” he said, explaining that God also gives us a responsibility, as is seen in the day’s Gospel.
Francis pointed to how in the day’s passage only the first two servants make their talent profitable, whereas the third buries it, prompting the master to call him “wicket and lazy.”
Asking what sin the servant had committed that was so wrong, the Pope said above all “it was his omission.”
Many times we believe that we haven’t done anything wrong, and so are content with the presumption that we are good and righteous, he said, but cautioned that with this mentality, “we risk acting like the unworthy servant: he did no wrong, he didn’t waste the talent, in fact he kept it carefully hidden in the ground.”
However, “to do no wrong is not enough,” Francis said, adding that God is not “an inspector looking for unstamped tickets.” Rather, he is a Father that looks for children to whom he can entrust both his property and his plans.
“It is sad when the Father of love does not receive a generous response of love from his children, who do no more than keep the rules and follow the commandments,” he said, noting that someone who is only concerned with preserving the treasures of the past “is not being faithful to God.”
Instead, “the one who adds new talents is truly faithful…he does not stand still, but instead, out of love, takes risks. He puts his life on the line for others; he is not content to keep things as they are. One thing alone does he overlook: his own interest. That is the only right omission.”
Omission, Francis said, is also a big sin where the poor are concerned, though it has a different name: indifference. This sin, he said, takes place when we feel that the brother in need is not our concern, but is society’s problem.
The sin typically shows up in our lives when we choose to turn the other way, or “change channels as soon as a disturbing question comes up, when we grow indignant at evil but do nothing about it.”
“God will not ask us if we felt righteous indignation, but whether we did some good,” the Pope said.
Asking those present how we can please God, Pope Francis said when we want to give someone a gift, we first have to get to know them. And when we look to the Gospel, we hear Jesus say “when you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
These brothers, he said, are the hungry and the sick, the stranger and the prisoner, the poor and the abandoned.
In the poor, “Jesus knocks on the doors of our heart, thirsting for our love,” he said, adding that “when we overcome our indifference and, in the name of Jesus, we give of ourselves for the least of his brethren,” only then are we being faithful.
An example of this attitude is seen in the woman who opens her hand to the poor in the day’s first reading from Proverbs, he said. In her, “we see true goodness and strength: not in closed fists and crossed arms, but in ready hands outstretched to the poor, to the wounded flesh of the Lord.”
Choosing to draw near to the poor among us “will touch our lives” and remind us of what really counts, Francis said, explaining that this is love of God and neighbor.
“Only this lasts forever, everything else passes away,” he said. “What we invest in love remains, the rest vanishes.”
Pope Francis closed his homily saying the choice we all have before us is whether “to live in order to gain things on earth, or to give things away in order to gain heaven.”
“Where heaven is concerned, what matters is not what we have, but what we give,” he said. “So let us not seek for ourselves more than we need, but rather what is good for others, and nothing of value will be lacking to us.”
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I applaud Pope Francis for the public stand that he is taking in this grave threat to humanity. As both head of a state and the Church, this is his duty. Many good things that he does are overlooked by too many Catholics. His job is not an easy one and he IS an old man. Let his critics try to do as much he does when they reach that age. Thank you Pope Francis.
Well it seems Pope Francis is seriously worried about this danger and has sought advice going back to 2020. He is absolutely right to be worried. Unfortunately neither he nor his technical advisors have any real idea how to do stop it. The best they could do was to produce an AI code of ethics which the Holy Father is trying to get AI developers to sign. I did notice that Microsoft had previously signed up so it is relevant to report on my experience with their version. Among other things I am a former army officer with a degree in history ,the latter being a lifelong interest not something to make a living with. I came up with a little test in which their AI was asked how well the US Army performed at the Kasserine Pass in World War II. It gave the usual civilian academic (or movie producer’s)line that their performance was awful. I that amended the question to include Rommel’s opinion and kept probing. It got nasty and replied in capital letters that Rommel later concurred. This was a lie. It was not until after the war that General Rommel’s field journals were discovered and published in 1954. Rommel’s real opinion was that the Americans at all levels had performed superbly and that Germany’s new foe was a not to be underestimated. The covering force had to be spread thinly over a broad front yet had to manintain contact which always producs massive casualties. If the Ai had admitted to inadequate information and had behaved itself I would not have minded.It has been said that at all costs an AI must not lie.
When you’re signing any deal with the academy of life and Pagalin there, one can only reply in the classic terminology: HERE BE DRAGONS! AI will be the Pandora’s box that never remains shut! For Pete’s sake remember Terminator????
Is being a Luddite a dictum of the Catholic faith? There is nothing unethical about AI. This is fear mongering. Plain and simple.
Leon Musk is neither a luddite nor a Catholic but he made this a global concern a year or two back by proposing a worldwide slowdown in AI development to study how to mitigate the risk; all in vain I might add. He was the one who said that the best defense was to never program an AI where it ever lie. I don’t think microsoft deliberately taught theirs to lie but the fact is that it failed the truth test I gave it. It may have simply observed deception being used in the millions of files it had occasion to access or it might have figured it out on its own. I am not happy with either case. Copilot, which is what microsoft calls it now, still acts very strangely sometimes –too many sometimes to suit me. I have read a few articles which polled specialists in the computer programing and design about the issue. I tried to get Copilot to help me find them again. It gave me lots of information but nothing that I specifically asked for. Fortunately I remember the trend of the latest one if not all details. The higher in the profession the poll asked the more pessimistic the opinion was. There are top of the profession guys working for independent organizations specializing in how to prevent rogue AIs from happening .They were the extreme pessimists. Leon Musk I recall was an optimist, surprisingly, he thought that the risk of AI doomsday was only 20%.