Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, Bishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and responsible for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers Exaudi readers his weekly article.

FACTS

We’re starting a new year, 2026. For some, only memories of their adventures during the past holidays remain. No rethinking resolutions to be better; just waiting for the next holidays and planning new destinations. They don’t care about others, those who never get vacations, those who constantly suffer hardship. The poor? Let the government take care of them… That’s their justification! A new year plagued by selfishness and injustice—will it be any better?

For those of us who want to live this year and all our years to the fullest, Jesus teaches us that we cannot turn our backs on others, starting with our family, but rather we must open our hearts to the poor, the sick, the elderly, prisoners, migrants, the underemployed, and so on. Only by giving life to those who suffer do we truly have life, and this year will be better! Please excuse me for insisting on this point again; it is because the fullness of this new year also depends on this.

LIGHTNING

Pope Leo XIV, in his exhortation Dilexi te, on love for the poor, in a very solid and evangelical way, emphasizes this dimension of our faith, which is not reduced to mere assistance, but also demands fighting for a change of structures:

“Solidarity is also fighting against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labor rights. It is confronting the destructive effects of the empire of money… Overcoming that idea of ​​social policies conceived as a policy towards the poor, but never with the poor, never of the poor and much less inserted in a project that reunites the peoples”  (81).

“Christ our Savior not only loved the poor, but ‘though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,’ lived in poverty, centered his mission on proclaiming to the poor their liberation, and founded his Church as a sign of that poverty among men. The poverty of so many brothers and sisters cries out for justice, solidarity, witness, commitment, effort, and self-improvement for the full realization of the salvific mission entrusted by Christ. We must not only share the condition of the poor, but also stand with them, diligently committing ourselves to their integral development” (89).

“It is necessary to continue denouncing the ‘dictatorship of an economy that kills’ and to recognize that while the profits of a few grow exponentially, those of the majority fall further and further behind the well-being of that happy minority… The situation of misery of many people to whom this dignity is denied must be a constant call to our conscience”  (92).

“It is the responsibility of all members of the people of God to make heard, in different ways, a voice that awakens, that denounces and that exposes itself, even at the cost of appearing ‘stupid’  (97).  Spiritual conversion, the intensity of love for God and neighbor, zeal for justice and peace, the evangelical sense of the poor and of poverty, are required of everyone, and especially of pastors and those in positions of responsibility  (98).  The preferential option of the Church for the poor is implicit in the Christological faith in that God who became poor for us, to enrich us with his poverty”  (99).

“Caring for the poor is part of the great Tradition of the Church, like a beacon of light which, from the Gospel, has illuminated the hearts and steps of Christians of all times. Therefore, we must feel the urgency to invite everyone to immerse themselves in this river of light and life which comes from the recognition of Christ in the face of the needy and those who suffer. Love for the poor is an essential element of God’s history with us and, from the heart of the Church, bursts forth as a continuous call in the hearts of believers. The Church, as the Body of Christ, feels the life of the poor as her own ‘flesh,’ for they are a privileged part of the people on their journey. For this reason, love for the poor—in whatever form such poverty takes—is the Gospel guarantee of a Church faithful to the heart of God”  (103).

“Christians cannot consider the poor merely as a social problem; they are a ‘family matter,’ they are ‘one of us.’ Our relationship with them cannot be reduced to an activity or a church office” (104). “Often, wealth blinds us to the point of thinking that our happiness can only be achieved if we manage to do without others”  (108).

“For us Christians, the question of the poor leads to the very heart of our faith. The preferential option for the poor, that is, the Church’s love for them, as Saint John Paul II taught, ‘is decisive and belongs to her constant tradition; it impels her to address the world in which, despite technical and economic progress, poverty threatens to reach gigantic proportions.’ The reality is that for Christians, the poor are not a sociological category, but the very flesh of Christ. Indeed, it is not enough to simply state in general terms the doctrine of the Incarnation of God; to enter seriously into this mystery, however, it is necessary to specify that the Lord becomes flesh, flesh that is hungry, thirsty, sick, imprisoned. A poor Church for the poor begins by going toward the flesh of Christ. If we go toward the flesh of Christ, we begin to understand something, to understand what this poverty is, the poverty of the Lord. And this is not easy”  (110). 

ACTIONS

Want your new year to be better? Try to be close to those who are suffering more than you and do something to help them. It will truly be a new year! Let’s be a source of hope for others!