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 are in Lent, an opportunity God offers us to examine what aspects of our personal and ecclesial lives are not in accordance with the path of Jesus. Certainly, there are many areas in which we must be more faithful to the Gospel; for example, child abuse, clericalism, and excessive fees for sacramental services cannot be tolerated. However, one of the areas that always requires conversion is our attitude toward the poor.

It may be annoying for some that we insist on this point, since there are those who emphasize that spirituality is only about praying and practicing certain devotions. They become distressed when, for example, they haven’t prayed the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and other prayers, but they don’t care about the many people who are barely surviving.

LIGHTNING

God, through the prophet Isaiah, tells us what kind of fast He accepts:  “This is the kind of fasting I desire from you,” declares the Lord: “to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke; to set the oppressed free and break every yoke; to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter; to clothe the naked and not turn away from your own flesh and blood. Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call on the Lord, and he will answer you; you will cry for help, and he will say: ‘Here I am.’ If you put off oppression and raise your voice from your neck and speak evil, if you share your food with the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your darkness will become like midday. The Lord will give you rest forever; he will satisfy your hunger in a deserted place.” and will give strength to your body”  (Is 58:6-11).

Pope Leo, in his exhortation  Dilexi te  on love for the poor, insists on this point, which is vital for us to be the Church that Jesus wants .  He says:  “The heart of the Church, by its very nature, is in solidarity with those who are poor, excluded, and marginalized, with those who are considered ‘discarded’ by society. The poor are at the center of the Church, because it is from faith in Christ, who became poor and was always close to the poor and excluded, that concern for the integral development of the most abandoned in society springs. In the heart of every believer there is the need to listen to this cry, which springs from the very liberating work of grace in each of us, and therefore it is not a mission reserved only for some”  (111).

“It is necessary to remember that religion, especially Christianity, cannot be limited to the private sphere, as if the faithful did not also have to worry about problems relating to civil society and events that affect citizens”  (112) .

“Any community of the Church, insofar as it intends to subsist peacefully without engaging creatively and efficiently to enable the poor to live with dignity and to include everyone, will also run the risk of dissolution, even if it speaks of social issues or criticizes governments. It will easily end up immersed in spiritual worldliness, disguised with religious practices, unfruitful meetings, or empty speeches”  (113).

“We are not only talking about assistance and the necessary commitment to justice. Believers must recognize another form of inconsistency regarding the poor. In truth, the worst discrimination suffered by the poor is the lack of spiritual care. The preferential option for the poor must translate primarily into privileged and priority religious attention. However, this spiritual attention to the poor is called into question by certain prejudices, even among Christians, because we feel more comfortable without the poor. There are those who continue to say: ‘Our task is to pray and teach the true doctrine.’ But, disconnecting this religious aspect from integral development, they add that only the government should take care of them, or that it would be better to leave them in misery so they learn to work. Sometimes, however, pseudoscientific criteria are adopted to say that the free market will spontaneously bring the solution to the problem of poverty. Or even, a pastoral approach focused on the so-called elites is chosen, arguing that, instead of wasting time with the poor, it is better to concern ourselves with the rich, with the powerful figures and professionals, so that, through them, more effective solutions can be achieved. It is easy to perceive the worldliness that hides behind these opinions; these lead us to observe reality with superficial criteria and devoid of any supernatural light, preferring social circles that reassure us or seeking privileges that make us comfortable”  (114). 

“As Christians, we do not renounce almsgiving. It is a gesture that can be done in different ways, and that we can try to do in the most effective way, but it is necessary to do it. And it will always be better to do something than to do nothing. In any case, it will touch our hearts. It will not be the solution to world poverty, which must be sought with intelligence, tenacity and social commitment. But we need to practice almsgiving to touch the suffering flesh of the poor”  (119).

“Well, a Church that puts no limits on love, that knows no enemies to fight, but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today”  (120).

ACTIONS

Let us ask ourselves if we are truly the Church of Jesus, if we genuinely love the poor. The sacraments, especially the Mass, and prayer are essential, but, as Benedict XVI said:  “A Eucharist that does not involve a practical exercise of love is fragmentary in itself”  (SC 82). Lent is a time of conversion.