By Fr Antony Christy, SDB.
Seventh World Day of the Poor
November 19, 2023: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary time
Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6; Matthew 25: 14-30
Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor (Tobit 4:7). This is the message that the Holy Father gives us on this seventh World day of the Poor. The World day of the Poor, as we know, was instituted by the present Pope in 2017 as a follow up of the Year of Mercy, that we celebrated as a Church. Mercy is at the centre of what we remember today: not so much the mercy that we are called to have towards others, but the mercy that God has given us in abundance! We are given with that mercy in such measures, that we are bound to give, so much so, when we do not give we fail, we fall short of our call, we sin!
The Need to Give
Why do we need to give? Not only because there are needy; not only because the other deserves what I wish to give, but simply because I am given! Hence, the first requirement is that I recognise my “givenness”, that is I recognise how much I am given with. Look at the parable today that Jesus narrates – the first two realised how much they are given with and in their recognisance they found a way to make it double; the third one did not feel he was given, he never owned what was given to him, he never realised it was his!
What hinders us from not realising what we are given: first, ingratitude which makes us complain all the time; secondly, fixations that we have which looks for particulars that we lack inspite of so much that we are blessed with; thirdly, cravings which make us blind to the goodness and blessedness that already surrounds us.
What to Give
We know there are various levels of giving – giving from our abundance; giving from what we have; giving inspite of the lack and so on… but what matters here is the attitude of giving. True giving is giving of oneself – from the very thoughts and inclinations, intending to give of oneself. One can be giving great treasures away, but when he or she has an attachment to what would the gain, the return of out of it – a profit, a name, a publicity and so on, there is not giving there! The attitude of giving is not there! Giving has to come from within, the inherent quality of reaching out… which is mindful of the fact that we have received. The best of all that we have received from the Lord is God’s love and mercy, and that is what we are called to give. Love and Mercy… from that everything else will follow.
How to Give
We shall take three lessons here from the Word today, not to turn away our face from the poor! The first reading presents to us the symbol of Wisdom – the woman who administers the household the way it should be. Wisdom should regulate our life and make us realise how much we are given and that the more we realise we are given, the the more we are required to give! The Holy Father’s message from the book of Tobit (chapter 4) is in fact an advice that Tobit gives his son, Tobias where he says this with simplicity – when you have more you give more, when you have less you give what you have. That is it, what matters is the heart with which you give and the attitude of giving more than what you give.
The second lesson is from St. Paul who tells us, not to operate on the logic of fear and justification, just as did the third person in the parable of the Gospel. I feared you, he said! That did not help him to give of his best, it made him dig and hide! Instead the right thinking, a wise realisation of the meaning of our life will make us give, give of ourselves, and give to the full. It is not that we fear the end times and therefore we wish to make good, but because we have the wisdom to know how best to live our here and now.
The third lesson is the model of God and the Son of God – the way they give! God who gives everything in abundance and Son of God who gives himself totally to us and for our salvation. That is the model given to us. With the help of the Spirit we could learn too, to realise how much we are given with, how much we are called to give and how to give!
The giving we are concerned here is not merely material giving, which us just a streak of the real outcome, but the giving that is an attitude of gratitude, realisation and a call. That attitude alone can inspire us not to turn our face from anyone who is poor.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.