Invisible Poverty and Thoughts on Dilexi Te

Unsplash Photo Credit to Jordan Opal

I was attending a private Catholic school the first time I truly encountered the poor. My middle school class had a service project to the local soup kitchen. I remember buckling my seatbelt in a parent volunteer’s van and riding to downtown Augusta. My classmates and I were wearing our school dress code, navy blue bottoms and a white collared shirt. We had received the customary talk about representing our school well.

When we arrived at the soup kitchen we were greeted by one of the workers who checked our shoes to make sure they were all closed toed and instructed us to pull our hair back if we had long hair. Some of us would be in the back kitchen helping prepare food and others were on the serving line. I was on that serving line. The worker gave us some basic tips to help keep us and the people who we would be serving safe.

I don’t remember much about what we served at the soup kitchen or how long we were there. The one thing I do remember was the look on my classmates’ faces when they saw young childrenin the serving line. It hadn't dawned on any of us that there would be children who didn’t have enough to eat. After all, the poor kids in our school were the ones who weren’t wearing name brand clothes. The kids without enough food to eat were the ones on our television screen advertising hungry children overseas. But here were these kids, probably about 4 or 5 years old.

Fast forward decades later and I still have the memory of those kids, but I regret to say that I don’t always remember the poor. Since that time, I have had other opportunities to serve the poor. I do still remember James, the man I met on the streets of Atlanta during a Mercy Mission with the Regnum Christi, who had a gaze that reminded me of Jesus. And I felt joy as I distributed food to our neighbors at St. Vincent Depaul in Pasco.

There's a kind of satisfaction I had in extending charity to those who don’t have enough food to eat or a warm bed or a home to go to at night. Still, after reading Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, I’ve started to reevaluate how I interact with the poor.

 Specifically two things come to mind that are also echoed in Pope Leo’s apostolic exhortation:

1.       The poor are close to us, but we are blind to them.

2.       Jesus knows the poor and shows them mercy...we are invited to do the same.

Pope Leo says,

Every minute we can find a Lazarus if we seek him, and every day, even without seeking, we find one at our door. Now beggars besiege us, imploring alms; later they will be our advocates... Therefore do not waste the opportunity of doing works of mercy; do not store unused the good things you possess.” [118] 

I've read this or heard the story of Lazarus so many times and I wince every time because it's so easy to be blind to the needy just like the wealthy man who was blind to the poor man Lazarus. It's easy to make excuses that it's not safe to stop and give food or a few dollars to the beggar on the street. It's easy to turn and look the other way when we see a brother or sister on the side of the road with a sign saying "Anything helps." And it's easy to think that the poor are only the people without enough food to eat or without a roof over their heads. But Pope Leo wisely says we can find the poor every day without seeking at our door. They may not come in tattered clothing, and they might not be waiting in line at the local food bank. They could also be the straight A student fighting depression because she thinks she's never enough. They can be the immigrant fleeing the only place they've ever known as home. They can be your next door neighbor who everyone calls annoying but wants to be included in your monthly bunko group.

Pope Leo and his predecessors (Pope Francis and all other popes who have come before him) have been clear on repearing what Jesus says about the poor time and time again in the Gospel. (Gospel references mine)

Christian love breaks down every barrier, (The Samaritan Woman)

brings close those who were distant, (Jesus Heals the Lepers)

unites strangers, and (Judgment of Nations)

reconciles enemies (The Repentant Thief)

Pope Leo further says,

(Christian love) spans chasms that are humanly impossible to bridge, and it penetrates to the most hidden crevices of society. By its very nature, Christian love is prophetic: it works miracles and knows no limits. It makes what was apparently impossible happen. Love is above all a way of looking at life and a way of living it. A Church that sets no limits to love, that knows no enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today.

I think that what it boils down to is the fact that authentic, Christian love is hard. It's easier to make excuses and pass on the responsibility to care for the poor on to someone else. It's easier to keep the poor invisible, to pretend like they don't exist, or love them in a roundabout and distant way. But Jesus asks for something more radical. He asks us to see "person a human being with a dignity identical to my own, a creature infinitely loved by the Father, an image of God, a brother or sister redeemed by Jesus Christ."

He asks us to see someone who looks a lot like the person we see when we look in the mirror.