Charity, Love, and Liberation: Our Mission to the Poor

A reading from the holy Gospel According to Luke: "Lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham." Christianity is charity, and our identity is love. At the sunset of our lives, we will only be judged according to love.

Jesus comes to us in various forms - in the sacraments, as the Word, through the Ministers of the church, and through our gatherings and assemblies. But most importantly, Jesus comes to us through the poor The poor are the favorites of the Lord, and when the Lord visited us in flesh and blood, He came as a poor man. He did not associate Himself with the rich and powerful because it was when He was most powerless, weak, abandoned, and downtrodden that He reached the climax of His love for us.

We will be judged according to love, but how do we love? The traditional way of loving is through almsgiving, offering help to those in need with food, money, or other necessities, especially in times of calamity. But charity invites us to go higher than that. What if there is no calamity? What can we do to help our brothers and sisters live up to their dignity as children of God?

In the words of Pope Paul VI, "The new name of peace is development." There can be no true peace without development. Charity urges us to promote total human development, which means not ignoring the soul but also promoting the dignity of man. We are brothers and sisters, redeemed by God's blood, and charity requires us to be brothers and sisters who promote the development of one another through cooperative programs, livelihood projects, education, and more.

Beyond development, there is a higher goal - liberation. True love sets us free, and our charity must be liberational. We must dismantle the structures of sin and abuse that prevent human beings from living up to their dignity. It is our duty, out of Christian charity, to challenge and change those structures. We cannot liberate our suffering brothers and sisters if our lives are too comfortable, and we fail to understand their struggles. We must address our own comfort and ensure our actions align with our mission.

The problem of the rich man in the Gospel was not that he did nothing; it was that he was blinded by his riches. Charity urges us not only to help but to empower, not only to empower but to set free. The Lord has come to set captives free, and this mission has been entrusted to us, brothers and sisters in Christ. By the sunset of our lives, we will be judged according to love.

May God bless you.