Friday, November 6, 2020

What is poverty? A reflection from Fratelli Tutti

As I was reading through Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti, I read on his critique of a throw-away world where he mentioned poverty. We usually think of poverty as the state of being economically poor and disadvantaged. Pope Francis, echoing Pope Benedict XVI’s teaching, reiterates that “new forms of poverty are emerging” in a globalized world where while there is an increase in wealth there is also an increase in inequality.

Poverty for Pope Francis is a lack of actual opportunities in a concrete historical period. I take it is actual because these are the very opportunities afforded by a society’s way of living. The problem is that in every society, a part of the population does not enjoy opportunities that others enjoy.

It is also important to talk of what these opportunities are. While it is easy to think of economic opportunities like a store of wealth and access to resources, Pope Benedict’s words on new forms of poverty is curious. What I can think of now is poverty in information where a segment of the Philippine population does not have proper and decent access to information (access), where in the online world false and misleading information drowns truth (source), and where information consumers do not have the sufficient skills and the attitude for human communication, reflection, and critical thinking (ability).

Poverty exists for as long as we fail in solidarity, when we forget to share and care, and imprison ourselves in self-centeredness. Fratelli Tutti is the Pope’s teaching on fraternity or brotherhood which as the current events and violence shows us, the world’s needs badly today. If we really are all brothers and sisters in this common home, my brother’s poverty is also mine and in looking out for each other’s poverty, nobody becomes poor.

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - August 2, 2020




Reflection

The goodness and kindness of God looks grand and great when we think of Him as a God despite being all-powerful has the time to be concerned about our needs. Our Sunday readings however invite us to look at God, not the all-powerful, but one who is intimate and personal. Our four readings unite in one theme: that God is a parent, both our Father and Mother.


Only a parent can feel the needs of their children. Strangers may find it difficult to understand our needs and experiences. It is our fathers and our mothers who, by instinct and by blood, can immediately share our pains and sufferings. The intimate and familial connection of parent and child enables a father and mother to brave all difficulties to provide for their children.


How then does God feel our needs? Although we are not born from God by blood, we were born from him in love. As Christian mystics would describe it, God loved us into existence. Out of this unconditional love, God seeks to provide for his people, for his children. From the depths of his kindness and mercy, God answers all our needs, but above all gives us the greatest satisfaction.


The great love of God for us that St. Paul beautifully sings of in his letter has one desire. Nothing in this world can stop God's love from offering us life. "Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life," Isaiah would proclaim. It is from this concern that Jesus, looking at the crowd, decided to feed them himself. 


St. Matthew gives a preview of the Eucharist when he writes that Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, said the blessing, broke them, and gave them to the disciples and the crowd. Four gestures that we call the Eucharistic actions we celebrate in every Holy Mass. We, like the crowd, could only be satisfied when Jesus gives us himself. If God is self-giving, it is because he is Father and we are his children.

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 26, 2020



Reflection

Even economists concede that wants will always be more than the needs. The human heart is always hungry for something but ultimately each heart is only looking for that ultimate happiness and fulfillment. To test Solomon's heart, the Lord asked the young king what is his deepest drive. The young Solomon pleased the Lord by asking for understanding, that is, to see things from God's perspective so as to rule the chosen people with justice and wisdom.


This vision of a society ruled by the justice and wisdom of God is the precursor of the Kingdom envisioned by Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a politician nor was he driven by a Utopian vision for Israel. He envisioned a nation of believers who have subjected their hearts to the Will of God, and this he called the Kingdom of God. More than a politics nor a social structure, the Kingdom of God is a relationship between God and a community of believers.


At the heart of this relationship is the Will of God, or the commands of God or law of His mouth as the psalm would describe. God's will is not imposed on people but rather is followed out of love because of its kindness and compassion. It is a will that seizes the human heart just as the parables of Jesus described. It suspends all wants because it fulfills all needs. God satisfies all human desires and when man truly finds God he seeks nothing else.


St. Paul in our readings remind the early Christians and us, that it is in Jesus that we see this perfect relationship. Jesus is fully taken up with the Will of his Father. He seeks nothing else but to share this relationship with his disciples. The Son, being firstborn, seeks to make sons and daughters out of our rebellious hearts. In him we share this destiny.