The Greatest Poverty

on

“There are two kinds of poverty. We have the poverty of material; for example, in some places like in India… where the people are hungry for a loaf of bread – real hunger. But there is a much deeper, much greater hunger; and that is the hunger for love, and that terrible loneliness and being unwanted, unloved – being abandoned by everybody.” 
Saint Teresa of Calcutta

In today’s readings, the Lord warns the rich against ignoring the plight of the poor. But the description of the lives of leisure of these biblical rich people – stretched on couches, wearing fine linens – could fit most of us in this day and age. In this country, most of the people we meet are comfortable and well fed. We don’t often see men lying in the road covered with sores. Poverty certainly exists, but personal encounters with the poor may be outside of our experience. We give to shelters, food banks, and other charitable organizations and feel that we’ve fulfilled our obligation.

But Mother Teresa, who spent her life picking up the dying from the streets, washing their sores, and feeding the starving people of India, recognized a great poverty that affects many people in the richest nations of the world. She knew that the poverty of being forgotten, unnoticed, and unloved could be as devastating as the material poverty suffered by the poorest of the poor. Recognizing that this deep and painful poverty was caused by a lack of love, and she challenges us to respond to that great hunger and loneliness with an outpouring of generous love.

The Lord is also calling us to be aware of the poverty around us. Look around, seek out the lost and lonely, the people who need to be loved and welcomed in our community. It may be an elderly neighbor who lives alone, a newly widowed friend who longs to hear a friendly voice on the phone, a lonely teenager who always sits alone at school, or a young single mother raising her children without the support of family.

When we respond to the needs of the poor with love and generosity, the Lord will heal our hearts and forgive our sins. His generosity will not be outdone; His infinite mercy will overflow for us in eternity.

Comments

Post a Comment