June 17, 2013 – Catechism 2443 – 2449

Helping the financially poor is one of the more obvious Christian things to do, yet it seems to be one of the hardest.  We really like to cling to our money and goods.  I think our new Pope is a great example of what it means to raise up the poor to their right place, to see the poor as Christ, to treat them as Christ would.  This hopefully spills over into the rest of the Church and helps us all be more generous.

A less obvious “poor” are the spiritually poor.  Our country may be more spiritually poor than almost any other place in the world.  If we are suppose to treat the financially poor as Christ, we should not do any less with the spiritually poor.  If we give the financially poor from our wealth, we should do likewise with the spiritually poor.  We are not called to withhold spirituality from them or just allow them to live life as they wish.  We are called to intervene and try to bring them out of that poverty.  There may be some poor that want to stay poor and might refuse your help, but I think many would gladly take what was offered.  But many spiritual poor do not want your help and will actually speak ill for the assistance you offer.  Can you imagine trying to give a $20 to a homeless person on the corner and they throw it back at you and curse you for thinking you are so much better than they are and they are just fine living their own life and don’t want or need your help.  That is often what you receive when you speak up and tell someone that about church teaching in how they are living their life.  In that way, helping the spiritually poor is much more challenging, more thankless, and much more depressing.  But we must pray for the strength to keep trying.