Excerpts from Dilexi te
Pope Leo XIV’s first Apostolic Exhortation is about poverty. He goes into the history of the relationship between the Church and the poor. From the special concern that God shows for the poor in the Law of Moses, through Jesus’s life of poverty, to the choice for poverty of the mendicant orders, and how the saints encounter Christ in the poor. For Catholic Christians living in financially comfortable situations, there is a call to reconsider the morality of our consumption, our framework for how we think about giving, and our personal relationships with the poor people to whom we give to.
Following are some select quotes from the document alongside some of the questions that they could bring up for us.
Our Consumption
No one should feel entitled to “appropriate surplus goods solely for his [or her] own private use when others lack the bare necessities of life.”
How does our consumption of basic necessities compare to the average available per person in the world? If we divide the meat and water available for all, are we consuming the amount for 1, 10, or even 100 people?
How does our accumulation of wealth compare to that of the average person?
How disproportionate is the expenditure of raw material spent on supplying for our luxuries and non-essentials?
“Where a minority believes that it has the right to consume in a way which can never be universalized, since the planet could not even contain the waste products of such consumption.”
Is our consumption unsustainable in this way?
Do we feel like we have a right to consume the way we do?
When we focus on making some aspect of our consumption more sustainable, do we consider first eliminating it altogether?
“A dominant mindset that considers normal or reasonable what is merely selfishness and indifference.”
How often do we rationalize luxuries as necessities?
How often do we feel like it’s an imprudent waste of time and energy to make due without some nonessential?
Do we ever think of those who don’t have the option to make things easier and more efficient for themselves?
Our Thinking about Poor Persons
“Embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without medical care and, above all, those without hope of a better future.”
Do we differentiate between poor people with opportunities for upward mobility and those without?
Do we have a tendency to desire to provide services over opportunities or vice versa?
Do we understand the different needs of those who are temporarily versus chronically lacking basic necessities?
It is impossible not to take account of the existence of these realities. To ignore them would mean becoming like the ‘rich man’ who pretended not to know the beggar Lazarus lying at his gate
What do we do when we feel uncomfortable at the sight of a beggar?
Do we try to avoid the inconvenience of encountering beggars?
Do we actively seek them out in order to help?
The dignity of every human person must be respected today, not tomorrow, and the extreme poverty of all those to whom this dignity is denied should constantly weigh upon our consciences.
Do we give money to poor people every year, month, week, day?
Do we get involved in helping in any other way?
Do we feel personally responsible for the well-being of the homeless in our community?
As it is, “the current model, with its emphasis on success and self-reliance, does not appear to favor an investment in efforts to help the slow, the weak or the less talented to find opportunities in life.”
How do we think a person without health, skills, or prospects should be sustained?
Is there anyone we personally know of that seems unlikely to ever be able to sustain themselves independently?
Who do we believe is personally responsible for their care?
Our Relationships with Poor People
Saint John Paul II had already observed that, “a society is alienated if its forms of social organization, production and consumption make it more difficult to offer the gift of self and to establish solidarity between people.”
How do suburbs, cars, delivery services, and other modern conveniences shield us from seeing the needs of those around us?
How does the value and the cost of meritocracy and competitiveness compare when we consider the full breath of societal needs?
How can we know and serve the needs of our family members living in different countries, states, towns, or homes as us?
Their experience of poverty gives them the ability to recognize aspects of reality that others cannot see; for this reason, society needs to listen to them.
Do we think we know what it’s like to be poor?
Do we think we know the best ways to help?
Do we think we already know what it’s like to be among the most needy based on our own experience with poverty?
“This loving attentiveness is the beginning of a true concern for their person which inspires me effectively to seek their good. This entails appreciating the poor in their goodness, in their experience of life, in their culture, and in their ways of living the faith. True love is always contemplative, and permits us to serve the other not out of necessity or vanity, but rather because he or she is beautiful above and beyond mere appearances... Only on the basis of this real and sincere closeness can we properly accompany the poor on their path of liberation.”
Do we see the poor as an aggregate problem to fix or as specific individuals who are children of God like us?
When we seek out service opportunities, are we hoping to foster friendships with those whom we serve?
How do we follow-up after meeting someone’s physical needs in service?
A Call to Action
Let us admit that, for all the progress we have made, we are still ‘illiterate’ when it comes to accompanying, caring for and supporting the most frail and vulnerable members of our developed societies. We have become accustomed to looking the other way, passing by, and ignoring situations until they affect us directly.”
Which vulnerable people in our lives are we most annoyed by?
Who do we most often ignore?
How might we “accompany” poor and vulnerable persons when we can’t meet their needs or solve their problems?
“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.”
Where are the closest homeless people located?
What do they need today?
How can we provide it for them?
Rather than getting lost in considering the many ways in which we over-consume, misjudge the realities of poverty, or ignore the dignity of those less fortunate than us, let us take this opportunity to prayerfully decide on and put into practice one action that would help one person in need.
Let us pray that by the Grace of the Almighty, Pope Leo’s Apostolic Exhortation sets into motion for us a life of service.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
St. Clare, pray for us.
St. Joseph, lover of poverty, pray for us.