CHARITY AS LOVE OF NEEDY NEIGHBORS
On the first day of the Third Millennium, St. Pope John Paul II said: “At the beginning of the Century, the issue that challenges most our human and Christian consciences is the poverty of countless millions of men and women” (Message, World Day of Peace: January 1, 2000; cf. Benedict XVI, DCE). It is shameful and unjust that, in a rich world, poverty continues unabated: “In our world, the poor are more numerous” (León XIV, Dilexit me, 11).
Christian love, or charity, is divine love - God’s love in our hearts – and brotherly love: God is our Father and we are all his children and therefore we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus. Fraternal love is the birthmark of the disciples of Jesus. Brotherly love is universal, not selective: “By this will all people know that you are my disciples if you have a love for one another” (Jn 13:35).
The teaching on the universal destination of the goods of the earth is grounded on the Sacred Scriptures, where we clearly see that God is preferentially on the side of the poor, the downtrodden and the outcasts. At the end, Jesus taught us, we will be examined on our love for the poor and needy (see Mt 25: 31-46.) This universal fraternal love is, however, focused on a special love for the poor neighbour, called since the late 1960s the preferential option or love for the poor.
At the level of theory, we continue talking about this preferential love, which is often denied at the level of practice by a superfluous, consumeristic, wasteful lifestyle. In the Old as well as in the New Testament, the praxis of justice-love is directed principally towards the poor and the marginalized. In the Old Testament, particularly in the prophetic tradition, we see God - the God of justice and mercy - on the side of the poor and needy: “He will do justice to the poor” (cf. Is 58:6-10; Am 8:4-7; 1 Jn 3:17). (Cf. Leo XIV, Dilexit me, Te he amado, 4 October 2025).
Jesus’ poverty is the poverty of being, “kenosis”: “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (Phil 2:7); “Being rich, he became poor for our sakes” (2 Cor 8:9). The poverty of Jesus is also the poverty of having. Christ was born, lived, and died poor, and was close to the poor, to the materially and socially poor. “The poor are the very flesh of Christ” (DM 110)Jesus, the Son of God and the Man-for-others invites all his followers to live soberly and to love the poor: “The invitation [to the rich young man] ‘go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor,’ and ‘you will have treasure in heaven [Mt 19:21] are meant for everyone” (John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor). Hence, excessive spending and squandering are sins (cf. CCC, 2409). Pope Francis asked us: Is the poverty of Jesus Christ our faithful companion of life?
The apostles were committed to helping the poor, and asked Paul to do the same: “They [the apostles] asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do” (Gal 2:10).
The Fathers of the Church practiced and taught to all Christians the special love for the poor as an obligatory option or love. I remember the poignant words of St. Basil: He who takes the clothes from a man is a thief. He who does not clothe the indigent, when he can, does he deserve another name but thief? The bread that you keep belongs to the hungry; to the naked, the coat that you hide in your closet; to the shoeless, the shoes that are dusty at your home; to the needy, the silver that you hide. In brief, you offend all those who can be helped by you.
The Church opts preferentially for the poor: “Christians have to raise their voice on behalf of all the poor of the world.” The preferential option for the poor implies not only affective help but also effective love to them, that is, “getting close to them so that the hand that helps is seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters”; “We must therefore ensure that in every Christian community the poor feel at home” (John Paul II). It is also the option that must pervade the presentation and study of Christian truth (Pope Francis, VG; cf. GS 69).
What is the meaning of the preferential option for the poor? “Option” means decision and commitment in favour of the poor. It is not an optional but an obligatory option for all disciples of Jesus. “Preferential” means the choice of the poor as a priority of Christian witnessing of justice and solidarity, a witnessing that is necessary for salvation. “Poor” means the economically poor and the socially poor – the marginalized, the oppressed, the exploited. Certainly, there are “the spiritually poor.” Some rich people love to mix both: “we are also poor.” Thus, they tame the evangelical radicalism of the preferential love for the poor.
We may say that the implications of the option for the poor are three: poverty in spirit, a simple lifestyle, and solidarity with the poor. Poverty in spirit (cf. Mt 5:3) is a condition of Christian discipleship, a true sign of Christian identity, which implies the power to recognize Jesus in the poor. Words to ponder: “No one has the right to live like the rich man when Lazarus is at the gate (W. Barclay).
Poverty in spirit leads to a simple lifestyle (cf. Lk 12:22-34; 1 Tm 6:8): Let us live simply so that others may simply live (Canadian Bishops); “No one can be poor in spirit while living like the rich man” (J. L. Martin Descalzo). A simple lifestyle leads to solidarity with all, particularly with the needy and poor (cf. Ez 16:49; Ga 2:10). Solidarity means compassionate love: being united to the poor in fraternity, and sharing something with them. Not long ago, I conversed with a por person begging for alms at the gate of a church. He accepted calmly not receiving anything from some, but could not understand why a good number of them did not respond to his greeting: “As if I was taking to the wall.”
Love of the needy neighbour is the priority, the distinguishing characteristic of all the followers of Jesus, “the great criterion” of holiness also today (cf. Pope Francis, GE). It is Christ’s call to all Christians and people of good will: “I was hungry and you gave me food…” (cf. Mt 25:35-36). This call implies concretely – in the words of Pope Francis - to defend the unborn and born children, and equally, the lives of all the poor: the destitute, the abandoned and the vulnerable infirm, and [first time I heard this piercing expression] “elderly exposed to covert euthanasia,” migrants, and strangers.
Christians, in general, pray much and try to pray well. However, there is no true prayer without justice/love. The great prophets in the Old Testament proclaimed that worship without justice is not true worship (see Ho 6:6; Mt 9:13). The Prophet Jesus of Nazareth continues teaching us that prayer without justice/love is not saving: “What you did to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me” (cf. Mt chapter 25). In one of the petitions of the Our Father, we ask our Father: Give us this day our daily bread. Our daily bread is the Bread of the Eucharist, and also the bread needed by our bodies (mine, yours and the bodies of the poor). “The petition of the Lord’s Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor Lazarus and that of the Last Judgment.”
The Holy Eucharist is the centre of our Christian life, which is not merely celebration but also commitment to the poor and needy: The Eucharist is a call to charity, compassion and solidarity with the poor: “If you want to honour the body of Christ, do not despise him when He is naked” (St. John Chrysostom).
In Novo Millenio Ineunte (NMI, 2001), John Paul II wrote powerful and innovative words on the preferential love for the poor: Not to practice the preferential love for the poor is a kind of heresy – not against orthodoxy- but against orthopraxis. The Polish Pope reminds us that by these words [the Parable of the Last Judgment] no less than by the orthodoxy of her doctrine, the Church measures her fidelity as the Bride of Christ” (NMI 49).
A final point. In the current context of the ideology of climate change (“the religion of climate change,” where God the Creator seems to be replaced by mother earth), it is important to remember that the cry of the earth is intimately connected with the cry of the poor. What is needed most is love of the poorest, “the most threatened species of the earth” (L. Boff).
(FGB)