YEAR OF MERCY

What Pope Francis says about 

Feeding the Hungry and Clothing the Naked

Excerpt from Church of Mercy by Pope Francis, pages 23-24

 

Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society.  This demands that we be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and come to their aid...The Church has realized that the need to heed this plea is itself born of the liberating action of grace within each of us, and thus it is not a question of a mission reserved only for a few. "The Church guided by the Gospel of mercy and by love for humankind, hears the cry for justice and intends to respond to it with all her might." In this context we can  understand Jesus' command to his disciples: "You yourselves give them something to eat!" (Mark 6:27)...

...God shows the poor "his first mercy."  This divine preference has consequences for the faith life of all Christians, because we are called to have "this mind...which was in Jesus Christ" (Phil. 2:5). Inspired by this, the Church has made an option for the poor, which is understood as a "special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness.  "This option-as Benedict XVI has taught-"is implicit in our Christian faith in a God who became poor for us, so as to enrich us with his poverty."