Homily: July 1, 2024, Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time (The poor)

 "For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth and force the lowly out of the way."

This was how our first reading began today. Prophet Amos was prophesying against the northern kingdom of Israel. They had become rich and established themselves as a superpower among the nations, but they had completely forgotten how God was the one who guided and protected them all through the years when life was uncertain, and they were poor.

Instead of being thankful to God, they disobeyed His commandments and abused the poor among them, the rich became richer while the poor became poorer. Thus, Amos warned how God will ‘crush (them) into the ground’ if they persisted in their sinfulness.

Is being poor a sin?

In this country, many people choose to be poor and homeless. In my home country, no one wants to be poor, because in India, poverty is pure hardship and poor folks are not entitled to any benefits at all. The church and many organizations like Mother Teresa’s missionaries of charity would take it upon themselves to look after the poorest of the poor, because of Jesus.

Jesus our Lord identified Himself with the poor. In today’s Gospel He described His poverty: "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head." Jesus could have had every comfort in this world if He wanted, but He chose to be poor. There were no benefits to being poor during those times, in fact, being poor also meant being outcasted and deprived of even the most basic right and access to essentials of life.

Why would Jesus choose to be poor? Wouldn’t it be easier to do ministry if He had some wealth?

We can never fully appreciate the permanence of poverty in this world, as Jesus Himself says, “You will always have the poor with you.” For as long as selfishness exists, there will always be poverty.

And from Jesus’ poverty, we are reminded of two important realities of Christian wisdom. First, we too are not created for comfortable living here on earth, but our aim is to pass through this life with a sense of detachment, always looking towards the everlasting life in heaven. Therefore, we must align our lives with living in eternity with God.

Second, in every real-poor person, we see the face of Jesus — not just those who are materially poor but also those who are spiritually, emotionally, and socially poor. Those who are deprived, neglected, forgotten, abandoned, alone and unloved. Jesus feels what they feel.

May we too have compassion for the poor and learn to live simply and humbly like our Lord. Amen.