October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
“Accepting one’s vulnerabilities become the space for the action of the Spirit.” Instrumentum Laboris, 31 (preparation for the Synod on Synodality).
Hey, you! Yes, you who read this reflection.
Maybe you should stop reading it, because I have to admit, right from the beginning, that I don’t like poverty. Yes, you read that right, I don’t like poverty!
Some may wonder how this is possible, if I work in the Secretariat of Solidarity. Well, the answer is very simple: I have never liked poverty. Of course, perhaps the question should be rephrased; or perhaps you, reader, would change the way of expressing the statement: “I don’t like poverty”. I leave it at that, just as it is written.
On October 17, the United Nations invites us to comemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Of course, we are facing one of the greatest scourges of our societies. Thousands, millions of people who do not have what they need to live in dignity; hundreds of thousands of children who do not have access to adequate education, who lack drinking water, who have no way to feed themselves, who do not even consider having access to a minimum of health care.
And let’s not only think about some nations of our world, let’s also think about some neighborhoods of the big cities “supposedly” developed. Poverty is a scourge, and that is why we so often try to hide it, to conceal it. It is true that thinking about the poverty suffered by our brothers and sisters in so many parts of the world can lead us to reflection and action to alleviate their pain and vulnerability.
The data shown by the United Nations on poverty in the world are alarming, because behind the concept of “poverty” there are human beings like you and me who suffer it every day of their lives. For this very reason, too, and to try to combat this situation of injustice and indignity for human beings, the United Nations sets us the challenge of “ending poverty in all its forms…”, mentioned in the first of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Marist documents are also clear in this regard and invite us to fight for the dignity and equality of all human beings. Our last General Chapter “obliges” us to listen to the cries of those who have no voice. It also urges us to be creative in responding to their needs.
A few days ago, Pope Francis published the apostolic exhortation Laudato Deum, which some of you may have already read. In number 69, Francis makes a clear invitation to beautify our world. How can we beautify it without counting on our brothers and sisters who suffer from poverty? Yes, it is impossible to separate care for our world from care for those who live in it.
Our Rule of Life, in the title of the third chapter, reminds us to be “in a permanent attitude of service”. And what does this mean? Well, easy, well no, very complicated. It means to put ourselves on the side of the most needy, to take the side of those who suffer poverty, in any of its manifestations. Let us give “preference to those who never have” (RV 92).
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Br. Ángel Diego García Otaola – Director of the Secretariat of Solidarity