I begin my article with the words of Raoul Follerau, who dedicated all his life tending lepers and then died of leprosy himself: “I used to cry because I had no shoes but, one day, I met a man who had no feet and then I didn’t cry anymore.”
Today, meeting people frequently, I hear the heart-breaking words: “I am hungry.”
Five years ago, Pope Francis established the Day of Poverty to be commemorated every year throughout the universal Church. This is a day of hope for the poor all over the world.
With love and tenderness, one will save the world. We have to stop occupying ourselves only with our personal problems because Jesus wants us to join in the oppressive atmosphere and environments we live in and to give us a sense of hope.
In the poor we must see hope, facing the velocity of our daily life.
It is our duty to stop in front of poverty around us; we have to organise a way out and never stop facing the problem of poverty. We must not stop in front of poverty by staring, discussing and criticising. We must have the courage to live with others, especially the poor.
Every one of us is highly responsible for poverty, which is present, firstly around us, and, then, in the world we live in.
Sometimes, I find it difficult to understand why these things happen. Henry Kissinger used to say: “It is the hope of dying that is keeping me alive.” I ask: do people realise the gift of life they are living in?
Robert F. Kennedy used to say: “Some people see things as they are and say: Why do I dream things that never were and say, why not?!”
At the moment, as never before, people are only interested in power, money, property, building and becoming rich. The more I have the more I want.
It is our duty to stop in front of poverty around us- Fr Charles Cini
We need to organise ourselves first of all to give hope to the poor. We should be concrete, positive, tangible and solid in our approach. We must have the capacity to hear the poor and their problems.
I think that, sometimes, we don’t realise what is happening around us and in the world: suffering, hunger, abuse, loneliness. We have the temptation to put aside the poor and the weak. Poverty is increasing every day. Are we aware that the poor remain always poor and that the rich become richer every day and, sometimes, at the expense of the poor?
I often feel very sad when I question myself: Do we hear the poor?
What am I doing personally to help them? Do we look at them as outcasts? Are we ready to include them completely in our lives?
Are we convinced that, in Malta and Gozo, there are poor people who need urgent help? From my experience there are many poor people ‒ not only foreigners but also Maltese ‒ living among us.
We have become lost in details in our daily life, in making our decisions and, especially in our way of living.
The more we obtain in life and the more we possess, the less we are happy and satisfied. Are we afraid to look in the mirror and the depth of our soul?
I think that, since, in the world, there are people who are obliged to sleep under a bridge, I have to conclude that in such countries there are no Catholics.
Saint Theresa of Avila used to say: “We have to spend Heaven doing good on earth.”
Without God, nothing is achievable.
I conclude with a message of a German Jesuit, Alfred Delp who died in prison under the Nazis: “Today, man has become incapable of God. He became a vegetative and insensitive being: he does not reflect, meditate and reason.”