The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 318: Love for the Poor

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

The Church’s charity for the poor is a “part of her constant tradition.” Fr. Mike unpacks how the poor are the “true treasure of the Church.” He emphasizes that when we give to the poor what they need, we satisfy the requirements of justice. He also reiterates the importance of mercy and showing mercy to others. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2443-2449. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year Podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 318, we are reading paragraphs 2443-2449. As always, I'm using the ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations

of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan. By visiting ascensionpress.com slash cyy, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications because today is day 318. See you in the American Bear Graphs 24, 43 to 24, 49. We're talking about, as I mentioned last night, let yesterday, whenever you listen to

this, yesterday, about love for the poor. Now yesterday, of course, we talked about justice and solidarity among nations. So here's this global international scale in which we're called to have this lens. These lenses right of justice, of solidarity, of charity, of love. And also here today, the church says, let's key in on this and have a lens that is the lens of God. Because God has a lens that he has a particular love for the poor. And this is going to be convicting. So for so many of us.

Now, in the last couple of days, we've talked about different political systems or economic systems. Today, there are some big ideas, but it is one of those days that brings up hopefully some challenges. And we've asked the question, okay, so then if this is the truth and it is, what does that mean for me? If I'm called to cultivate a love for the poor, how do I do that in my life right now? And that's what we're gonna look at today. And so let's pray. Father in heaven, in the name of your son Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, you

you God humbled yourself in the power of the Holy Spirit, you, you God humbled yourself in the person of Jesus. You humbled yourself to become one of us. And not only one of us, you humbled yourself to become among the poorest of us. And you revealed your heart, you revealed your heart over and over again in Scripture. You have revealed your heart over and over again in the teaching of the Church that you have a particular love for those among us who are the poorest, the weakest, the most in need.

God, give us a heart like yours. Give us a heart to see people, the way you see people. Give us a heart to love the poor, the way you love the poor. And in our poverty, Lord, let us be loved by you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is day 318, we are reading paragraphs 24, 43, to 24, 49. Love for the poor.

God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. Give to him who begs from you. Do not refuse him who would borrow from you. You received without pay. Give without pay. It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. When the poor have the good news preached to them,

it is the sign of Christ's presence. The church's love for the poor is part of a constant tradition. This love is inspired by the gospel of the Beatitudes of the poverty of Jesus and of his concern for the poor. Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to be able to give to those in need. It extends not only to material poverty, but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty. Love for the poor is incompatible

with a moderate love of riches or their selfish use. As you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned. You have killed the righteous man. He does not resist you." St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this, saying, "...Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and to prive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.

The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all. That which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity. St. Gregory the Great stated, When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice. The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities, instructing, advising, consoling, comforting, our spiritual works of mercy as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently.

The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity. It is also a work of justice pleasing to God. St. James states in chapter 2, It is also a work of justice says to them, go in peace, be warm and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? In its various forms, material deprivation, unjust oppression,

physical and psychological illness and death, human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the

part of the church, which, since her origin, and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always and everywhere. Beginning with the Old Testament, all kinds of juridical measures, the Jubilee Year forgiveness of debts, prohibition of loans at interest, and the keeping of collateral, the obligation to tithe, the daily payment of the day laborer, the right to glean vines and fields, answer the exhortation of Deut laborer, the right to glean vines and fields, answer the exhortation of Deuteronomy, which states,

For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy, and to the poor in the land." Jesus makes these words his own, saying, The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. In doing so, he does not soften the vehemence of former oracles against buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, but invites us to recognize his own presence in the poor who are his brethren.

When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St. Rose of Lima said to her, When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them, we serve Jesus. All right, there we have it. Paragraph 24, 43 to 24, 49, as I said. This is so good. It is so good and convicting because we recognize

paragraph 24, 43. This goes all the way back to the old covenant. It's all through the new testament. God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. This is so important. In fact, it becomes these works of mercy in 2447. The corporal works of mercy, right? The feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing naked, visiting the second in prison, bearing the dead, giving alms to the poor, those become the test in Matthew chapter 25. The test is, did you do that?

Did I do that? For the least of my brethren, did I do that for the least of these? As often as we have done it, for the least of these, we've done it for Jesus, and as often as we have not done it, we have not done it for Jesus. And this, remember, this is the, I of like the test at the end of life because this is

Jesus in Matthew 25 saying, at the end of time, here is the step separation of this sheep and the goats. And the test is, do I know him in the sense that have I served him in those who needed to be served or did I ignore him in those who needed to be served or did I ignore him in those who needed to be served. Remember those people cry out Lord when did we see you? Hungry or naked ill or in prison and not visit you or visit you and he says as often as you did it or didn't do it for the least of these you did it or didn't do it for me. So we realize this is so important. This is critical for our eternity.

In paragraph 24-44, it notes this. It says, the church's love for the poor is part of a constant tradition. This is something that is, no, yes, it goes on to say that there have been times when the church's members haven't, haven't always lived this way. But this is part of the church's tradition is to care, have a preferential love for the poor, just like God is a preferential love for the poor. There's one story. Actually, I think it was back to the third century, give or take. Pope 6th, this the second was the Pope, and there was a young man from Spain, same named Lawrence, and he was essentially a deacon. At one point, the emperor at the time, Vilarion, he captured the Pope and while during the Mass and had him beheaded. And then he turned to this Lawrence, the Spanish Catholic

man, this Deacon. And he said, okay, here's what I demand. He demanded this Deacon or Arch Deacon, I guess more technically, to turn over all the riches of the church. And he gave Lawrence three days to round up the riches of the church. And so he's what he did. Lawrence sold all the churches' vessels, gave the money to the widows and to the sick. He distributed all the churches' property to the poor. So he took whatever wealth that church had at the time.

Again, this is the third century, and this is under persecution. So he took the churches' vessels, whatever property distributed, gave them to the poor. And then, Valerian had given Lawrence three days. And Lawrence did to do what? To hand over all the riches of the church. And so this is one of those like baller moves, right? This kind of like this, like wow, tough guy moves where Lawrence goes to the palace of the emperor of Valerian, and he stopped and he gestured back to the door,

or coming in behind him, was just tons of crowds of the poor, the cripple blind, hurting people, and he said, these, these are the true treasures of the church. And this recognition, of course, that is, that's how we're supposed to look at this... That's how we're supposed to look at this. That's how we're supposed to look at the poor and the crippled, the blind, the land, the people who are neediest among us. We don't have that view, right? This is an incredible story of Lawrence.

Lawrence has another incredible story. And he says almost, I'm gonna say this story in just a second, to highlight how differently Lawrence looked at life. He looked at life the way Jesus looked at life. He looked at life the way Jesus looked at life. Then the story is after this, as a result of this, Lawrence is martyred. And he was martyred, not like Pope Six

that's the second who was beheaded, he was martyred by being grilled alive. And the story is that as Lawrence was being grilled alive, at one point he turned to the people torturing him and said, okay, you can flip me over now. I'm done on this side. And it's just like really crazy. Again, I said, as it's like a baller move, right?

The high roller type move, this like, you know, tough guy move. And yet, think about this. Who of us could ever, whatever dream of saying that as we're being grilled alive, flip me over, I'm done on this side. And in a similar way, who among us really, really truly believes that, oh, the riches of the church, that's not the Vatican Museum, riches of the church, that's not the chalices and the beautiful churches and the land that we might have in the Catholic church,

but the true riches of the church are the poor, the hurting, the blind, the lame, the suffering. But that is what the church teaches. That's what the church teaches. It's amazing. In fact, you know, those two quotes from the book of the letter of James are worth reading again and again to recognize that, okay, come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Eritage has rotted and your garments are mothy to your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. Just in the conviction too that St. James goes on to say, he who has two

coats, let him share with him who has none. And he who has food must do likewise. Remember, we had that quote from St. Gregory the Great who was a pope and he said, he said this, he said, when we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we're paying a debt of justice. And this is a remarkable thing that here's how they church sees this. They church sees caring for the poor. Yes, of course, as an act of love, as an act of charity. But at the heart of it, as an act of justice, when someone has nothing to give them something

is simply giving them what they're owed. When someone has no coat, to give them a coat is simply giving them what they're owed. When someone has no food, to give them your food is simply giving them what is owed to them. And this is the crazy, like, so challenging, so challenging, truth of the Catholic church. And what we have to do is we have to, how do we say, oh, God, give me that preferential love you have. Give me that love that you have for those among us who are the weakest.

Those among us who are in most need. Remember what mercy is? I think we talked about this before, but let's talk about it again. God loves us. God pours out His love for us. The highest form of God's love is mercy. And what is mercy? Mercy is the love that we need the most and yet deserve the least. Mercy is the love we need the most and deserve the least. And so here is God who has poured out his mercy upon us, his love that we needed the most, right, in his forgiveness and his reconciliation. And in giving us,

remember the very first days of this Catechism in a year where we talked about the fact that God is so good that He's made us, He's adopted sons and daughters by His life, death and resurrection. This amazing part is Holy Spirit upon us. We did nothing to deserve this. In fact, we deserve it the least. And yet, it's the love we need the most.

Similarly, that's why the church teaches that this is an act of justice. Not strictly speaking an act of love. That's the hate care of the poor is what we owe them. And again, like, how does that look in practice? I don't know. It looks different in every person's life. How does that look in your life? I'm not exactly sure. But here are words that I've been convicted by. I want to read these to you. That's okay with you. We heard from St. John Christ's dumb today. I want to hear from St. John Christ's dumb one more time. This is one of the

things that priests, deacons, religious sisters, and brothers, bishops read at least once a year. We all read this at least once a year. And it's a reminder of how we are to approach. Not just how approach the poor, but how we are to approach, not just how approach the poor, but how we are to love the poor among us. It's a longer quote, but I invite you to just let it, let it sit among you. This is from a homily on the gospel of Matthew by St. John Chrysostom and once again,

priests, steekens, bishops, religious sisters and religious brothers and laypeople read this at least once a year. Here it is. St. John Chrysostom says, Do you want to honor Christ's body? Then do not scorn him in his nakedness, nor honor him here in the church with silk and garments, while neglecting him outside where he is cold and naked. For he who said, this is my body, and made it so by his words, also said, you saw me hungry and did not feed me. And in as much as you did not do it for one of these,

the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me. What we do here in the church requires a pure heart, not special garments. What we do outside requires great dedication. Let us learn therefore to be men of wisdom and to honor Christ as he desires. For a person being honored finds greatest pleasure in the honor he desires, not in the honor we think best.

Peter thought he was honoring Christ when he refused to let him wash his feet, but what Peter wanted was not truly an honor, quite the opposite. Give him the honor prescribed in his law by giving your riches to the poor. For God does not want golden vessels, but golden hearts. Now in saying this, I'm not forbidding you to make such gifts. I'm only demanding that along with such gifts and before them you give alms. He accepts the former,

but he is much more pleased with the latter. In the former, only the giver profits. In the latter, the recipient does too. A gift to the church may be taken as a form of ostentation, but an alms is pure kindness. Of what uses it, to weigh down Christ's table with golden cups when he himself is dying of hunger. First, fill him when he is hungry, then use the means you have left to adorn his table. Will you have a golden cup made, but not give a cup of water? What is the use of providing the table with cloths woven of gold thread and not providing

Christ Himself with the clothes He needs? What profit is there in that? Tell me. If you were to see Him lacking the necessary food for to leave Him in that state and merely surround His table with gold, would He be grateful to you? Or rather would he not be angry? What if you were to see him clad and worn out regs and stiff from the cold, and were to forget about clothing him, and instead, would you set up golden columns for him, saying that you were doing it in his honor? Would he not think he was being mocked and greatly insulted?

Apply this also to Christ when he comes along the roads as a pilgrim, looking for shelter. You do not take him in as your guest, but you decorate floor and walls and the capitals of the pillars. You provide silver chains for the lamps, but you cannot bear even to look at him as he lies chained in prison. Once again, I am not forbidding you to supply these adornments. I am urging you to provide these other things as well, and indeed to provide them first. No one has ever been accused for not providing ornaments, but for those who neglect their neighbor a hell awaits with an inexinguishable fire and torment in the company of the demons. Do not therefore adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother.

For he is the most precious temple of all. Those are the words of St. John Christ's system. And those are words that I just wanted to highlight. You know, we're in the process right now of trying to build a church up here in Duluth. And so I'm meeting with people and saying, would you like to support this, this work? And this work, I believe, is very, very important because this work will supply the spiritual needs of thousands upon thousands of young

people. We'll come to this university here in Duluth, Minnesota. And yet at the same time, St. John Chris' words are still true. That we want to have a beautiful church where people can pray. We want to have a beautiful church where people will be drawn by the beauty, drawn by the truth. And we draw by the community that can be built around that inside that church. And at the same time, we recognize that St. John Chris' system says, yeah, build your beautiful churches. You don't have those beautiful things. But don't forget the poor.

Don't forget to clothe Jesus. When you're interested, here I am, interested in adorning his altar for the sacrifice of the mass. And remember, the Sanctuary of Christom said, the very beginning of this homily, he said, the same Lord, the same God, who said, this is my body, also said, you saw me hungry and did not feed me. And as much as you did not do it for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did not do it for me.

So we need, what do we need? And we do in the church requires a pure heart, not special garments. What we do outside requires great dedication. And so here's my prayer, my prayer for all of us is that while we have beautiful liturgy, while we have beautiful churches, and while God willing, we get to build a beautiful place, as I said, for generations of young people to come and encounter the Lord in their lives

be changed. We can't, I can't forget the fact that God has called all of us to take care of him in the distressing disguise of the poor. So please know that I am praying for you in this. Please pray for me in this. I'm going to follow my kick and I'll wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.