Today, we celebrate the 9th World Day of the Poor. Pope Francis instituted this Day, saying: “We are called to draw near to the poor, to encounter them, to meet their gaze, to embrace them and to let them feel the warmth of love that breaks through their solitude… This Day is meant, above all, to encourage believers to react against a culture of discard and waste, and to embrace the culture of encounter.”
This call has shaped my vocation. As a licensed social worker serving in the Church, I have been in relationship with those experiencing poverty, witnessing God’s presence active among us. This journey began for me years ago as an undergraduate at Xavier University. During my junior year, I spent a semester in Delhi, India, working alongside local leaders at a community center in one of the city’s poorest areas. Life there was marked by hardships—open sewers, unsafe water, crowded housing—one might easily feel despair. Yet hope abounded!
At the center, I met women who had formed a spice cooperative, working together to uplift their families. I shared meals with parents working extra jobs to give their children the education they never had. I befriended Sandeep, a young man who had grown up there and was now a university student like me, giving back to his neighbors. Together, their resilience, courage, and creativity taught me new forms of mutual support, new ways of seeing Christ in one another, in love shared and dreams for a better world.
Since then, I have been graced with many encounters closer to home—directing a teen employment program in North St. Louis, running a food pantry in Boston, and now, accompanying our migrant brothers and sisters who have fled violence in search of safety. In my ministry, I have celebrated with them at their weddings and mourned with them over lost jobs. Each encounter has drawn us into deeper relationship, helping us live more fully into Christ’s beloved community.
In his message for today, Pope Leo writes: “The celebration of the World Day of the Poor is meant to remind our communities that the poor are at the heart of all our pastoral activity…God took on their poverty in order to enrich us through their voices, their stories and their faces. Every form of poverty, without exception, calls us to experience the Gospel concretely and to offer effective signs of hope.”
Our Parish’s Social Mission offers many opportunities for you to live the Gospel of encounter. How is Christ calling you to draw near through relationship? How might you be called to “bear hope and healing”?
