Option for the Poor

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

“Think what the world could look like if we took care of the poor even half as well as we do our bibles!” – Dorothy Day

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Listen to my song “I Want to Follow You” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

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Galatians 2:10

Only, we were to be mindful of the poor, which is the very thing I was eager to do.

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St. Paul knew that Christians were called to care for those at the bottom of society.

This was the gist of what would be written in the gospel of Matthew when Jesus stated: “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

Jesus was quite clear in his instructions that his followers were to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the ill and those in prison.

This is the basis for one of the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching, “Option for the Poor and Vulnerable”:

A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46) and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.

Christians are called to do this.

Is this philosophy to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first reflected in the people calling themselves “Christian” today?

Perhaps before we cast aspersions on others, each of us needs to ask ourselves this:

How am I doing in taking the option of the poor?

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Listen to the song of the day “I Want to Follow You” on the Listen to Your Heart album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Purchase my new book “Listen to Your Heart: A Daily Devotional of Calling, Purpose and New Life” on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Purchase my book “Mercy Reigns: A Daily Devotional of Compassion, Comfort and Healing” on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Remember: God loves you!

About billtonnis

Child of God, Pastoral Minister, Chaplain, Music Minister, Jail Minister, singer-songwriter, author, activist, former radio news anchor, imperfect follower of Jesus inspired by God's unconditional love, proud uncle... what else is there?
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3 Responses to Option for the Poor

  1. Godfreykuma says:

    Yes that is love, it give. When Jesus admonish us to walk in love. He was all saying we should be givers.

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