It is not merely an occasion for charity but a degrading force that denigrates human dignity and ought to be opposed and rejected.
Poverty is not a result of fate or inactivity but is due to fundamental injustices that privilege some while marginalizing others. Hunger is not inevitable; collectively, the underprivileged can build and facilitate social change. Scarcity is a complicated existence and is not limited to its financial dimension. To be poor is to be irrelevant. Hunger means an early and unjust death.
Real poverty means destitution or the lack of goods necessary to meet essential human needs. It means inadequate access to instruction, health care, public services, living wages, and discrimination because of culture, race, or gender. Poverty is evil; it is a subhuman condition in which the majority of humankind lives today, and it poses a significant challenge for every Human Being duty and, therefore, to spirituality and theological reflection.
Spiritual poverty is about a radical openness to the will of G-D, fanatical faith in a providential G-D, and a fundamental trust in a loving G-D. It is also known as spiritual immaturity, from which flows the abnegation of material goods. Relinquishing ownership comes from a desire to be more possessed by G-D alone and to love and serve G-D more effectively.
The correct Christian sides with the world’s poor, Consciously acknowledging the forces of greed, violence, and death that crush them. The Christian sees the prophet Christ present in the impoverished and marginalized and joins their struggle to end starvation.
A spirituality of liberation will center on a conversion to the neighbor, the oppressed person, the exploited social class, the despised ethnic group, the dominated country. “
The conversion to the Lord means this transformation to the neighbor. To be transformed is to engage oneself lucidly, realistically, and concretely to the rule of the liberation of the needy and enslaved.
The true Christian makes an option for the poor, is to make a decision for Jesus. That ultimately is the spiritual basis for our solidarity with the poor.
