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Matthew 26:10: The Poor will always be with you

The great salvific task, then, is to evangelize the poor so that out of their material poverty they may attain the awareness and the spirit necessary, first to escape from their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history. - Ignacio Ellacuria

The poor unleash solidarity. Solidarity means poor people and nonpoor people mutually bearing one another, giving to each other and receiving from each other. Often what is given and what is received are in quite different orders of reality: material aid and human acceptance, for example. And what the nonpoor receive may be, as a humanizing reality, superior to what they give. This kind of solidarity goes beyond mere unilateral aid, with its intrinsic tendency toward imposition and domination. It goes beyond alliances between those who wish to defend their own common interests over against other people's interests. Understanding solidarity in the sense of unequals bearing each other mutually is something novel, but such solidarity is necessary in a world of unequals; it can resolve the ambiguity and root out what is harmful in the falsely universalizing concept of globalization. - John Sobrino

We need to create economic, political and cultural models that can enable a civilization of labour to replace a civilization of capital. We need shared solidarity, a fundamental fundamental characteristic of the civilization of poverty, in contrast to the closed and competitive individualism of the civilization of wealth. - Ignacio Ellacuria

Societies based on wealth (capitalism) can never be Christian (Matthew 6:24) as they exclude the poor.

Deuteronomy 15:4: There doesn't need to be any poor among us

The important thing then is that we no longer objectify others and exclude them from society. The society of Jesus is inclusive. We need to not only allow but also invite our neighbour to participate in society. We need to give every person every opportunity to be part of our group. Allow every person to serve. Do not force anyone to just be served. Allow everyone to help. Do not demean some by considering them as unable to assist. The Kingdom of God is about inviting others to be part of a society of Jesus where we love and serve one another. Today, I encourage you to look for an opportunity to invite someone to serve our Lord alongside you - to help you give out clothes to others who need clothes, allow someone who has enjoyed a meal with you at a soup kitchen to clean tables or do dishes alongside you, ask someone their opinion; ask them to pray for you.

Let us look for opportunities not to merely serve others but to invite others to be a part of the Kingdom of God by serving God alongside us. Only then will we all have an opportunity to truly be part of the society of Jesus.

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