Holy Father Pope Francis while addressing the faithful gathered at St. Peter’s Square Basilica, to celebrate the “First World Day of the Poor” delivered a speech conveying that in the poor, Jesus knocks on the doors of our heart, thirsting for our love and highlighted that when we overcome our indifference, in the name of Jesus, we give of ourselves for the least of his brethren. His Holiness announced the World Day of the Poor during the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy and entrusted its organization and promotion to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.
As reported by Vatican Radio, Holy Father Pope Francis remarked that “In the eyes of the world, they (poor people) have little value, they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven and for us it is an evangelical duty to care for them, as our real riches and to do not only by giving them bread but also by breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to them.”
His Holiness concluded his homily by exhorting the faithful to love the poor, to combat all forms of poverty, spiritual and material. There were some 4 thousand needy people in the congregation for the Holy Mass, after which Holy Father Pope Francis offered Sunday lunch in the Paul VI Hall. The World Day of the Poor is to be marked annually, on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
