help with the tough questions

Last updated: 18th November 2023

Top Quotes:
Poverty and Property

1. “This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need.” (St Paul)
2. “Jesus gives us his own example, he shows us the way forward. What he does can be summed up in three words. He takes a little bread and some fish, he blesses them and then gives them to his disciples to share with the crowd. And this is how the miracle takes place…. Taking, Blessing, Giving.” (Pope Francis)
3. “May we trust in the goodness of the Lord, who does great things with smallness.” (Pope Francis)
4. “Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.” (Jesus)
5. “Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasures that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For wherever your treasure is, that is where your heart will be too.” (Jesus)
6. “When someone is given a great deal, a great deal will be demanded of that person; when someone is entrusted with a great deal, of that person even more will be expected.” (Jesus)
7. “The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race.” (The Catechism)
8. “The appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his charge.” (The Catechism)
9. “The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others.” (The Catechism)
10. “Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor.” (The Catechism)
11. “Christian life strives to order this world’s goods to God and to fraternal charity.” (The Catechism)
12. “There are some people—the few who possess much—who do not really succeed in ‘being’ because—through a reversal of the hierarchy of values, they are hindered by the cult of ‘having’; and there are others—the many who have little or nothing—who do not succeed in realising their basic human vocation because they are deprived of essential goods.” (Pope John-Paul II)
13. “You must take of your substance, and not just of your abundance, in order to help them (the poor). And you must treat them like guests at your family table.” (Pope John-Paul II)
14. “Offering material things is not enough: what is needed is a spirit of sharing, so that we consider it an honour to be able to devote our care and attention to the needs of our brothers and sisters in difficulty.” (Pope John-Paul II)
15. “Those living in poverty can wait no longer: they need help now and so have a right to receive immediately what they need.” (Pope John-Paul II)
16. “If you want to honour the body of Christ, do not scorn it when it is naked; do not honour the Eucharistic Christ with silk vestments, and then, leaving the church, neglect the other Christ suffering from cold and nakedness” (Saint John Chrysostom, as quoted by Pope Francis)
17. “We are called, then, 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. Their outstretched hand is also an invitation to step out of our certainties and comforts.” (Pope Francis)
18. “Poverty is an interior attitude that avoids looking upon money, career and luxury as our goal in life and the condition for our happiness. Poverty instead creates the conditions for freely shouldering our personal and social responsibilities, despite our limitations, with trust in God’s closeness and the support of his grace. Poverty, understood in this way, is the yardstick that allows us to judge how best to use material goods and to build relationships that are neither selfish nor possessive.” (Pope Francis)
19. “This Day (annual World Day of the Poor) is meant, above all, to encourage believers to react against a culture of discard and waste, and to embrace the culture of encounter.” (Pope Francis)
20. “At the heart of all the many concrete initiatives carried out on this day (annual World Day of the Poor) should always be prayer. Let us not forget that the Our Father is the prayer of the poor. Our asking for bread expresses our entrustment to God for our basic needs in life. Everything that Jesus taught us in this prayer expresses and brings together the cry of all who suffer from life’s uncertainties and the lack of what they need. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he answered in the words with which the poor speak to our one Father, in whom all acknowledge themselves as brothers and sisters. The Our Father is a prayer said in the plural: the bread for which we ask is “ours”, and that entails sharing, participation and joint responsibility. In this prayer, all of us recognize our need to overcome every form of selfishness, in order to enter into the joy of mutual acceptance.” (Pope Francis)
21. “Sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel. The poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practise in our lives the essence of the Gospel.” (Pope Francis)
22. “Jesus invites his disciples to carry out a true conversion from the mind-set of ‘everyone for themselves’ to that of sharing, beginning with that little that Providence puts at our disposal.” (Pope Francis)

Poverty & Property:
Full Quotes and Sources of Quotes

“Remember how generous the Lord Jesus was: he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty. This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need. This is how we strike a balance: as scripture says: The man who gathered much had none too much, the man who gathered little did not go short.”

— St Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 8), Jerusalem Bible translation

“Jesus’ way of seeing things leaves no room for the mentality which would cut bait on the weak and those most in need. Taking the lead, he gives us his own example, he shows us the way forward. What he does can be summed up in three words. He takes a little bread and some fish, he blesses them and then gives them to his disciples to share with the crowd. And this is how the miracle takes place. It is not magic or sorcery. With these three gestures, Jesus is able to turn a mentality which discards others into a mindset of communion, a mindset of community….

Taking. This is the starting-point: Jesus takes his own and their lives very seriously. He looks at them in the eye, and he knows what they are experiencing, what they are feeling. He sees in those eyes all that is present in the memory and the hearts of his people. He looks at it, he ponders it. He thinks of all the good which they can do, all the good upon which they can build…. Jesus never detracts from the dignity of anyone, no matter how little they possess or seem capable of contributing. He takes everything as it comes.

Blessing. Jesus takes what is given him and blesses his heavenly Father. He knows that everything is God’s gift. So he does not treat things as “objects”, but as part of a life which is the fruit of God’s merciful love. He values them…. He asks the Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Blessing has this double aspect: thanksgiving and transformative power. It is a recognition that life is always a gift which, when placed in the hands of God, starts to multiply.

Giving. With Jesus, there can be no “taking” which is not a “blessing”, and no blessing which is not also a “giving”. Blessing is always mission, its purpose is to share what we ourselves have received. For it is only in giving, in sharing, that we find the source of our joy and come to experience salvation. Giving makes it possible to refresh the memory of God’s holy people, who are invited to be and to bring the joy of salvation to others…. Jesus generated a kind of electrical current among his followers, as they shared what they had, made it a gift for others, and so ate their fill….

May we trust in the goodness of the Lord, who does great things with smallness, with the lowliness of his servants.”

— Pope Francis’s homily during Mass in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, Thursday 9th July 2015

“Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.’

— Jesus, in Luke 12:15, ‘The New Jerusalem Bible’ translation

“Sell your possessions and give to those in need. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasures that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For wherever your treasure is, that is where your heart will be too.”

— Jesus, in Luke 12:33-34, ‘The New Jerusalem Bible’ translation

“When someone is given a great deal, a great deal will be demanded of that person; when someone is entrusted with a great deal, of that person even more will be expected.”

— Jesus, in Luke 12:48, ‘The New Jerusalem Bible’ translation

Regarding private property and using it, the following is taken from the Catechism. I’ve highlighted key points:

“… The Private Ownership of Goods

2402 In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labour, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race. However, the earth is divided up among men to assure the security of their lives, endangered by poverty and threatened by violence. The appropriation of property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of persons and for helping each of them to meet his basic needs and the needs of those in his charge. It should allow for a natural solidarity to develop between men.

… 2404 “In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself”(Vatican II document: Gaudium Spes, section 69). The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.

2405 Goods of production — material or immaterial — such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor.

2406 Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.”

— As mentioned above, the above text is taken from the Catechism

“Christian life strives to order this world’s goods to God and to fraternal charity.”

— From the Catechism in the section re the 7th Commandment “You shall not steal”

“To ‘have’ objects and goods does not in itself perfect the human subject, unless it contributes to the maturing and enrichment of that subject’s ‘being’, that is to say unless it contributes to the realization of the human vocation as such…
There are some people—the few who possess much—who do not really succeed in ‘being’ because—through a reversal of the hierarchy of values, they are hindered by the cult of ‘having’; and there are others—the many who have little or nothing—who do not succeed in realising their basic human vocation because they are deprived of essential goods.
The evil does not consist in ‘having’ as such, but in possessing without regard for the quality and the ordered hierarchy of the goods one has. Quality and hierarchy arise from the subordination of goods and their availability to man’s ‘being’ and his true vocation.

— Pope John-Paul II, Solicitudo Rei Socialis (as quoted in ‘Pope John Paul II: In My Own Words’, p.88, 1998, Hodder & Staughton)

“The poor… are your brothers and sisters in Christ. You must never be content to leave them just the crumbs from the feast. You must take of your substance, and not just of your abundance, in order to help them. And you must treat them like guests at your family table.”

— Pope John-Paul II, Homily at Yankee Stadium, New York, 1979 (as quoted in ‘Pope John Paul II: In My Own Words’, p.70, 1998, Hodder & Staughton)

“A society of genuine solidarity can be built only if the well-off, in helping the poor, do not stop at giving from what they do not need. Moreover, offering material things is not enough: what is needed is a spirit of sharing, so that we consider it an honour to be able to devote our care and attention to the needs of our brothers and sisters in difficulty…. Those living in poverty can wait no longer: they need help now (and so have a right to receive immediately what they need.”

— Pope John-Paul II, Message for World Day of Peace 1998 (as quoted in ‘Pope John Paul II: In My Own Words’, p.70, 1998, Hodder & Staughton)

“If we truly wish to encounter Christ, we have to touch his body in the suffering bodies of the poor, as a response to the sacramental communion bestowed in the Eucharist. The Body of Christ, broken in the sacred liturgy, can be seen, through charity and sharing, in the faces and persons of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters. Saint John Chrysostom’s admonition remains ever timely: “If you want to honour the body of Christ, do not scorn it when it is naked; do not honour the Eucharistic Christ with silk vestments, and then, leaving the church, neglect the other Christ suffering from cold and nakedness” (Hom. in Matthaeum, 50.3: PG 58).

We are called, then, 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. Their outstretched hand is also an invitation to step out of our certainties and comforts, and to acknowledge the value of poverty in itself.

4. Let us never forget that, for Christ’s disciples, poverty is above all a call to follow Jesus in his own poverty. It means walking behind him and beside him, a journey that leads to the beatitude of the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 5:3; Lk 6:20). Poverty means having a humble heart that accepts our creaturely limitations and sinfulness and thus enables us to overcome the temptation to feel omnipotent and immortal. Poverty is an interior attitude that avoids looking upon money, career and luxury as our goal in life and the condition for our happiness. Poverty instead creates the conditions for freely shouldering our personal and social responsibilities, despite our limitations, with trust in God’s closeness and the support of his grace. Poverty, understood in this way, is the yardstick that allows us to judge how best to use material goods and to build relationships that are neither selfish nor possessive (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos. 25-45).

Let us, then, take as our example Saint Francis and his witness of authentic poverty. Precisely because he kept his gaze fixed on Christ, Francis was able to see and serve him in the poor. If we want to help change history and promote real development, we need to hear the cry of the poor and commit ourselves to ending their marginalization. At the same time, I ask the poor in our cities and our communities not to lose the sense of evangelical poverty that is part of their daily life.

…. 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. At the same time, everyone, independent of religious affiliation, is invited to openness and sharing with the poor through concrete signs of solidarity and fraternity. God created the heavens and the earth for all; yet sadly some have erected barriers, walls and fences, betraying the original gift meant for all humanity, with none excluded.

…. At the heart of all the many concrete initiatives carried out on this day should always be prayer. Let us not forget that the Our Father is the prayer of the poor. Our asking for bread expresses our entrustment to God for our basic needs in life. Everything that Jesus taught us in this prayer expresses and brings together the cry of all who suffer from life’s uncertainties and the lack of what they need. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he answered in the words with which the poor speak to our one Father, in whom all acknowledge themselves as brothers and sisters. The Our Father is a prayer said in the plural: the bread for which we ask is “ours”, and that entails sharing, participation and joint responsibility. In this prayer, all of us recognize our need to overcome every form of selfishness, in order to enter into the joy of mutual acceptance.

…. sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel. The poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practise in our lives the essence of the Gospel.”

— Pope Francis, First World Day of the Poor, For 19th November 2017 but “From the Vatican, 13 June 2017”

“Jesus invites his disciples to carry out a true conversion from the mind-set of ‘everyone for themselves’ to that of sharing, beginning with that little that Providence puts at our disposal. And he immediately demonstrates that he is quite clear about what he wants to do. He tells them: “Make them sit down in companies, about fifty each” (v. 14). Then, taking the five loaves and two fish in his hands, he addresses the heavenly Father and utters the prayer of blessing. Next, he begins to break the loaves, divide the fish and give them to the disciples, who distribute them to the crowd. And the food does not end until everyone has had their fill.”

— Pope Francis, Angelus address, 23rd June 2019

“Back in 2001 (the year Argentina’s economy more-or-less collapsed), Bergoglio wrote in a small publication entitled Hambre y sed de justicia, that: ‘There are Argentines facing poverty and exclusion, and who we must treat as subjects and actors of their own destiny, and not as patronized recipients of welfare doled out by the State or civil society.'”

— Samuel Gregg, quoting Pope Francis before he was Pope, in an article ‘Pope Francis on the True Meaning of Poverty‘ copied with permission from ‘Crisis Magazine’ of June 19th 2013