Pope’s Message for World Day of the Poor

In his homily for World Day of the Poor – Sunday 15 November – Pope Francis stressed the importance of service in the life of Christians.

“The season of Christmas is approaching, the holiday season,” the Holy Father noted. “How often do we hear people ask: ‘What can I buy? What more can I have? I must go shopping’. Let us use different words: ‘What can I give to others?’, in order to be like Jesus.”

“Those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life. We must repeat this, and repeat it often: those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life. But what kind of service are we speaking of? In the Gospel, good servants are those who take risks. They are not fearful and overcautious, they do not cling to what they possess, but put it to good use. For if goodness is not invested, it is lost, and the grandeur of our lives is not measured by how much we save but by the fruit we bear.

“How many people spend their lives simply accumulating possessions, concerned only about the good life and not the good they can do? Yet how empty is a life centered on our needs and blind to the needs of others! The reason we have gifts is so that we can be gifts for others. And here, brothers and sisters, we should ask ourselves the question: do I only follow my own needs, or am I able to look to the needs of others, to whoever is in need? Are my hands open, or are they closed?

Read Pope Francis’ complete homily for World Day of the Poor