The World Day of the Poor seeks to remind us that the poor are at the heart of all pastoral action. Not only in its charitable dimension, but also in what the Church celebrates and proclaims. God has taken on their poverty to enrich us through their voices, their stories, their faces. Every form of poverty, without exception, is a call to live the Gospel concretely and to offer effective signs of hope.
Hope is born of faith, which nourishes and sustains it, on the foundation of charity, which is the mother of all virtues. And we need charity today, now. It is not a promise, but a reality that we look upon with joy and responsibility: it commits us, guiding our decisions towards the common good. Those who lack charity not only lack faith and hope, but also take away hope from their neighbours.
In the midst of life's trials, hope is encouraged by the firm and encouraging certainty of God's love, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That is why it does not disappoint.