Blessed are the Poor: Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

On the fourth of this month, Pope Leo XIV gave to the Universal Church the Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te (I Have Loved You) which encourages us to grow in concrete acts of love for the poor. While large portions of this exhortation, deal with those who suffer material poverty, Pope Leo also adds a useful caution, reminding us in §9 that “there are many forms of poverty,” including “moral and spiritual poverty.” Later, at § 87, he exhorts that in addition to reaching out to those suffering material impoverishment, we should reach out: “above all, [to] those without hope of a better future.”

This caution is well made, because all too often, misguided especially by Marxian ideologies, we assume that material poverty is the only poverty that matters, and that the materially rich may be ignored, do not need our ministerial actions, and worse, are evil.

Nothing could be further from the message in the first reading today:

The LORD is a God of justice,
 who knows no favorites.
 Though not unduly partial toward the weak,
 yet he hears the cry of the oppressed.

The God of justice, has no favourites. He opens His heart and His ears above all to the cries of the oppressed, be they the orphan or widow, as we hear in the first reading, or the poor, the brokenhearted and the crushed as we sang in the psalm.

Pope Leo’s caution in Dilexi Te is useful because the Christian understanding of the poor does not unduly fetishize the poor. It does not see them as innocents, as fashionable post-colonial and other leftist ideologies do, precisely because they are poor! As terribly as poverty is, and as much as it demands the action of selfless Christian charity, the poor are not simply those who are materially poor. Rather, the Faith recognizes as poor persons who, humble themselves like Our Lord, and accuse themselves of their sins.

The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds

This is precisely the message from the Gospel parable today. We are introduced to two characters, the self-righteous Pharisee, and the penitent tax-collector. The Pharisee is convinced of having gathered the good graces of God, because he has fulfilled the letter of the law. But alas! He is filled with pride and arrogance, believing himself superior, particularly to the tax-collector. Our Lord, however, points out that it is precisely the tax-collector’s penitence, his acknowledgement of his sins, that makes him poor, and therefore deserving of the rich mercy of God.

In his discussion in Angels and Demons (no, not that book!!) of the angels’ fall from heaven, the Dominican Serge-Thomas Bonino points to their sin of pride. Drawing on St. Thomas Aquinas’ insights, he points out that pride is the disordered love of our own excellence; the love of the self, to the disregard, and contempt even, of the good of others (p. 203). This is not dissimilar to those people who come to the sacrament of confession, confident that they are good, and pure, and use the sacrament to confess the sins of others! Woe to them.

One can clearly see, that in the parable today, Our Lord was cautioning us against the sin of pride, which prevented the Pharisee from recognizing the goodness that the tax collector’s penitence represented. It is when we throw ourselves as the mercy of Our Lord, relying not on our good works, but on His mercy, recognizing our sins, no matter our good works, that we are truly poor in the eyes of Our Lord. For remember, his poverty lay, not merely in the humble economic circumstances into which He was born, but rather in the fact that He, who knew no sin, was made sin, so that we may become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).

This is not to suggest that the poor are inappropriately proud – though if they do not cry out to the Lord in their distress, but rely solely on their own strength, they might well be! This caution is also directed against those who perform acts of charity. As someone who has worked in what is known as the developmental sector, I can testify that there can sometimes set in a sense of smug satisfaction, arrogance even, among those who work in the sector. After our acts of charity, we come to believe that we are owed something, sometimes perversely expecting this from the very people we assist! If this be the case, we are not far from embodying the Pharisee who Our Lord is so clear does not find righteousness with God.

My dear brothers and sisters, the Lord of justice has no favourites, though he is especially attentive to the voice of the distressed. It is when we cry out to Him, recognizing the limits of our capacities that we are truly poor. It is when we, like the apostle Paul, pour ourselves out like libations in acts of Christian charity, and are attacked for this by the powers and principalities of this world that we become one with the poor and win for ourselves the crown of righteousness.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the anticipated Sunday Mass on 25 October 2025 at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa.)

(Image reference: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jan Luyken, 1700, Rijksmuseum.)

In the Sight of the Angels! Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.

St. Paul is quite clear about the value of the scriptures in his second letter to Timothy, a portion of which we read today. This has inspired many a Christian to pick up the Bible, and attempt to read it cover to cover. But they soon encounter verses like these from the first reading today:

 

In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel.

…

And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword.

Fed, since infancy, with the images of Christianity as a message of peace, they simply do not know what to make of the gore in the texts they are reading!

Perhaps this is because they lack the tools necessary to read, and more importantly interpret, the Bible. One reads the Bible not only literally, but also metaphorically, reading the text for the images that it generates. In this reading, we are helped by the traditions of the Church, which we inherit as part of our patrimony.

For example, the month of October, is traditionally celebrated as the month of the holy angels. Recognizing this custom, we can see how the psalm today has so much more beneath the surface, just waiting for the eyes of our heart to read them!

 My help is from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

St. Augustine tells us that this verse is a reference to Christ, the Word of God through whom the Father made all things. And, as the creed tells us, these things include “all things visible and invisible”.

And so, my dear brothers and sisters, we are introduced to the fact that the world we inhabit is not just the physical, or natural, world that can be seen; but the spiritual, or supernatural, world that cannot be seen. This supernatural world refers to those of the angels, both good, and bad. To be a Catholic, is to believe in the existence of the angels, as a truth of the faith (CCC § 328). And here, we encounter the third dimension of our faith, the Magisterium, that helps us understand and interpret both scripture and tradition.

Let us return to the angels. Our help, from God, comes from the good angels, and particularly, or most intimately, from the guardian angels that are assigned to each and every one of us from birth.

May he not suffer your foot to slip;
may he slumber not who guards you:
indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps

And how do the angels protect us? St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the angels enlighten us, communicating to us the superior form of life. In other words, they constantly guide us toward the Truth. And this presence is intimate and near. Listen to the words of the psalm:

The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade;
he is beside you at your right hand.

Those of you who are familiar with the Tintin comic series, or perhaps other cartoons - I can think of the famous Tom and Jerry series, will be familiar with the image of a good angel and a bad angel. And this is because these cartoons and comics are directly inspired by Christian belief that our guardian angel is at our right-hand side, guiding towards good. In fact, St. Padre Pio offered a very specific knowledge about the angels, asserting not only that our guardian angels are at our right, but that when a man is ordained a priest, the angel moves to his left.

God, in His goodness, however, does not only provide individuals with guardian angels, but also communities and nations.

indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps,
the guardian of Israel

There is a belief in the Catholic Church that even nations are provided guardian angels. Once again, we see how popular culture faintly echoes Catholic scripture. Many of us would have heard of the popular video game – Prince of Persia. There is a reference to the Prince of Persia in scripture:

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me twenty-one days. So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia (Dan 10:13).

The princes referred to here, as is also very often the case in the rest of scripture, are the guardian angels of the places, or other angels.

And this is not the only reference to angel guardians of places and communities, for in the book of Revelation (1:20) we read of the “the seven stars [who] are the angels of the seven churches.” Believe therefore, and petition, the guardian angel of your nation and region.

God in His wisdom, and His mercy, has ensured, therefore, and this we must believe as an article of faith, that we have guardians at every level – the personal, and the community. And it is for this reason that we can, in confidence, sing:

The LORD will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your life.
The LORD will guard your coming and your going,
both now and forever.

Our minds strengthened by these learnings from scripture, let us turn to the angels to help us on the true and narrow path.

Holy Mary, Queen of the Angels; pray for us.

All God’s Holy Angels; pray for us.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful gathered in the Royal Chapel of St. Anthony, Old Goa, on 18 Oct 2025.)

(image reference: Illustration from Hergé’s The Red Sea Sharks, from the Adventures of Tintin series.)