THE FORGOTTEN POOR

Christmas has come and gone. We were all wrapped up in the season in more ways than simply wrapping presents. We remembered all those we love, who are important to us, who are special in some way or another whether we gave them presents or not. And even when we do give loved ones gifts, the truth is none of them need anything we give. They and we already have more than enough. All the while we tend to easily forget about those who do not have enough: the poor.

Why is it that the poor are so often so forgotten? Why does it take a natural disaster to awaken us to the plight of the poor, to that fact that there are so many poor people throughout the world? When it comes to the poor and the needs of the poor, “out of sight, out of mind” seems to be the prevailing philosophy of everyone who is not poor. It seems that if we were not reminded of the poor on a more or less regular basis, we would forget about them altogether.

This lack of concern for the poor is nothing new. It is age old, as old as the world. It seems that every generation has neglected the poor and the downtrodden in their midst. The poor may never have been completely ignored, but they were also never on anyone’s priority list, not now, and it seems, not ever.

And yet, if we read Scripture closely, all of it, the poor are always, always, always, God’s Number One priority. In every generation everywhere God has had as a first concern the care for the poor. The picture of the Last Judgment that Jesus paints in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is one where the only criterion for entrance into external life is how we treated the poor of the world. Did we treat them well or did we mistreat or even ignore them?

The problem is not that we are so callous that we neglect the poor or even use and abuse the poor. The problem is that we can get so wrapped up in our own lives, often struggling just to makes ends meet, that we don’t even give the poor a second or third thought unless we stand face to face with someone in need. Then and only then do we seem to be shaken out of our own little world to catch a glimpse of the wider world out there. It is a world where poverty and disease run rampant and will continue to do so until and unless those of us who have begin to address the situation to help the have-nots.

The disciples in Jerusalem, for example, wanted to remind Paul that once he set off on his missionary journeys he must not forget about the needs of the poor in Jerusalem where so many of the needy in that part of the world gathered. These disciples knew Paul would be very busy trying to evangelize the gentiles, that his days would be consumed with this mission and that it would be easy for him to forget about the poor simply because his mind was not focused on them. He assured them he would not forget about them.

It is unfortunate that we all need such reminders, that the poor are not foremost in our thoughts and front-burner issues in our lives. Reminders, however, are only as good as the responses we make to them.