“Jesus Christ… for your sakes became poor” (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). Tomorrow, on November 13, Poles celebrate the World Day of the Poor.
The World Day of the Poor is a Roman Catholic observance, celebrated on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time since 2017. It was established by Pope Francis in his Apostolic Letter, Misericordia et Misera, issued on 20 November 2016 to celebrate the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
“Jesus Christ… for your sakes became poor” (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). With these words, the Apostle Paul addresses the first Christians of Corinth in order to encourage their efforts to show solidarity with their brothers and sisters in need. The World Day of the Poor comes this year as a healthy challenge, helping us to reflect on our style of life and on the many forms of poverty all around us.
Because of this special day, people try to help the poor across Poland.
For example, In Katowice, the celebration of the 6th World Day of the Poor will take place at Plac Szewczyk. With those in need in mind, the organizers prepared breakfast, legal, professional, psychological and therapeutic advice, as well as handicraft workshops. There will also be help tents – with an exchange of clothes or a rescue dressing operation.
In Łódź, it will be prepared by non-governmental organizations. Doctors from the Street Medical Service will try to help at the Cathedral in Łódź. Moreover, all interested people in need will receive a “Guide to Łódź”. The guide will contain addresses of places where people they can eat, wash themselves, take a nap, and receive specialist support.
Citizens of Krakow also supports the poor and organises several meetings and gathers gifts in the Archdiocese of Krakow. Actually, the volunteers has started their work today:
The poverty that kills is squalor, the daughter of injustice, exploitation, violence and the unjust distribution of resources. It is a hopeless and implacable poverty, imposed by the throwaway culture that offers neither future prospects nor avenues of escape. It is a squalor that not only reduces people to extreme material poverty, but also corrodes the spiritual dimension, which, albeit often overlooked, is nonetheless still there and still important. When the only law is the bottom line of profit at the end of the day, nothing holds us back from seeing others simply as objects to be exploited; other people are merely a means to an end. There no longer exist such things as a just salary or just working hours, and new forms of slavery emerge and entrap persons who lack alternatives and are forced to accept this toxic injustice simply to eke out a living.