Today, we arrive at the eighth, and last, of the signs of hope that Pope Francis speaks about in the document relating to the Jubilee of Hope. It is the sign of hope that needs to be shown to the poor in our world. In n.15 he writes:
I ask with all my heart that hope be granted to the billions of the poor, who often lack the essentials of life. Before the constant tide of new forms of impoverishment, we can easily grow inured and resigned. Yet we must not close our eyes to the dramatic situations that we now encounter all around us, not only in certain parts of the world. Each day we meet people who are poor or impoverished; they may even be our next-door neighbours. Often, they are homeless or lack sufficient food for the day. They suffer from exclusion and indifference on the part of many. It is scandalous that in a world possessed of immense resources, destined largely to producing weapons, the poor continue to be “the majority of the planet’s population, billions of people. These days they are mentioned in international political and economic discussions, but one often has the impression that their problems are brought up as an afterthought, a question which gets added almost out of duty or in a tangential way, if not treated merely as collateral damage. Indeed, when all is said and done, they frequently remain at the bottom of the pile” (quote from the document ‘Laudato Si’ n.49). Let us not forget: the poor are almost always the victims, not the ones to blame.
Around the world, a world with immense resources and wealth within it, there are billions who suffer from lacking the basics — they are homeless, suffering from malnutrition and sickness. There are also many who are closer to home who are struggling to make ends meet and may ‘lack sufficient for the day’, living from pay check to pay check and nothing to fall back on when something goes wrong. There is the incredible number of people in ‘first world’ countries who find it hard to keep a roof over their heads and for a lot of the younger generations it is impossible to buy or even rent a place of their own due to the enormous amounts asked for in rental situations and the incredible amounts that are looked for to purchase a house often built below what would be considered a good standard of housing.
The Pope highlights the discrepancy between resources being spent to help those who are in real need in our world and the huge amounts spent on weapons that bring devastation to places and to people’s lives and livelihoods. The imbalance between the richest 1% and the other 99% of the world’s population is frightening. You would wonder at times why some need the excesses that they have. If we think of what we need to live a basic, comfortable life where we can feed ourselves, look after our health, have a roof over our heads and enough space in the house for the needs of the family living in the house, what is the point of the excess. Why so many millionaires, billionaires and now, trillionaires — let us all keep in mind that there are no pockets in a shroud!