We should not need a special day to encourage us to eradicate poverty in Australia. Poverty is more than a problem to be studied. It wears the face of people whom we meet in the street, through the Vinnies, and see sleeping on the streets. Poverty could wear the face of ourselves, of our children.
The Day for the Eradication of Poverty reminds us that this has always been the case: poverty is always about people and their suffering. For them it is about hunger, anxiety about where the next meal will come from for themselves and their children, shame at not being able to afford the money needed for their daughter’s school camp, the humiliation of sleeping in a tent while seeking accommodation. We do not like thinking about poverty.
At Jesuit Social Services we see the face of poverty in the vulnerable young people with whom we work. In their childhood they have been deprived of so much. We hope that as we accompany them, they may find new possibilities.
Poverty also has a public face. The theme of the week reminds us of the global solidarity and the need for inclusive policies that uplift marginalised communities and ensure equal opportunities for all. It is not right that a child born in Gaza, Sudan or in the Kimberley should expect a shorter and more deprived life than one born in Melbourne or Sydney. Societies and governments in nations where many people live in poverty while the wealth of the few increases have neglected their charge to care for the good of all their people. Governments and we who vote for them must ensure that all families, all people can live decent lives.
To ensure this we must keep our eyes fixed on the distressing human face of poverty. Its healing must come through other human faces. For the poor, they include the faces of persons who stop to talk, who are interested in our lives, who can put us in touch with kind and generous people, with sympathetic doctors and agencies. Finding people who care for us as persons is the first step to finding new possibilities for ourselves and the world. How might you be one of those people?
As we reflect on these large challenges, Pope Leo’s first major document Dilexi Te launched last week is encouraging and challenging. In it he owns a message prepared by Pope Francis, in which God takes the side of the poor and invites Christians to meet Christ in them. In the Exhortation he makes our response to persons who are poor the centre both of faith and of a just political framework. They are not our beneficiary but are guides to our real world. As he says, ‘the poor are possessed of unique insights indispensable to the Church and to humanity as a whole.’
