Nicolete Burbach
@nicoleteburbach.bsky.social
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Trans theologian and connoisseur of fine heavy music
Co-Editor of Trans Life and the Catholic Church Today (T&T Clark, 2024)
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![42. Consequently, charity is not optional but a requirement of true worship. Chrysostom vehemently denounced excessive wealth connected with indifference for the poor. The attention due to them, rather than a mere social requirement, is a condition for salvation, which gives unjust wealth a condemnatory weight. “It is very cold and the poor man lies in rags, dying, freezing, shivering, with an appearance and clothing that should move you. You, however, red in the face and drunk, pass by. And how do you expect God to deliver you from misfortune?... You often adorn an unfeeling corpse, which no longer understands honor, with many varied and gilded garments. Yet you despise the one who feels pain, who is torn apart, tortured, tormented by hunger and cold.” [32] This profound sense of social justice leads him to affirm that “not giving to the poor is stealing from them, defrauding them of their lives, because what we have belongs to them.” [33]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreig4qxtanxzube3oe5xbydvetkfve6p442sw4wbqoi24neuxfbtgce@jpeg)
![108. At a particularly critical time in the history of the Church in Rome, when the imperial institutions were collapsing under the pressure of the barbarian invasions, Pope Saint Gregory the Great felt it necessary to remind the faithful: “Every minute we can find a Lazarus if we seek him, and every day, even without seeking, we find one at our door. Now beggars besiege us, imploring alms; later they will be our advocates... Therefore do not waste the opportunity of doing works of mercy; do not store unused the good things you possess.” [118] Gregory courageously denounced contemporary forms of prejudice against the poor, including the belief that they were responsible for their plight: “Whenever you see the poor doing something reprehensible, do not despise or discredit them, for the fire of poverty is perhaps purifying their sinful actions, however slight they be.” [119] Not infrequently, our prosperity can make us blind to the needs of others, and even make us think that our happiness and fulfillment depend on ourselves alone, apart from others. In such cases, the poor can act as silent teachers for us, making us conscious of our presumption and instilling within us a rightful spirit of humility.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreigfh35ihq5oi6qdecjj6pml6vmgdmxwe5tyi2q4a6q3mv2trnd4te@jpeg)
![115. I would like to close by saying something about almsgiving, which nowadays is not looked upon favorably even among believers. Not only is it rarely practiced, but it is even at times disparaged. Let me state once again that the most important way to help the disadvantaged is to assist them in finding a good job, so that they can lead a more dignified life by developing their abilities and contributing their fair share. In this sense, “lack of work means far more than simply not having a steady source of income. Work is also this, but it is much, much more. By working we become a fuller person, our humanity flourishes, young people become adults only by working. The Church’s social doctrine has always seen human work as a participation in God’s work of creation that continues every day, also thanks to the hands, mind and heart of the workers.” [128] On the other hand, where this is not possible, we cannot risk abandoning others to the fate of lacking the necessities for a dignified life. Consequently, almsgiving remains, for the time being, a necessary means of contact, encounter and empathy with those less fortunate.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreigx5wsthkuhm5e3xbrbxoz6qssk6n5syedco4ieqivtn4cigup5uq@jpeg)
![106. It is important for us to realize that the story of the Good Samaritan remains timely even today. “If I encounter a person sleeping outdoors on a cold night, I can view him or her as an annoyance, an idler, an obstacle in my path, a troubling sight, a problem for politicians to sort out, or even a piece of refuse cluttering a public space. Or I can respond with faith and charity, and see in this person a human being with a dignity identical to my own, a creature infinitely loved by the Father, an image of God, a brother or sister redeemed by Jesus Christ. That is what it is to be a Christian! Can holiness somehow be understood apart from this lively recognition of the dignity of each human being?” [116] What did the Good Samaritan do?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreiakmc3flvyjwbmts454yqyuneahyyw6xbokfsk22wqidfwqwk6zca@jpeg)
![92. We must continue, then, to denounce the “dictatorship of an economy that kills,” and to recognize that “while the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is being born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.” [94] There is no shortage of theories attempting to justify the present state of affairs or to explain that economic thinking requires us to wait for invisible market forces to resolve everything. Nevertheless, the dignity of every human person must be respected today, not tomorrow, and the extreme poverty of all those to whom this dignity is denied should constantly weigh upon our consciences.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreieadsqvaqquffzkarpl2kcwehzrmlm77ovfwqs4jsjhnjziy67r2y@jpeg)
![98. Finally, in a document that was not initially well received by everyone, we find a reflection that remains timely today: “The defenders of orthodoxy are sometimes accused of passivity, indulgence, or culpable complicity regarding the intolerable situations of injustice and the political regimes which prolong them. Spiritual conversion, the intensity of the love of God and neighbor, zeal for justice and peace, the Gospel meaning of the poor and of poverty, are required of everyone, and especially of pastors and those in positions of responsibility. The concern for the purity of the faith demands giving the answer of effective witness in the service of one’s neighbor, the poor and the oppressed in particular, in an integral theological fashion.” [106]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreiaoozpvtckycgcr7zrefbb3q7unvnq5jlqgsvvgw4su2gmm7xs6li@jpeg)
![95. As it is, “the current model, with its emphasis on success and self-reliance, does not appear to favor an investment in efforts to help the slow, the weak or the less talented to find opportunities in life.” [100] The same questions keep coming back to us. Does this mean that the less gifted are not human beings? Or that the weak do not have the same dignity as ourselves? Are those born with fewer opportunities of lesser value as human beings? Should they limit themselves merely to surviving? The worth of our societies, and our own future, depends on the answers we give to these questions. Either we regain our moral and spiritual dignity or we fall into a cesspool. Unless we stop and take this matter seriously, we will continue, openly or surreptitiously, “to legitimize the present model of distribution, where a minority believes that it has the right to consume in a way which can never be universalized, since the planet could not even contain the waste products of such consumption.” [101]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreia2famrkqecwl45zbhhmxbyz6zyzk7ill3ii4m6dnaebfgz7x24ki@jpeg)
![90. At Medellín, the bishops declared themselves in favor of a preferential option for the poor: “Christ our Savior not only loved the poor, but, ‘being rich, he became poor.’ He lived a life of poverty, focused his mission on preaching their liberation, and founded his Church as a sign of this poverty in our midst… The poverty endured by so many of our brothers and sisters cries out for justice, solidarity, witness, commitment and efforts directed to ending it, so that the saving mission entrusted by Christ may be fully accomplished.” [90] The bishops stated forcefully that the Church, to be fully faithful to her vocation, must not only share the condition of the poor, but also stand at their side and work actively for their integral development. Faced with a situation of worsening poverty in Latin America, the Puebla Conference confirmed the Medellín decision in favor of a frank and prophetic option for the poor and described structures of injustice as a “social sin.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3oc6o2lroga2mqargexft2un/bafkreihfucj7rye3llndi2bcvxnej2yg6euc33y6p3eqdpjueqhb3nrc6e@jpeg)
