Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
The poor have the most urgent moral claim on our conscience. We are called to care for the poor and work to shape priorities and public policy that benefit the poor and vulnerable.  The measure of our society is how we care for and stand with the poor and vulnerable.

We invite you to spend some minutes meditating on Brother Mickey’s art, thinking about what Jesus taught, thinking about your own life.  You might also like to listen to “Hands” by Jewel or “Another Day in Paradise” by Phil Collins to accompany your reflection. 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  • It’s impossible to portray every aspect of poverty and vulnerability in a single picture.  What aspects did this artist, Brother Mickey McGrath, show?  What images are missing?  

  • Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns states: “…the preferential option for the poor is not optional.  The Latin American bishops’ conferences at Medillin (1968) and Puebla (1979) aimed to emphasize the use of option as a verb rather than as a noun.  As such, each Christian must make a choice to lift up the poor and disadvantaged in very real and concrete ways.  Preferential option for the poor means that Christians are called to look at the world from the perspective of the marginalized and to work in solidarity for justice.”  What does “preferential option” mean to you after you read this statement?

  • Are we collectively responsible for the conditions of poverty both locally and globally?

  • Some people say that assistance for the poor and vulnerable should be left to private foundations and churches, who would do a better job with less waste/graft than public institutions.  Where do you stand on this issue?
 
  • What Biblical stories and images come to mind when you reflect on what our Scriptures say about the poor and vulnerable?  Why do you think that the artist, Mickey McGrath, chose the story of the Loaves and Fishes to illustrate this Catholic Social Teaching theme? 
 
  • In what ways are you “poor and vulnerable?”  If we think only of others as poor and vulnerable, we risk distancing ourselves from our dependency on others, and becoming “patronizing” in our giving …
 
  • Do you think that saying “the poor and vulnerable” instead of saying “poor and vulnerable people” makes those who are poor and vulnerable more anonymous, less “individual?”

  • How has the pandemic changed your view of who the poor and vulnerable are?

  • During February what is one way that you can commit to actively demanding justice for the poor? Can you continue this active position for three months … and throughout the year?
SCRIPTURE VERSES
Verses about the Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”… Then he began by saying to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ...

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

Full text of 58 verses referencing Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable found HERE.
RESOURCES
Additional Resource:

Thomas A. Nairn, OFM, PhD

Make Poverty History

Loving God,
look with mercy upon the human race you have created.
May our hearts see your kingdom
in which the destructive poverty of our world is destroyed
and so that we will make poverty history.
Amen.

Prayers from the Jesuit Institute:


For Courage to Do Justice
by Alan Paton

O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others
Open my ears that I may hear their cries;
Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,
Nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
And use me to bring them to those places.
And so open my eyes and my ears
That I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee.


Offered by Our Lady of the Lake Justice and Peace Committee