Defending the Poor

 Defend the lowly and the fatherless; render justice to the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the lowly and the poor; from the hand of the wicked deliver them. Ps 82:3

The challenge to stand with the forgotten, the broken, the lowly and the destitute us a theme of Hebrew bible or as we sometimes call it, the Old Testament. God reminds his children to remember that they were foreigners in Egypt. When they do this, they speak the power of God's love and intercession to those who most need to hear it, the poor and forsaken.

Jesus repeats this theme over and over. Pay attention to those without a voice, to the blind, lepers and others who are though of as sinners. When we do this, we find our own salvation.

Who are the poor and forsaken in your neighborhood, parish, town or city? When we see them and engage them as people and don't rush to feed and dismiss them, we act like Jesus.

Who taught you the Gospel of Jesus, the friend of the poor?