Those Who Lack Charity Not Only Lack Faith and Hope; They Also Rob Their Neighbors of Hope
14 November 2025Next Sunday, November 16, the entire Church will celebrate the 9th World Day of the Poor.
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 Jn 4, 20)
The gravest form of poverty is not to know God. […] This is a rule of faith and the secret of hope: all this earth’s goods, material realities, worldly pleasures, economic prosperity, however important, cannot bring happiness to our hearts. Wealth often disappoints and can lead to tragic situations of poverty, above all the poverty born of the failure to recognize our need for God and of the attempt to live without him. […] Without him, whatever you possess will only make you all the more empty” (Message of the Holy Father for the 9th World Day of the Poor, n. 3)