With an important message graduate "Let us love not in word but in deed" (13-VI-2017), Pope Francis has instituted the "workshop world of the poor", which will be celebrated this year, for the first time, on November 19, 2017.

This is, he says in the introduction, "an imperative that no Christian can ignore," especially in view of the contrast "between the empty words that are often on our lips and the concrete deeds. This is how clearly Francis puts it: "Love admits of no excuses: those who want to love as Jesus loved must make his example their own, especially when it is a matter of loving the poor".

It is not a mere feeling of compassion more or less authentic that arises from us; but a response of love to the submission of Jesus for us, which begins with the acceptance of God's grace, of his merciful charity, in a way that transforms us from within, that moves us to works of mercy in favor of our brothers and sisters who are in need.

This is how the early Christians understood it from the beginning, making the teachings of Jesus their own (cf. Mt 5:3; Acts 2:45; James 2:5-6:14-17). But the Pope observes: "There have been times, however, when Christians have not fully heeded this call, allowing themselves to be contaminated by a worldly mentality". Yet the Holy Spirit has always assisted the Church in reminding her of the most essential aspects of the Christian message. And there has been no lack of Christians - like Francis of Assisi - who have given their lives in the service of the poorest.

And Francis warns us: "Let us not think only of the poor as the recipients of a good work of volunteer activities to be done once a week, and even less of improvised gestures of good will to ease our conscience". He recognizes that these experiences are valid and useful to make us aware of the needs of many brothers and sisters and of the injustices that often provoke them; but they should introduce us to "a real meeting with the poor and give rise to a sharing that becomes a way of life".

It is a matter, he continues to explain, of the consequences of authentic prayer, conversion and charity, which lead to joy and spiritual serenity when one touches with one's hand "the flesh of Christ" in his poor. This is an argument dear to Francis, which he takes up here in a central connection with the presence of Christ in the Eucharist:

"If we really want to encounter Christ, we must touch his body in the wounded bodies of the poor, as a confirmation of the sacramental communion received in the Eucharist. The Body of Christ, broken in the sacred liturgy, allows itself to be found through the charity shared in the faces and persons of the weakest brothers and sisters". The Pope considers the words of the holy bishop Chrysostom ever timely: "If you wish to honor the body of Christ, do not despise it when it is naked; do not honor the Eucharistic Christ with silken vestments, while outside the temple you neglect that other Christ who suffers from cold and nakedness"(Hom. in Matthaeum, 50,3: PG 58).

And Francis translates for us: "We are called, therefore, to reach out to the poor, to meet them, to look them in the eye, to embrace them, to make them feel the warmth of love that breaks the circle of loneliness. His hand extended to us is also a call to come out of our certainties and comforts, and to recognize the value of poverty in itself".

The Pope argues about poverty not only as a need status that we have to deal with, but also as a Christian virtue. For the disciples of Christ, poverty is first of all a call, that is, a "vocation to follow the poor Jesus". It is a journey that leads to the happiness of the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 5:3; Lk 6:20). It means, in the words of Francis, "a humble heart that knows how to accept one's own condition as a limited and sinful creature in order to overcome the temptation of omnipotence, which deceives us into believing we are immortal". The virtue of poverty is "an attitude of the heart that prevents us from considering money, degree program, luxury as goal of life and a condition for happiness".

position In this sense - which involves a concrete detachment and moderation in the things we use and have, together with attention to those most in need - Francis says that poverty "creates the conditions for us to freely take on our personal and social responsibilities, despite our limitations, trusting in the closeness of God and sustained by his grace. It gives us the measure that allows us to value the proper use of material goods, and also to live our attachments and affections in a generous and detached way (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 25-45).

The Pope insists on these two dimensions: on the one hand, the Christian virtue of poverty as an attitude of detachment and good use of material goods. On the other hand, "the fundamental option" for the poor, the effective love for the most needy, which leads us to strive to help them in many ways: "If we wish to offer our effective contribution to the change of history, generating a real development , it is necessary that we listen to the cry of the poor and commit ourselves to bring them out of their marginalization status ". This is the strong and urgent appeal that Francis makes to Christians and to all people of good will, who feel in their hearts the urgency of improving the world we live in today, in order to hand it over to future generations in a more humanized way.

Even to the poor, whether in a material or cultural sense, he points out the importance of living in the face of God and giving a Christian witness, while trying to get out of their status with our financial aid: "To the poor who live in our cities and in our communities I remind them not to lose the sense of evangelical poverty that they have imprinted in their lives".

All of this challenges us daily in many ways. That is why we cannot remain inactive or "resigned", but must react and respond with a new vision of life and society. We cannot put "buts" or "conditions". And we must recognize that in many aspects we still have a long way to go in this area.

Well, here is this gesture of the Pope, symbolic if you will, but important, to institute, as a fruit and continuation of the Jubilee of Mercy, a World-wideworkshop of the Poor, destined to stimulate our reaction to the poor, as Christians and as persons.

Along the lines of the signs, the Pope also expresses some very concrete wishes: that in the week prior to workshop meetings of solidarity and concrete financial aid be organized; that the poor and volunteers be invited to participate together in the Eucharist, as a sign of the kingship of Christ, which is a kingship of service and poverty, in which the power of Love is manifested; that the poor of the neighborhood be fed, as guests of honor at a table shared by all.

They, the poor themselves, are asked, with their trust and willingness, to help us to live the faith in a more coherent way, that is, with sobriety and joy abandoned to God's providence, always on the foundation of prayer, for in the Our Father we ask for the "bread" that is associated with common responsibility.

Francis asks all of us to support him so that this worldwide workshop may establish "a tradition that is a concrete contribution to evangelization in the contemporary world"; that it may become for our believing conscience "a strong appeal, so that we may be more and more convinced that sharing with the poor allows us to understand the Gospel in its deepest truth". "The poor - he assures - are not a problem, but a resource to which to turn to welcome and live the essence of the Gospel".