rich.

YEAR OF THE POOR LOGO

CRUCIFIX: The Crucified Lord, the center of all our engagement with, in, for and to the poor, gazing into us. On His Cross,
Jesus is always with us stripped of His clothes, His dignity,
His possessions, His power, His strength. By the poverty, Jesus
saved us. He is fully with the unwashed, the oppressed, the
scorned, the powerless, the miserable and the outcast. Jesus is
calling us to SEE everyone as His beloveds to look at each other the way He
gazes into us.
The Man Colored in Red: Red symbolizes Blood sacrifice of Christ to give
Life of Redemption. We are reminded that our strength and passion must
always be towards Life Giving sharing of Love
The Man coloured in Red is lower than the Man coloured in Blue, signifies the
last, least and the lost the poor. Though in poverty, the poor has same dignity with the Man coloured in Blue and also has the capacity to share Life and
Love (No one is so poor that he cannot give)
The Man Coloured in Blue: Blue symbolizes Royalty, of riches and Service to
God and godly living. It also signifies Light Hope. We are reminded that
God in His Royalty gives us the perfect model of Service. And all of us are
called to Serve God through our neighbours. We must be the Light to others.
The Man Coloured in Blue is higher (elevated) than of the Man coloured in
Red, represents those who are well-off, the powerful. Yet in their abundance
the rich are reminded that all what they have are coming from God and they
are commanded to share and to be generous an act of gratefulness to the
giver of graces God. The rich are being challenged to share their gifts especially to the poor. (the more you have, the more is expected from you.)
Man coloured in Red and Blue LOOKING UP TO JESUS that forms a heart
symbolizes peoples compassion to follow Jesus and the commitment to be in
solidarity with all to DO JUSTICE AND LOVE KINDNESS (Micah 6:8). Justice as the right relationships restoration of what is due to all, not only of
the majority It challenges us to be in correct relationship with God and our
neighbour. Love of neighbour, grounded in the love of God.

You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor
defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. Lev. 19:15

Thank you and may God bless you...

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter (Lk 22:61)

THE GAZE OF THE CRUCIFIED LORD
Love and Compassion, Forgiveness and Challenge
CBCP Message
Opening of the Year of the Poor 2015
SUMMARY POINTS
Introduction
When you gaze into the eyes of the Crucified Lord, and he gazes into
yours, you encounter the love of the Resurrected Lord. Many prefer not to look.
These are not the eyes of a defeated man, condemned for criminal
insurrection. They are the eyes of an unlikely King, who in dealing
death its death blow, still looks into our eyes with challenge.
In His love is His call to the Kingdom of His Father, His Kingdom of
justice, compassion, peace and life to the full.
No image of Jesus, poor, surpasses this one: Jesus hangs from His
Cross stripped of His clothes, His dignity, His possessions, His
power, His strength. There is no experience richer.
You who are poor
From His Cross, he walks with you. He has taken on your nakedness,
your vulnerability, your hunger, your illness, your shame. You
were once grateful for the backbreaking work you finally found;
your work continues to break your back, and bend you.
You pray. You cry out for mercy. You look into the eyes of your crucified King. You feel His gaze into your soul. You do not understand.
Why the persisting message like a mantra in the sign of the Cross:
I have come to bring life, and bring life to the full, and, Blessed
are you who are poor.... Blessed are you who hunger now...
Blessed are you when men hate you...
Why His silent acceptance of abuse, hatred, rejection, oppression
and death in rejection of yours? Whatever you do for this poor
person, that you do for me. Whatever you do not do for this poor
person, that you do not do for me? For the answers to these questions, look into His eyes, and search within.
You who are weary
All you who labor and are heavily burdened, we your Pastors invite
you, as Jesus himself did, come to Jesus. Come to me, Jesus said,
and I will give you rest. To you also Jesus has said, I have come
to give life, and to give it to the full.
You labor on in love. You work on, hoping your sacrifice will bring
the full life that Jesus brings. Whenever you can, you pray. You
2

4. RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Human dignity can only be protected if all human rights are protected
and responsibilities of all human beings are met. Every person
has a fundamental right to life and a right to the basic needs of
life. The Catholic Church teaches that every person has a duty and
responsibility to help fulfill these rights for one another, for our
families, and for the larger society.
5. OPTION FOR THE POOR AND VULNERABLE
This world is shaped by the division between growing prosperity for
some and poverty for others. The Catholic Church proclaims that
the basic moral test of a society is how the most vulnerable members are faring.
6. THE DIGNITY OF WORK AND THE RIGHTS OF WORKERS
Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing
participation in Gods creation. The rights to productive work, to
decent and fair wages, to the organization of unions, to private
property, and to economic initiative are all part of protecting the
dignity of work by protecting the rights of the workers.
7. SOLIDARITY
The Catholic Church proclaims that every human being has a responsibility to our brothers and sisters, wherever they live. We are one
human family, whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic,
and ideological differences. Solidarity is about loving our neighbors locally, nationally, as well as internationally.
8. CARE FOR GODS CREATION
The Catholic tradition insists that every human being show respect for
the Creator by our stewardship of His creation. We are called to
protect people and the planet by living our faith with respect for
Gods creation.
9. SUBSIDIARITY
The principle of subsidiarity means being wide-eyed, clearly determining the right amount of help or support that is needed to accomplish a task or to meet an obligation: not too much (taking over
and doing it for the other: thereby creating learned helplessness
or overdependence) and not too little (standing back and watching people thrash about, thereby increasing frustration and perhaps hopelessness). Instead of the less government the better,
the principle might be better summarised as no bigger than necessary, no smaller than appropriate.

10. UNIVERSAL DESTINATION OF GOODS

God intends for the goods of creation to be at the service (or destined for) all of
humanity (universally). Everyone has the right to access goods to meet
their needs. People and nations have no right to squander resources
when others are in need. The world is given to all, and not only to the

11. One may say that God made an option for the poor and oppressed. This is an option that he consistently makes in the
history of Gods people.
12. Likewise, there is an awareness among the poor in Israel that
they are Gods people - that they are the poor of Yahweh
the Anawim. The theme of the Anawim - the poor of Yahweh is encountered in the book of Zephaniah. The poor is
identified with the remnant who will be saved and with
whom God will make a new beginning.
13. The Anawim are the poor who remained faithful to Yahweh
and who continued to hope for salvation in spite of the destruction of Israel as a nation and of being exiled in a foreign
land.
14. The Anawim were not only materially poor, they were also
poor in spirit - they were totally dependent on God. Thus,
the poor and the oppressed came to be identified as Yahwehs righteous people.
15. In Deutero-Isaiah all of Israel is referred to as the poor of
Yahweh. It was the Anawim who waited in hope for the coming of the Messiah - a suffering servant, one who will be humiliated, one who is poor and just.

Ten Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

1. LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
The first social teaching proclaims the respect for human life, one of
the most fundamental needs in a world distorted by greed and
selfishness. The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is
sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation for all the social teachings.
2. COMMON GOOD 2
A community is genuinely healthy when all people, not only one or
several segments, flourish. Every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups,
and even of the general welfare of the entire human family.
3. CALL TO FAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND PARTICIPATION
The social teaching proclaims that the human person is not only
sacred, but also social. Society often proclaims the importance
of individualism, but Catholic social teaching argues that human beings are fulfilled in community and family. The Catholic Church believes we have the responsibility to participate in
society and to promote the common good, especially for the
poor and vulnerable.

ask Him to help. Now, coming to Jesus hanging from His Cross,
look into His eyes as he looks into yours with love.
You who are rich
I have come to bring life, he said, life to the full. Some of you, sadly, are unmoved by this. You do not believe this. You do not believe
Jesus brings anything. For you, the fullness of life is the good life:
your doing. It is not gifted, but taken. You take great satisfaction
in that you are not like the rest of the rabble. You have no need for
prayer; you have no need for God.
You may not wish to hear His message, but he says it again for you:
Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you
who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe when society
speaks well of you, for your fathers did the same to false prophets.
He reminds you that your negligence of the poor may have serious
consequences: Whatever you have done or not done to one of
these the least of my brothers and sisters, that you have done or
not done to me. Look into His eyes gazing at you from the Cross.
Behold Jesus poor
If that gaze, filled will love, brings you to confusion, shame and repentance in this Year of the Poor, then consider its urgent challenge for you: turn away from your pride, your selfishness, your
idolatry of money - in love, work to build the Kingdom of God on
earth!
Stop the corruption. Stop the misuse of the Peoples funds, the wanton
destruction of the environment.
Fight the poverty of the poor.
Build vibrant companies that use our resources to create wealth for
our people, but distribute that wealth equitably.
Build an economy that is open to the world, but whose benefits do not
exclude the poor. Provide jobs.
Provide education that respects all our people as human beings and
children of God, not just cogs in a global production machine.
Provide education relevant to the fight against dehumanizing poverty: basic education to all, and higher education to all who desire
it.
Build a society of dialogue in our diversity, and especially for our
poor, build a society of peace.
Say no to war, for the greatest victims of war are the poor!
Behold Jesus, hope of the poor
If that gaze, filled with love, brings you in poverty to consolation,
3

encouragement and peace, take heart in Jesus love.

Should you have no work, look for work. Should you have work,
work well. Cultivate a personal sense of industry, self-respect and
social responsibility;
Continue to contribute to the welfare of your neighbors, your barangay, your municipality, your city, your nation. Always be helpful.
Vote as the common good demands.
Together with your spouse, lead your children to the love and respect
the Lord through our Catholic communion. Be active in your parish and in your basic ecclesiastical community.
Love, as you are loved by God. Share courageously of your faith in
love! You are not just receivers of the Gospel. You are its bearers!
Shepherds looking into the eyes of the Good Shepherd
Finally, in the Year of the Poor, we your pastors, and with us, all
priests and religious, look with you into the eyes of the crucified
Lord. How often it is that we have looked into those tortured eyes
and failed to notice their twinkle! We have failed to notice the light
that pierces the gloom in our hearts.
How often have we deprived ourselves of feeling what those eyes
twinkling in passion convey: that we are noticed, appreciated, valued, and sent forth. We have cheated ourselves of the only treasure
in our calling: the felt certainty from the Cross that we are each
individually and totally loved.
Look at Jesus
In this Year of the Poor, we too are being asked in silence to peer into
the eyes of the crucified Lord. In those twinkling eyes, we consider
the quiet invitation to be actually poor, one with him, stripped of
His clothes, His dignity, His possessions, His power, His strength,
one with the unwashed, the oppressed, the scorned, the powerless,
the miserable, the outcast. Of course, we can say no. We can repeat
the valid, reasonable excuses. But we can also say yes.
In this Year of the Poor, may our neediness be turned to sanctity,
and may our arrogance be turned to service. In all, may the love of
the Crucified Lord triumph as he gazes into our hearts and we
dare to look into his.

Anawim - The Poor of God

WHO ARE THE ANAWIM?

1. The word Anawim represents a plural from the Hebrew anaw

which, along with its cognate ani is a word for poor, humble,
afflicted.
4

2. Although this title (Anawim) meaning the Poor Ones may have
originally designated the physically poor (and frequently still
included them), it came to refer more widely to those who could
not trust in their own strength but had to rely in utter confidence upon God: the lowly, the poor, the sick, the downtrodden,
the widows and the orphans.
3. The opposite of the Anawim were not simply the rich, but the
proud and self-sufficient who showed no need of God or His
help.
4. Their poverty was leavened by piety, including Temple piety for
they devoted themselves to prayer and attendance at the Temple
5. The poor (Anawim) are the victims of mans injustice, whose
frightful misery Job describes (24:2-12), are defended by the
prophets of Israel. Amos blushes with shame over the crimes of
Israel (2:6 ff., 4: 1 ff., 5: 11 ff.) ; other prophets (e.g., Ezech
22:29) denounce the violence and robbery which stain the conscience of the nation: the crimes perpetrated against the poor,
frauds in trading which victimize them (e.g., Amas 8:5 ff., Hosea 12:8), land-grabbing (e.g., Micah 2:2; Isaiah 5:8), enslavement of the little ones (e.g., Jer. 34: 8-22; cf. Nehemiah 5: 1-13),
the abuse of power and the perversion of justice itself.
6. Yahweh promises justice to the oppressed; he warns the rich of
the misfortunes which are to visit them (Isaiah 5:8-10; 10:l-4; H
- 12~8-9).
7. The cry of the poor, the voice of the afflicted, the persecuted,
the heavily-burdened, pierces the very ears of Yahweh (Job
34:28); the downtrodden express their hopes for a better and
fuller tomorrow when the situation will be reversed (Pss. 54:7
ff; 69:23-30), but they look for their help from Yahweh, who is
their strength in weakness, and who will stand for them. Their
enemies are thus Gods enemies (Pss. 18:28; 9:14-19). Their
very need and distress is itself a title to Yahwehs care and love
(Ps. 10: 14; Isaiah 66: 1-2).
8. Thus it will be one of the tasks of the Messiah on his coming to
defend the rights of the wretched and the poor (Isaiah 11:4;
49:13; fss. 72:2 ff, 12ff; 106; 112). A sign of his coming is the
blessing of the poor with good things: the good things of the
earth, prosperity and the fullest human well-being (Matt. 11:26;
Luke 1:46-55; 4:17-21, cf. Is 61:l; 6: 20-26).
9. The poor (Anawim) are the heirs of the kingdom (Matt. 5:3; Luke
6: 20; 16: 19-31).
10. One of the important themes in the Old Testament is that the
poor and the oppressed constitute the People of God and they
are the objects of Gods loving concern and liberating action in
history.
5