Let us not love by word but with deeds

“They sold possessions and goods and distributed them among all, according to the need of each one” (Acts 2,45).

      These words clearly show the deep concern of the first Christians. The Evangelist Luke, the sacred author who has devoted the most space to mercy, he describes without rhetoric the communion of goods in the first community. With this he wishes to address believers of any generation, and therefore also to us, to sustain us in our witness and encourage us to act on behalf of those most in need.

     There have been times, however, when Christians have not fully listened to this appeal, allowing themselves to be contaminated by the worldly mindset. But the Holy Spirit has not stopped exhorting them to fix your gaze on what is essential. Indeed, it has raised men and women who in many ways have given their life in service of the poor. How many pages of history, in these two thousand years, have been written by Christians who in all simplicity and humility, and with the generous ingenuity of charity, have served their poorest brothers.

    Let us not only think of the poor as the recipients of a good deed of volunteerism to do once a week, and even less of improvised gestures of goodwill to ease the conscience. These experiences, although they are valid and useful for sensitize usabout the needs of many brothers and the injustices that often cause them, should introduce us to atruemeeting with the poor and lead to a to share let it become a lifestyle.

     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 leave our certainties and comforts,and to recognize the value of poverty in itself.