Wrapping up a weeklong blitz of parishes, schools and diocesan entities doing food drives and other acts to give back to their communities, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge celebrated a Mass for World Day of the Poor at St. Philip Church in Falls Church Nov. 16.
Caring for the poor is foundational to the Christian life, but our fallen human condition often blinds us from acting, the bishop told those gathered.
“We need reminders, so we never become numb from seeing and responding to the cry of the poor,” said Bishop Burbidge in his homily. “Due to our busy and demanding lives, and noisy and chaotic world, we may no longer even notice the materially and spiritually poor right in our midst.”
Bishop Burbidge said the need to notice is why Pope Francis designated a World Day of the Poor and why the bishop called for the Nov. 9-16 Diocesan Week of Service to “confront the evil one who wants us to be overwhelmed when we see so much poverty in our world and country and the needs of so many people,” he said. “He wants us to think that, in all reality, there is nothing we can really do to improve the situation. If he deceives us into thinking in such a way, he wins, because we stop trying and do nothing.”
The bishop’s challenge to help the needy — also emphasized by Pope Leo XIV in his Oct. 9 apostolic exhortation, “On Love For The Poor” — resounded with parishioners at St. Philip’s.
“It’s good to hear that message and to have our bishop here is meaningful for our parish,” said Kevin Loker, who attended Mass with his wife and four children. “It’s meaningful as a father of kids to have them hear that from people at all levels of the church.”
“This is something that I appreciate as part of our faith — starting with our pope — that just kind of filters down through the ranks that’s part of our fabric and the DNA of who we are as Catholics,” said parishioner Heidi Lenzini. “We don’t look the other way.”
Being intentional about the ministry of mercy is not optional for Catholics, said Father Denis M. Donahue, pastor of St. Philip. “Jesus did not make it an option. He said, ‘If you care for the poor, you care for me.’ That’s the way to heaven and that’s what we should be doing.”
With many families in Falls Church experiencing increased economic strain from the longest federal government shutdown in history, Father Donahue said that St. Philip parishioners took a creative approach to helping.
“Our people have a great love, great generosity, and they came through with making detergent and then giving out a recipe so people could make their own laundry detergent,” he said. “Then we gave the detergent away at our food pantry yesterday. Another thing that we did was to conduct a tree rescue, removing invasive vines off the trees of our beautiful property so these trees will continue to live and keep on giving us oxygen to breathe.”
Bishop Burbidge reminded all that when our earthly journeys come to an end, “the Lord will come to judge us in mercy and love,” he said. “He will not judge us by the possessions we have accumulated or what earthly things we have accomplished, but on the way we loved God and served our neighbor, especially the poor and needy.”
