The Fifth World Day Of The Poor – 14 November 2021 

A colleague teacher stood up on a chilly Monday morning in a staff briefing. He had taken four Year 12 students out on the Vinnies night patrol van the previous Saturday night –  students who had given up a party to prepare sandwiches, cakes, sweets, coffee, and tea – to be with their teacher and help those who hadn't had a lot to eat.

The teacher wanted to tell the staff briefing of the formation he had experienced that night, which would stay with him for a long time.

Andrew, one of the students, returned to the van explaining he was a bit late back as he was talking to a man that made him really think about things. “Tell me about what happened,” my colleague had asked Andrew.

"Well, the line was long and we were able to hand out sandwiches and we got through making the coffees and teas and then I noticed this man," Andrew recalled. "His name was Geoff, and he was standing off to the side. He didn’t line up so I walked over and offered some sandwiches. He was really polite, and I asked him if he wanted a coffee? He said he’d like that if that wouldn’t be too much trouble.

"He was quiet and ate the sandwich very quickly. He asked me my name and we got talking. He said he slept in a great spot in a local car park where the wind was blocked and rain couldn’t come in. He liked it there, as the hostel wasn’t safe, things would go missing all the time and he was targeted in the dorm room.

"He said he liked football and would listen to games on the radio with a little portable transistor he carried around. He loved the South Sydney Rabbitohs and knew all of the years they won the premiership."

“Sir,” Andrew said, "I told him I had to get going as we were packing up the van, and it was good to meet him and he said to me, 'Thank you for the food and coffee but thank you for taking the time to talk with me – you’re the first person I’ve spoken to all week'."

This briefing, for me, became a moment where I looked at poverty differently. Poverty wasn’t just donations anymore. Poverty came in many forms. How could another human being, not speak to another person for a whole week? I won’t forget that morning.

As a staff, we were asked to look at poverty with a bigger perspective that Monday. Sandwiches, coffee, warm clothes, donations and money are so important in reaching out to those who have so little. What we were challenged to do though was to zoom out and take a wider look at people and make a difference to help out when we can see they are without.

Listening to someone who doesn’t get listened to.

The student in the playground alone.

A smile and hello when you walk past someone at school – who knows what sort of a day they’ve had.

Demonstrating an act of kindness to someone who has been in difficulty, that may cost you time and may test your patience.

In preparation for the Fifth World Day Of The Poor on 14 November 2021, Pope Francis said:

“The poor are not people 'outside' our communities, but brothers and sisters whose sufferings we should share, in an effort to alleviate their difficulties and marginalisation, restore their lost dignity and ensure their necessary social inclusion. On the other hand, as we know, acts of charity presuppose a giver and a receiver, whereas mutual sharing generates fraternity. Almsgiving is occasional; mutual sharing, on the other hand, is enduring”.

If we don’t know the meaning of the word though, we can’t engage with the concept. Poverty can be defined as a state of being inferior, or insufficient in amount. Sharing and connecting places us as equals, sharing together can make things sufficient.