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Holy Mass on the occasion of the Fourth World Day of the Poor, whose theme is “Put your hand to the poor” (Sir 7:32)

On the penultimate Sunday of the Liturgical Year, before the Solemnity of Jesus Christ the King of the Universe, in which Pope Francis invites us to celebrate the Fourth World Day of the Poor, the Gospel helps us to realize that we are all poor, for all that we are and have received from God. He, being rich, became poor for us to enrich us all. He looked at us with love, gave us existence and filled us with talents, qualities and potentials, each of us differently, without any merit on our part. The way to multiply the talents God has given us is to use them for the good of others, as works of love that leap into eternal life.

At the arrival of the husband, who is Christ, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, invited the wife, the Church, to keep the lamp of faith lit. “How wonderful that when he comes he finds us at Sunday Mass, in a merciful action, in family prayer, in the teaching of catechism, in forgiveness to those who have done us evil, in family love! Thus, the lamp of our faith will be fully lit with the oil of love,” he said in his allocution on this Sunday, November 8.

The Wisdom of God is light in darkness. From the light of God, we meet with the depths of our being, we recognize ourselves in Him. In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers us a parable full of symbols, one of them is the light in the darkness of the night. Also symbols are the ten virgins, their lamps, the oil. The wisdom and prudence of the first five virgins is intimately linked to the Wisdom that comes from God. To be awake is not to keep one’s eyes open, with fear and unease, but to be attentive to God with peace and serenity, to be prepared by fulfilling the task He has entrusted to us in His Church. We will be prepared if we nourish the light of faith with the oil of love for others. Because God is love, there can be no authentic faith in those who do not truly love.