“Being poor of heart: that is holiness.”

The preferential option for the poor is evident in the many programs we have in the local church of Davao, like the Caritas, care for human trafficking, the Sagop Kinabuhi Program 2, Interreligious Dialogue and dialogue with Indigenous Peoples.

Among the many challenges that the Church faces is not only to be able to reach out to the poor but to contemplate God’s mystery and to be configured in Jesus who chose to be poor.

“Christianity thus becomes a sort of NGO stripped of the luminous mysticism so evident in the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and many others.” (GE 100)

We need to live a plain and austere life. The Gospel of Luke “calls us to share in the life of those most in need, the life lived by the Apostles and ultimately to configure ourselves to Jesus who, though rich, made himself poor.” (GE 70)

May St. Francis of Assisi, who chose to be poor and received the stigmata, help us to contemplate the word of God more and be configured to Jesus.