Catechism of the Catholic Church
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2449 Beginning with the Old Testament, all kinds of juridical measures (the jubilee year of forgiveness of debts, prohibition of loans at interest and the keeping of collateral, the obligation to tithe, the daily payment of the day-laborer, the right to glean vines and fields) answer the exhortation of Deuteronomy: "For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in the land.'" 249 Jesus makes these words his own: "The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." 250 In so doing he does not soften the vehemence of former oracles against "buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals . . .," but invites us to recognize his own presence in the poor who are his brethren: 251
When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St. Rose of Lima said to her: "When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus. 252
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PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST |
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SECTION TWO: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS |
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CHAPTER TWO: YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
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ARTICLE 7: THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT |
Notes for the above paragraph:
249 Deut 15:11.250 Jn 12:8.
251 Am 8:6; cf. Mt 25:40.
252 P. Hansen, Vita mirabilis (Louvain, 1668).
English Translation of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.
