At the end of each session, the following prayer may be used:

Suggested Actions

The format offered here is only a suggestion. Individual communities should feel free to alter their experience in whatever way appropriate. For instance, a group may wish to focus on one action taken together throughout the six weeks rather than on individual actions done each week. Whatever the format, it is strongly suggested that over the six-week period, some effort be made by the participants or the group to visit or tour a low-income community. Participants would choose a site near work, parish, or home and visit the neighborhood two or three times over the six weekly meetings. They are encouraged to get a sense of the activities, sights and sounds, businesses, schools, recreational opportunities, and the people of the area. This will ground their action discussions and enrich their prayer and reflections as the group becomes a community of faith.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is an education/action program of the U.S. Catholic bishops to help bring about social justice. With the support of Catholic parishioners, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development carries out this mission in two ways: first, by funding and supporting self-help groups whose membership is primarily made up of economically disadvantaged people who organize to improve conditions that affect their lives, and second, by educating U.S. Catholics on the issues of social justice especially as those issues relate to low-income people. At the heart of both of these efforts is the hope of empowering people to fully participate and enjoy the freedom, rights, and responsibilities that our communities, our nation, and indeed the world, have to offer.

Church documents are referenced by the following abbreviations:

Texts of these and other Church documents are available from USCCB Publishing at 800-235-8722. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has produced a booklet on the major themes of Catholic social teaching, Principles, Prophecy and a Pastoral Response, available directly from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development at 800-946-4CHD.

*The opening and closing prayers are taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, available from USCCB Publishing, 3211 Fourth Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194,

or call 800-235-USCC (8722).

Week Two

Theme for the Week
The Covenant Responsibility

Opening Prayer

Group Reflection
Group reflection on last week's session and actions

Scripture Reading
Deuteronomy 24:17-20

Silent Reflection by the Group

Reflection
After leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, God made a covenant with them. On God's part, the obligation was for God to be Israel's sovereign, to love the people, and to dwell among them. The Israelites, for their part, were to observe God's commandments. The reading from Deuteronomy sets out one of the oldest ethical codes demanded by God. Notice the declarative LANGUAGE: "You shall not . . ." It underscores both the nature of the relationship between God and the people, and the unequivocal nature of the demand.

The code highlights three groups of people in the Israelite world who are the most poor and vulnerable: widows, orphans, and aliens. In the ancient society, women counted for nothing (cf. Matthew 14:21), and when a woman married she became the property of her husband and moved into his clan. In the event of his death, the widow belonged to no one; she was penniless, and became virtually homeless unless taken in by a brother-in-law or relative. The orphan, similar to the widow, belonged to no one and came under no one's care. Aliens, by definition, were foreigners in the land away from their tribe and did not belong to anyone, with no home or family for support. The characteristic common to each of these persons is that they become the poorest members of society by virtue of circumstance.

God's solicitation for this three-part grouping of impoverished people--widows, orphans, and aliens (including immigrants, refugees, and strangers)--dominate the Hebrew scriptures. (See Deuteronomy 10:17-18; 24:17; 26-12; 27:19; Leviticus 19:9-10; 23:22; Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 7:5-6; Job 22:9.) In the Book of Exodus we see the depth of God's concern for the poor and vulnerable: "If you ever wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear them cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans" (Exodus 22:20-23).

God links Israel's care of the most vulnerable to God's deliverance of the Israelites from exile, when Israel was the most vulnerable. The Israelites were once in a similar circumstance during their exile in Egypt. Yet God rescued them from their captivity, and God requires the same of the Israelites--to help those less fortunate.

It is Isaiah who lifts up God's promise to those who care for the poor: "Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; clothing the naked . . . Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed . . . Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: 'Here I am!'" (Isaiah 58:7-9).

In exercising the option for the poor, we are called, as were the Israelites, to remember our covenant with God. Jesus sums up our covenant responsibility when he says, "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers [and sisters] of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). By being in solidarity with the poor and marginalized, we are in solidarity with God and honor our covenant responsibility.

In light of this responsibility, the growing presence of poverty today becomes crucial material. Pope John Paul II urges us to "embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without medical care and, above all, those without hope of a better future. . . . To ignore them would mean becoming like the 'rich man' who pretended not to know the beggar Lazarus lying at his gate" (cf. Luke 16:19-31) (SR 42.3).

The U.S. bishops state that the growing number of the poor "pose for our nation an urgent moral and human challenge: to fashion a society where no one goes without the basic material necessities required for human dignity and growth" (EJ 172).

While an examination of conscience can be disconcerting, it may also be invigorating. Pope Paul VI offered some insights: "It is not just a question of eliminating hunger and reducing poverty. It is not just a question of fighting wretched conditions, though this is an urgent and necessary task. It involves building a human community where everyone can live truly human lives, free from discrimination. . . . free from servitude to others or to natural forces which they cannot yet control satisfactorily. . . . Each person must examine his or her conscience, which sounds a new call in our times" (PP 47).

• Are we prepared to support, at our expense, projects to help the needy?

• Are we prepared to pay higher taxes so that public authorities may expand efforts in the work of development? (Cf. PP 47)

Focus Question for Group Discussion

1. What in the scripture reading or reflection is most significant for you? Explain.

2. When you hear the term "the poor," what feelings are invoked in you? What causes these feelings?

3. It is very common for us to have stereotypes of the poor. What stereotypes do you or those you know have? How do you try to break or counter those stereotypes?

4. Who are the "foreigner, widow, and orphan" in your community?

Suggested Actions

1. Read (or re-read) Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy.

2. Contact your diocesan social justice office and ask for their analysis of local or national legislation affecting the poor. Ask for assistance in starting a legislative network in your parish.

3. As a group, write a letter to the editor of your local Catholic newspaper expressing your feelings about stereotypes of the poor that are perpetuated in your community. Note the special role the Catholic Church plays in debunking those stereotypes.

Closing Prayer

Conclusion

During Pope John Paul II's first visit to the United States, he commended American Catholics for their generosity in supporting the Church's charitable works that minister to persons in need.

"But this is not enough," the pope said. Christians in cooperation with others must "seek the structural reasons which cause poverty . . . Do not recoil before the reforms--even profound ones--of attitudes and structures that are necessary to create over and over again the conditions needed by the disadvantaged if they are to have a fresh chance in the hard struggles of life."

The U.S. bishops echoed this same theme when they cited the existence of the Church's charitable network, serving the needs of the poor, the sick, and the marginalized: "It is one of the largest private human services delivery systems in the country." The bishops add, "Yet charity alone is not a corrective to all economic social ills. All citizens, working through various organizations of society and through government, have the responsibility of caring for those who are in need . . . and must work to alleviate injustices that prevent some from participating fully in economic life" (EJ 356, 357).

Faced with the enormity of today's social problems, and the challenge they pose for Christians who profess to be called to renew the face of the earth, reliance on the virtue of hope is essential. Christian hope is not a euphoric drug. But genuine hope keeps despair at bay, because when we are full of hope there is no room for despair. Hope is the stimulant that energizes us to make things better.