"The coastlands will wait for His teaching"

"to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness."

-- Is 42:1-7

Whoever is called "to teach Christ" must first seek "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus"; he must suffer "the loss of all things. . ." in order to "gain Christ and be found in him", and "to know him and the power of his resurrection, and [to] share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible [he] may attain the resurrection from the dead".

-- CCC 428

Whoever is called "to teach Christ" must first seek "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus"; he must suffer "the loss of all things. . ." in order to "gain Christ and be found in him", and "to know him and the power of his resurrection, and [to] share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible [he] may attain the resurrection from the dead".

-- CCC 428

"You always have the poor with you."

-- Jn 12:1-11

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.'" Jesus makes these words his own: "The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." 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:

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.

-- CCC 2449

By treasuring His poor, do we not learn Christ and teach Christ? "The surpassing treasure of knowing Christ Jesus" begins in those who bear His image, sometimes in the "distressing disguise" of ignorance and rejection of the truth and of Jesus Christ Himself. As we find His image thus we grow to see His image in ourselves for only He, in us, can love those who do not love Him.

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(Art: Hieronymus Bosch. Christ Crowned with Thorns. 1500s. Oil on panel. National Gallery, London.)