Peace Vigil 2012: "The poor are not just individual souls to be saved, but as members of the society to be transformed"

Poverty is a state of mind. In the spiritual world, no one is poor because everything that is given and that is happening is a blessing. It goes totally different in the material world, because if one does not have enough to live decently, then he/she is poor. The standard of living in a place where the person lives is the measurement of his/her decent living. For developed countries, it is more than just a food in the table or a roof in the head, or suitable clothes to wear, these are just very basic, what they need are beyond that. Quality of life to live and not just to live out of mere existence. But, for underdeveloped countries, having just the basic of food, shelter and clothing is more than enough. In some cases, being given the basic is already, for them, a luxury! Poverty is both a mental and physical issue to be settled by those who are concerned to help the poor. The concept of wants will lead people to extreme poverty. The more a person works for what he/she wants the more he/she is dissatisfied because wants are endless. Mentally, if we want to help the poor is to divert their wants to what they need as of the moment. They need to it, they need to sleep, they need to work, so we provide what they need. We give them food to nourish their brain and be capable to think rationally. We give them clean clothes and place to stay where they will not be discriminated, so they can have the peace of mind to sleep and rest be ready to work. Then we give them work, a dignified work according to their capability, where they feel they are part of society and community as dignified workers and not slaves. We give them their professional salary as ruled by law. We let them work, we give them the respect due for every human being that we meet. We do not classify them as poor because that will give us the discipline to treat them as our equal. Thus, we respect their existence as our need to keep our earth moving in harmony with everyone. If we want to help the poor, we must clean our minds on the cobwebs of how we see the poor. If we think we are far beyond them, and we are just lucky that we are not like them, forget it, do not help the poor anymore because you will just make them pity themselves more. They will just succumb to depression and lose hope in life as they see you better than them. Avoid that. Treat them as equal and as a responsibility of your human race, of our existence here on earth. We provide because we can afford to give. We help them because we believe in their capabilities, in their talents, in their skills, in their humanity. That is why we provide, so that they can join us in working day by day in making the life of all God's creation here on earth worthwhile.