I Belong to God and to the Poor!

Saturday, September 27, 2025

Zech 2:5-9, 14-15a; Lk 9:43b-45

Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on the self-emptying love of Christ and helps us find the same virtue animating the life of St. Vincent de Paul. 

While Jesus foretells his death and the selfless manner in which we find him inching steadily toward Jerusalem to willingly embrace it, we cannot but remember the words of St. Paul in Philippians 2:6-7. In a way, the passage on Jesus’ self-emptying love reflects the heart of today’s Gospel as it throws light on the sacrifice of the Son of God to renounce his status and comfort in perfect obedience to God’s will only to assume complete poverty and vulnerability for the sake of others. Only from the depth of Jesus’ love do we learn what it means to love others. 

While Jesus’ life is a lesson in love, St. Vincent de Paul’s life is an inspiration to love the needy humanity from the mind of Jesus himself. Early on in his life, St. Vincent only mingled with the elites and was liked by them for his charm, intelligence, and sense of humor. It is said that he even refused to see his father when he came to visit him in the seminary because of his shabby appearance. Such was St. Vincent’s dislike for the poor and the have-nots as he grew up. However, as a converted man, he dedicated his life to the love of the poor. Later on, it looked as if it was all God’s doing that St. Vincent made early connections with the elite, wealthy, and influential people only to turn their goodwill into organizing charitable works across the country. Before long, others were inspired to follow his initiatives that exemplified an action-oriented faith. The exemplary saint became an example to many.

On a note of correction, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul was not founded by St. Vincent himself, as we might often think. Frederic Ozanam, who was inspired by the devoted life of St. Vincent de Paul, named it after the saint, with the motto ‘To see Christ in the poor and to be Christ to the poor.’ 

Indeed, St. Vincent de Paul did not found the society, but who can ever deny that the motto best summarizes the life of the ‘great apostle of charity’?

It is no wonder that St. Vincent de Paul declared, ‘It is not sufficient for me to love God if I do not love my neighbor. I belong to God and to the poor.”

Let us pray that we may live out the call of self-emptying love from the life of Jesus and the example of his disciple St. Vincent de Paul.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar