Abstract
There are serious reasons to argue that with Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis, the magisterium of the Catholic Church has finally come to fully acknowledge the function of the locus theologicus played by the poor. This study, which constitutes the first of two articles devoted to the subject, investigates the foundation of this dogmatic datum in two sources of revelation: the Holy Scripture and the recent teachings of the magisterium. To this end, in the first place, it examines the role that the Old and New Testaments entrust to the poor within revelation; then it documents the rediscovery of the poor as theological place in the most important documents of the magisterium, during the time between Vatican Council II and Evangelii Gaudium. ***Fundamento bíblico e desenvolvimento magisterial do dado dogmático do pobre como lugar teológico***Existem razões sólidas para arguir que, com a Evangelii Gaudium, do Papa Francisco, o Magistério da Igreja Católica, finalmente, passou a reconhecer a função do locus theologicus exercido pelos pobres. O presente estudo, que é o primeiro de dois artigos dedicados ao tema, investiga os fundamentos desse dado dogmático em duas fontes da revelação: a Sagrada Escritura e os ensinamentos recentes do Magistério. Para esse fim, examina-se, primeiramente, o papel atribuído aos pobres pelos Antigo e Novo Testamentos na revelação; em seguida, demonstra-se a redescoberta dos pobres como lugar teológico nos documentos mais importantes do Magistério durante o intervalo de tempo entre o Concílio Vaticano II e a Evangelii Gaudium.
Highlights
There are serious reasons to argue that with Evangelii Gaudium by Pope Francis, the magisterium of the Catholic Church has come to fully acknowledge the function of the locus theologicus played by the poor
A real turning point begins, from the second half of the XX century, with Vatican Council II (VCII) and the subsequent theological reflection, so much so that we could speak of an ‘irruption of the poor in the church’6 and theology
Even if we may theologically agree that ‘the worst poverty is not to know Christ,’39 we must immediately add that the Holy Scripture agrees with those who say that, first of all, the poor are those who never come to develop, those who ‘die before time,’40 ‘the nonperson,’41 ‘the others of a society constructed without regard for, or even over against, the most basic rights.’42 Only by considering those for whom living is not something obvious43 as the analogatum princeps44—the category of people from which one has to start to make analogies—it is possible to call even other human groups poor
Summary
In the Old Testament the poor are essentially designated by 4 words: ‘ānî, dal, ‘ebjôn and rāš. According to the fundamental belief of Israel, the earth and its resources, which the Israelites have received as gifts, are under the right of property of Yhwh, and it is absolutely not admitted that among them there can be a permanent impoverishment (cf Dt 15:4.11) This faith becomes the reason that prompts the poor Israelite to place herself/himself and her/his hopes in the hands of God (cf Ps 131), thereby transforming her/his humiliation into humility. The poverty of the spirit that characterizes her/him is presented as the fruit of her/his economic poverty and social exclusion, illuminated by her/his faith in Yhwh, ‘Father of orphans, defender of widows’ (Ps 68:5).12 This is why the Old Testament presents a whole series of situations in which the poor have a special relationship with God. The terms that designate the poor early end up denoting the attitude of the person praying before God, especially in the formula of the Psalms ‘ānî we’ebjôn (cf Ps 35:10; 37:14; 40:18; 70:6; 74:21; 86:1; 109:16.22). The secondary form of ‘ānî, ‘anāwîm, always used in the plural, ends up taking on a technical meaning and representing the category of the poor and humble towards whom God’s saving intervention in history is directed; and, in Zep 3:12-13, the poor (‘ānî wādal) will constitute the rest of Israel, the poor and humble people, faithful to Yhwh, who will become the eschatological Israel
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