In her book, Come, Have Breakfast, Elizabeth A. Johnson quotes Karl Rahner and writes: some words are like seashells in which can be heard the sound of the ocean of infinity, no matter how small they are themselves. They are words that bring light to us, or evoke the blinding mystery of things; words that pour out of the heart and open the doors to great truths; words which by a kind of enchantment produce in the person who listens to them what they are expressing. I believe that in our Vincentian vocabulary, we have such words and here I would like to view one such phrase from that perspective: clothed in the spirit of Jesus, the evangelizer of the poor.

That phrase defines our being and our mission. We clothe ourselves in a very specific manner, namely, with the spirit of Jesus, the evangelizer of the poor (not Jesus, the Good Shepherd; not Jesus as the way, the truth and the life; not Jesus, the Liberator, the High Priest, or the Revolutionary).

Those words imply a fundamental Vincentian principle: the Vincentian Family exists for the sake of the Kingdom of God and that it should make an option for the poor. That, in turn, means that the poor are our evangelizers. It is very easy to sit here at my computer and write those words and yet I must admit that it is most difficult to practice that basic principle of hope and ecclesiology.

All the activity of Saint Oscar Romero revolved around that principle and here I quote one of his own finely chiseled phrases: the natural partner for the church’s dialogue is the people, not the government. With those words, the much desired and long sought after goal of harmony between the church and the powers of this world (the state, the armed forces, economic forces, political powers) faded into the background. What is really to be desired and striven for is the Church’s harmony with and connection with the poor. Thus, the sole criterion of action is the good of the people, period — the impoverished masses. Furthermore, that criterion is the concrete application of the first and last scriptural criterion of the activity of Jesus, namely, mercy.

Therefore, if we see a suffering individual lying in the ditch by the side of the road, what must we do and do with absolute urgency and do above all other considerations? Must we not lift that person from that ditch, heal his/her wounds, and stay by his/her side until that individual is completely well? Furthermore, if the victim in the ditch is a whole people, then the remedy, the healing, must be structural.

In light of this, we, as Vincentians, reach out to the poor … and we do so in order to receive from them, to learn from them, and to enable them to share with us the Good News. We can see, then, the principles of a synodal church are more important than ever before because such a church operates on the principles of communion, participation, and mission, meaning that all members of the Church are called to actively participate in the life of the community, listen to one another, and work together to discern God’s will and fulfill the Church’s mission, with a focus on inclusivity and respectful dialogue across diverse perspectives; essentially, “walking together” as the People of God to discern and respond to the needs of the world.