When we say “for the poor,”
we do not take sides with one social class, please note.
What we do, according to Puebla,
is invite all social classes,
rich and poor without distinction,
saying to everyone:
Let us take seriously the cause of the poor
as though it were our own –
indeed, as what it really is, the cause of Jesus Christ,
who on the final judgment day will call to salvation
those who treated the poor with faith in him:
“Whatever you did to one of these poor ones –
the neglected, blind, lame, deaf, mute –
you did to me.”
Oscar Romero, The Violence of Love, p. 162, Sept. 9, 1979.