The poor will always be among us…

And you can show kindness to them whenever you wish.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

September 14, 2025
Assignment for my Liberation Theology class

This quote from Mariano C. Apilado affirms the observation that liberation comes from the margins, writing that “the poor must have this murderous mentality to destroy and kill poverty; that is to say, they must have an indomitable spirit, a political will to destroy the obsolete concepts that some are born poor and are meant to remain poor.” (p. 81)

I was raised fundamentalist Christian and heard this verse over and over to justify the existence of poverty:

“For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me.”
Mark 14:7

I am one of those privileged upper middle-class white people who was taught that there will always be poor people in the world. It was presented as a given, an unsolvable social ill purposely designed for our passive acceptance, and it was just so because Jesus had pronounced it just so.

Rereading the verse now, I see that the key message is to value the presence of Jesus. In this passage, he also emphasized that we live in a world of abundance. In fact, he gave permission — indeed, encouragement —…