Words show Pope Francis' compassion

As you prepare to welcome Pope Francis to the World Meeting of Families next month, you might want to become familiar with some of the words and phrases this pope has infused with new meaning, terms that constitute a kind of Francis Glossary. Listen for these key words as you ponder the pontiff's homilies and off-the-cuff remarks during his visit.

An appropriate start would be family. The traditional unit - husband, wife, biological children - is expanded in the pope's lexicon to include families threatened and damaged by "domestic violence, alcoholism, sexism, drug addiction, unemployment, urban unrest, the abandonment of the elderly, and children left to the streets." He rarely finishes a paragraph without reference to those divested of dignity and the means to live a secure life.

They are the marginalized, those shunted to the side, who include the hungry and homeless, immigrants, the people many of us try very hard not to think about. Francis first shocked the world with his decision, now a practice, of seeking out destitute prisoners and washing their feet on Holy Thursday.

Those the pope calls marginalized have deep biblical roots. They are the poor in spirit of whom Jesus speaks, the Hebrew anawim crying out in the psalms, those whose vulnerability is exploited by oppressors yet whose face is always turned toward the God of deliverance. They hunger and thirst for justice.

The pope asks us not merely to swipe a credit card at them, but to touch them as Jesus did, accompany them in their strife, walk with them, take their journey as part of our own.

If Francis despises anything, it is distance, our unwillingness to draw close to one another and view all our trials and struggles as challenges we have in common. The billionaire with a terminally ill son is on the same walk as a fleeing refugee with a starving daughter.

We must live, then, in solidarity. We recognize our unbreakable bond with one another, our deep need for one another, our utter inability to go it alone. No one is thrown away. The logic of solidarity leads Pope Francis inexorably to our common home, the Earth.

The encyclical on the environment sums up this pope's worldview. We were given dominion over the Earth, not to pummel it with greed and squeeze every resource from it, but to cultivate it, care for it, inhabit it as one cares for a beloved home, beautifying and maintaining it even as we partake of its welcome shelter, warmth, and bounty.

And this is a home for sharing, with mercy for the marginalized, generosity from the privileged, and deep gratitude in every heart.

That brings us to the final word in our Francis Glossary, the word that ties it all together: family. Yes, it's also the first word, the term he used to describe the intimate setting where mutual love is focused on nurturing adults and the children in their care.

But it's far from an isolated unit. Family ripples to encompass our neighbors near and far, in solidarity to meet common challenges like mercy for the marginalized and protection of the Earth.

When Jesus was told that his mother and brothers had arrived to see him, he looked upon the Earth, upon all of us who are open to his teaching, and said, "Behold, these are my mother and my brothers." When Pope Francis celebrates the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, he will be celebrating the bond that unites us all, especially the least among us, that bond that makes us all family.