Friday, June 12, 2009
Chapter IV
The Christian View of Scarcity and Plenty
Val J. Peter
The economic downturn has touched the lives of countless Americans. As I write this, there are six million workers who have lost their jobs. Countless retired persons have seen the funds they were counting on shrink by 30 or 40 or 50%. Or even more. Here at Boys Town, our graduates of last year (2008) are being rifted from $12 an hour jobs in nursing homes, telemarketing and so many other low end occupations. They struggled mightily to secure those $12 jobs and (together with the class of 2009) they can now only find $7 jobs.
Take the example of a friend of mine who was let go by downsizing, losing his $60,000a year job. He has a wife who is a homemaker and two children, ages 10 and 16. He is in a state of shock. He is feeling helpless and he is just plain depressed. You can see the darkness descending on his life. Yes, his family right now is a dark place. There is lots of bitterness. There is lots of sadness. There is a feeling of being betrayed.
A 40-year-old young woman delivered a flower from a local florist to us at Dowd Chapel yesterday. And I said: “I have never seen you before.” She told me she had lost her job so she has to deliver flowers for two days a week. “That way I will get a little money.” Then she shook her head and said: “Life just isn’t fair.” That is true, but it is not much of a consolation. She, too, is complaining. She, too, can embrace hopelessness. She, too, can say: “I drive to the next place, deliver a lousy flower and then another lousy flower at the next place and get a lousy, measly salary.” She can do all of that if she wants.
But she has another option, namely, to open her heart to the vision and the power of the Lord’s way to deal with material goods with scarcity and with plenty. This is no so simple. And it starts with some serious prayer and deep reflection on the gospels. Both the flower lady and my friend should start with the gentle realization that although the economic abundance they had was certainly better than not having it, yet at the same time, it did not bring them happiness. It brought convenience and simple solutions to their problems, but not happiness. They sadness they feel is all about having to live with less, not all about losing happiness.
Here is an even more helpful thought. The flower lady and my friend need to realize that in some ways their lives were helped greatly by abundance. They had fund going out to dinner, they had fun buying a nice new car, they had fun going on good vacations, they had fun making happy memories. At the same time, the flower lady and my friend need to realize that in some ways our lives have been imparished and poverished by abundance in comparison with the days when we were less affluent. How many times have you said to yourself as you walk through your home early in the morning before anyone is up and realize you have more of this world’s goods that you used to have, but aren’t any happier and, in some ways, you feel impoverished? How many have you said to yourself that your children have too much and are getting selfish? How many times have you said to yourself that you wish they could learn how to sacrifice? How many times have you thought to yourself that economic abundance has not brought you peace of mind, but pernicious debts rising faster than your income?
In some ways, we realize that affluence has done wonderful things, but in the same breath it has created an insecurity in the sense that the more income we have the more wants we have. It has created a much more complex, hectic life. It has created a different kind of insecurity, namely, in the sense that all of us complain that we are always in a hurry, always in a rat race and always on the treadmill. We complain we don’t have enough time to read, we don’t have enough time to pray, we don’t have enough for wisdom, love and friendship. Despite all the goodness of God’s material creation, we know our affluence has also eroded parental authority in our families. We know that our kids’ culture is often a culture of money. It is what I call erosion caused by affluence. Rain is good for the crops, but if it rains too much or too hard there is erosion on the land.
It is now time to talk about the great spiritual gift our Christian faith gives us that enables us to find happiness in good times and in bad, “for richer, for poorer.” This gift of faith is a pearl of great price. Let us go slowly here. Something very important, but subtle, gradually befalls us when we arise to the level of affluence that we had before the economic collapse. You see material possessions and economic wellbeing make us towering promises which they cannot keep, promises that riches will bring us happiness and satisfaction and self-fulfillment and riches cannot possibly do that.
Why? Because at the heart of all these material possessions, material gains, material success is the kind of emptiness of material things. Our Christian tradition calls it ontological poverty. It is not that material things are bad. They are not. They are God’s good creation. They are to be enjoyed. It is rather that material things and economic wellbeing can satisfy certain hungers, but they can never satisfy the deepest hungers of the human spirit. There is a longing in the depths of each of our hearts which can never be satisfied by material goods or by a high standard of living. St. Augustine said it well: “Our souls were made for thee, O God, and they will not rest until they rest in thee.” To rest in material goods or to embrace them too much brings the trivialization of life. Too many riches cannot bring about a rich life.
Christians through the centuries have asked what is the remedy for this emptiness that is at the heart of material things. And the answer is that only the evangelical spirit of poverty found in the gospels and in Jesus’ teaching can alone fill the ontological poverty that alone can bring meaning to the frustration that material goods generate. It alone can bring deep enjoyment for the good things of life. The gospel’s spirit of poverty alone can answer the question so often expressed by us: I have so much more than my grandparents or parents, but what good has it done me or what good has it done anyone else? It is not that material goods are bad, it is rather that they are pitched to us in a great marketing world. It is a way to satisfy needs when they are only a way to satisfy the artificial wants created by our culture. “If I only had a new car or a better home or a bigger salary, then I would really be happy.” And yet we know deep down that’s not true, that after a few days our new car doesn’t bring us promised happiness and now we want something else. Yes, material goods generate more wants, more wants, more wants. Christian authors have often put it this way: Affluence creates scarcity and that brings emptiness.
With the economic downturn, almost all of us realize that we are too far in debt and the more we have the more we spend, the more we worry and the deeper the debt piles up. Yes, we need the spirit of poverty to fill this emptiness.
In addition, we get hooked on material goods. They bring us less freedom, not more. Remember the ad for Chase Bank: I want it all. I want it now.
And if I want it now and want it all, I just may be tempted to fudge a little bit, to cheat a little bit to get ahead. After all, only suckers follow all the rules. And cheating a little bit doesn’t just involve material goods. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. So we’re tempted to cheat on other things, in marriage, in family, in business, in pleasure.
And now we come to a very hard saying. If you have been reading this series, you have found me saying there have been people out there who are greedy and villains and rogues, both in government and in business. You and I did not create the subprime mortgage crisis, but you and I may fall into the trap of believing everything will be okay once blame is fixed and the villains exposed. But there is a problem in our heart, a big problem, namely, a lack of a gospel’s spirit of poverty.
If you look in the scriptures, you will see that poverty is described, but never defined. There are certain ideas that the scriptures give us about poverty:
The first idea is that poverty is often a scandalous state of affairs due to the neglect of the wealthy to help the poor. Think of Divvies and Lazarus.
There is another theme in the Old Testament, namely, that poverty is the result of Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord.
Thirdly, in the Wisdom literature, poverty is a middle state between excessive wealth and excessive want, a state of life most helpful for virtuous living. We have neither too much, lest we be tempted to rely on ourselves and not on God or we have too little and are tempted to curse God.
The theme we focus on runs all through the scriptures and it is this: The person with this spirit of poverty is one who trusts the Lord in good times and in bad. It not only depends on God, but also furthers God’s holy purposes. It is a person who actively helps usher in the Kingdom of God in their hearts and in their homes.
Many authors, when speaking of spiritual poverty, point out that it is a main theme in the Old Testament leading to the New Testament. Let us look at the three steps that can be taken as spiritual poverty grows in our hearts to maturity:
In the first step (from Exodus to the prophets) the people of Israel are told that if they follow the covenant with their whole heart and soul God will literally bless Zion with material wellbeing. This is God’s promise to Israel and the promise is to the community, not to individuals. So if you are a person in the community who has more, then you have to share with those who have less. You are literally actively being God’s agent in bringing material wellbeing to those who have less. Over and over, we read in the Old Testament that those who have plenty should provide special help to the orphan and the widow. Sharing your material wealth with those who have less is part of Israel’s faithfulness to the covenant. Spiritual poverty is about what you do with your wealth.
In the second step, spiritual poverty is interiorized. This is during the exile. In the exile in Babylon, where the children of Israel underwent real true physical poverty. What did they do with it? They interiorized it by giving themselves to the will of God, patient in tribulation, trusting the Lord that He and His justice will someday rectify their plight.
In the third step, we see the Son of God come down from heaven seeking and preferring poverty. This adds a new dimension to the interiorization of poverty, namely, you seek it and prefer it.
Jesus’ life was a song of praise to poverty. He was born in a stable. He grew up in obscurity. He was a village carpenter of no public account and in His ministry, He took, with gratitude, whatever people gave Him…water from a Samaritan woman in Jacob’s well, a fine meal from the rich man, Zacchaeus, a donkey from a stranger to ride into Jerusalem and, finally, a burial place in someone else’s tomb.
When asked what it was like to follow Him, He said: The birds of the air have their nests, foxes have their lair, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
And then there are those sayings of the Lord where Jesus warns us about how seductive wealth can be…“woe to you rich”…“woe to you who have your fill now”…“if you would be perfect, go sell what you have”…“seek first the kingdom of heaven”…“prefer spiritual wealth over material wealth.”
In the early Church, the apostles and their followers took Christ’s words as applying to them all. All said that the spirit of poverty…according to their circumstances…is an essential ingredient on the way to salvation. Yet remember they still kept their property. Jerusalem was unique in that regard and, even there, the surrender of private possessions was not mandatory.
And then there is that marvelous idea coming from the gospels that we are not owners of the goods of this world, but only stewards. Those things have been given to us by God to use for the sake of the kingdom. We are caretakers of God’s goodness. God gave us these things to use for a while as good stewards. Wealth was for the good of all. It was a way to unite, not to divide.
In other words, the spirit of Christian poverty:
Asks us to trust in the goodness of God whose bounty overflows with spiritual riches and even good things to eat and good things to wear in material abundance.
Christian poverty is clearly open to the needs of others.
It instills in us the idea that our desire for gain has to be moderated by our willingness to share.
It says: The only things that you ever keep are those you give away.
In summary, spiritual poverty shows us three things:
The poor of the world have a Sacramental meaning. In the poor, we encounter Christ. See what Mother Teresa had to say about that. The poor are those with physical needs and those with spiritual needs.
Spiritual poverty involves a commitment to doing God’s will whether you have much or little. And it cautions that too many material cares can corrode our souls and make our commitments difficult.
Genuine spiritual poverty transforms our lives and is creative of life energy and contentment.
In other words, only the Christian spirit of poverty trusting deeply in God can calm the emptiness or restlessness that is produced in good economic times and in bad economic times. Our helping others can fill the emptiness that is at the heart of our material possessions.
In the end, let us compare this Christian spirit of poverty with two opposing views:
First, let’s remember the Christian spirit of poverty trusts in the Lord in good times and in bad and never forgets the poor and is grateful for whatever God gives to use on our way to heaven.
In contrast to this Christian view, a Marxist view is that we should envy and despise those who are rich. We should pull them down. We should reduce them to poverty. We should overtax them. There should be class warfare. We should hate them.
Then there is the secular view that is so pervasive in our society today, namely, that money creates power. Here’s what one author has to say: “Like a king, a person with money is endowed with great power. But waving a handful of money in the air am otherwise a significant person can command others to wait on them to satisfy their every need and will, shine their shoes, clean their clothes, pour their wine, satisfy their needs and desires. A $50 bill can work magic in a restaurant, making a nonexistent table suddenly appear out of nowhere. A $100 bill can produce even more stunning results. Money clearly has a magical quality to it. It is power. It says: I can give whatever you need. Put your trust in me.”
The Christian View of Scarcity and Plenty
Val J. Peter
The economic downturn has touched the lives of countless Americans. As I write this, there are six million workers who have lost their jobs. Countless retired persons have seen the funds they were counting on shrink by 30 or 40 or 50%. Or even more. Here at Boys Town, our graduates of last year (2008) are being rifted from $12 an hour jobs in nursing homes, telemarketing and so many other low end occupations. They struggled mightily to secure those $12 jobs and (together with the class of 2009) they can now only find $7 jobs.
Take the example of a friend of mine who was let go by downsizing, losing his $60,000a year job. He has a wife who is a homemaker and two children, ages 10 and 16. He is in a state of shock. He is feeling helpless and he is just plain depressed. You can see the darkness descending on his life. Yes, his family right now is a dark place. There is lots of bitterness. There is lots of sadness. There is a feeling of being betrayed.
A 40-year-old young woman delivered a flower from a local florist to us at Dowd Chapel yesterday. And I said: “I have never seen you before.” She told me she had lost her job so she has to deliver flowers for two days a week. “That way I will get a little money.” Then she shook her head and said: “Life just isn’t fair.” That is true, but it is not much of a consolation. She, too, is complaining. She, too, can embrace hopelessness. She, too, can say: “I drive to the next place, deliver a lousy flower and then another lousy flower at the next place and get a lousy, measly salary.” She can do all of that if she wants.
But she has another option, namely, to open her heart to the vision and the power of the Lord’s way to deal with material goods with scarcity and with plenty. This is no so simple. And it starts with some serious prayer and deep reflection on the gospels. Both the flower lady and my friend should start with the gentle realization that although the economic abundance they had was certainly better than not having it, yet at the same time, it did not bring them happiness. It brought convenience and simple solutions to their problems, but not happiness. They sadness they feel is all about having to live with less, not all about losing happiness.
Here is an even more helpful thought. The flower lady and my friend need to realize that in some ways their lives were helped greatly by abundance. They had fund going out to dinner, they had fun buying a nice new car, they had fun going on good vacations, they had fun making happy memories. At the same time, the flower lady and my friend need to realize that in some ways our lives have been imparished and poverished by abundance in comparison with the days when we were less affluent. How many times have you said to yourself as you walk through your home early in the morning before anyone is up and realize you have more of this world’s goods that you used to have, but aren’t any happier and, in some ways, you feel impoverished? How many have you said to yourself that your children have too much and are getting selfish? How many times have you said to yourself that you wish they could learn how to sacrifice? How many times have you thought to yourself that economic abundance has not brought you peace of mind, but pernicious debts rising faster than your income?
In some ways, we realize that affluence has done wonderful things, but in the same breath it has created an insecurity in the sense that the more income we have the more wants we have. It has created a much more complex, hectic life. It has created a different kind of insecurity, namely, in the sense that all of us complain that we are always in a hurry, always in a rat race and always on the treadmill. We complain we don’t have enough time to read, we don’t have enough time to pray, we don’t have enough for wisdom, love and friendship. Despite all the goodness of God’s material creation, we know our affluence has also eroded parental authority in our families. We know that our kids’ culture is often a culture of money. It is what I call erosion caused by affluence. Rain is good for the crops, but if it rains too much or too hard there is erosion on the land.
It is now time to talk about the great spiritual gift our Christian faith gives us that enables us to find happiness in good times and in bad, “for richer, for poorer.” This gift of faith is a pearl of great price. Let us go slowly here. Something very important, but subtle, gradually befalls us when we arise to the level of affluence that we had before the economic collapse. You see material possessions and economic wellbeing make us towering promises which they cannot keep, promises that riches will bring us happiness and satisfaction and self-fulfillment and riches cannot possibly do that.
Why? Because at the heart of all these material possessions, material gains, material success is the kind of emptiness of material things. Our Christian tradition calls it ontological poverty. It is not that material things are bad. They are not. They are God’s good creation. They are to be enjoyed. It is rather that material things and economic wellbeing can satisfy certain hungers, but they can never satisfy the deepest hungers of the human spirit. There is a longing in the depths of each of our hearts which can never be satisfied by material goods or by a high standard of living. St. Augustine said it well: “Our souls were made for thee, O God, and they will not rest until they rest in thee.” To rest in material goods or to embrace them too much brings the trivialization of life. Too many riches cannot bring about a rich life.
Christians through the centuries have asked what is the remedy for this emptiness that is at the heart of material things. And the answer is that only the evangelical spirit of poverty found in the gospels and in Jesus’ teaching can alone fill the ontological poverty that alone can bring meaning to the frustration that material goods generate. It alone can bring deep enjoyment for the good things of life. The gospel’s spirit of poverty alone can answer the question so often expressed by us: I have so much more than my grandparents or parents, but what good has it done me or what good has it done anyone else? It is not that material goods are bad, it is rather that they are pitched to us in a great marketing world. It is a way to satisfy needs when they are only a way to satisfy the artificial wants created by our culture. “If I only had a new car or a better home or a bigger salary, then I would really be happy.” And yet we know deep down that’s not true, that after a few days our new car doesn’t bring us promised happiness and now we want something else. Yes, material goods generate more wants, more wants, more wants. Christian authors have often put it this way: Affluence creates scarcity and that brings emptiness.
With the economic downturn, almost all of us realize that we are too far in debt and the more we have the more we spend, the more we worry and the deeper the debt piles up. Yes, we need the spirit of poverty to fill this emptiness.
In addition, we get hooked on material goods. They bring us less freedom, not more. Remember the ad for Chase Bank: I want it all. I want it now.
And if I want it now and want it all, I just may be tempted to fudge a little bit, to cheat a little bit to get ahead. After all, only suckers follow all the rules. And cheating a little bit doesn’t just involve material goods. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. So we’re tempted to cheat on other things, in marriage, in family, in business, in pleasure.
And now we come to a very hard saying. If you have been reading this series, you have found me saying there have been people out there who are greedy and villains and rogues, both in government and in business. You and I did not create the subprime mortgage crisis, but you and I may fall into the trap of believing everything will be okay once blame is fixed and the villains exposed. But there is a problem in our heart, a big problem, namely, a lack of a gospel’s spirit of poverty.
If you look in the scriptures, you will see that poverty is described, but never defined. There are certain ideas that the scriptures give us about poverty:
The first idea is that poverty is often a scandalous state of affairs due to the neglect of the wealthy to help the poor. Think of Divvies and Lazarus.
There is another theme in the Old Testament, namely, that poverty is the result of Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord.
Thirdly, in the Wisdom literature, poverty is a middle state between excessive wealth and excessive want, a state of life most helpful for virtuous living. We have neither too much, lest we be tempted to rely on ourselves and not on God or we have too little and are tempted to curse God.
The theme we focus on runs all through the scriptures and it is this: The person with this spirit of poverty is one who trusts the Lord in good times and in bad. It not only depends on God, but also furthers God’s holy purposes. It is a person who actively helps usher in the Kingdom of God in their hearts and in their homes.
Many authors, when speaking of spiritual poverty, point out that it is a main theme in the Old Testament leading to the New Testament. Let us look at the three steps that can be taken as spiritual poverty grows in our hearts to maturity:
In the first step (from Exodus to the prophets) the people of Israel are told that if they follow the covenant with their whole heart and soul God will literally bless Zion with material wellbeing. This is God’s promise to Israel and the promise is to the community, not to individuals. So if you are a person in the community who has more, then you have to share with those who have less. You are literally actively being God’s agent in bringing material wellbeing to those who have less. Over and over, we read in the Old Testament that those who have plenty should provide special help to the orphan and the widow. Sharing your material wealth with those who have less is part of Israel’s faithfulness to the covenant. Spiritual poverty is about what you do with your wealth.
In the second step, spiritual poverty is interiorized. This is during the exile. In the exile in Babylon, where the children of Israel underwent real true physical poverty. What did they do with it? They interiorized it by giving themselves to the will of God, patient in tribulation, trusting the Lord that He and His justice will someday rectify their plight.
In the third step, we see the Son of God come down from heaven seeking and preferring poverty. This adds a new dimension to the interiorization of poverty, namely, you seek it and prefer it.
Jesus’ life was a song of praise to poverty. He was born in a stable. He grew up in obscurity. He was a village carpenter of no public account and in His ministry, He took, with gratitude, whatever people gave Him…water from a Samaritan woman in Jacob’s well, a fine meal from the rich man, Zacchaeus, a donkey from a stranger to ride into Jerusalem and, finally, a burial place in someone else’s tomb.
When asked what it was like to follow Him, He said: The birds of the air have their nests, foxes have their lair, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
And then there are those sayings of the Lord where Jesus warns us about how seductive wealth can be…“woe to you rich”…“woe to you who have your fill now”…“if you would be perfect, go sell what you have”…“seek first the kingdom of heaven”…“prefer spiritual wealth over material wealth.”
In the early Church, the apostles and their followers took Christ’s words as applying to them all. All said that the spirit of poverty…according to their circumstances…is an essential ingredient on the way to salvation. Yet remember they still kept their property. Jerusalem was unique in that regard and, even there, the surrender of private possessions was not mandatory.
And then there is that marvelous idea coming from the gospels that we are not owners of the goods of this world, but only stewards. Those things have been given to us by God to use for the sake of the kingdom. We are caretakers of God’s goodness. God gave us these things to use for a while as good stewards. Wealth was for the good of all. It was a way to unite, not to divide.
In other words, the spirit of Christian poverty:
Asks us to trust in the goodness of God whose bounty overflows with spiritual riches and even good things to eat and good things to wear in material abundance.
Christian poverty is clearly open to the needs of others.
It instills in us the idea that our desire for gain has to be moderated by our willingness to share.
It says: The only things that you ever keep are those you give away.
In summary, spiritual poverty shows us three things:
The poor of the world have a Sacramental meaning. In the poor, we encounter Christ. See what Mother Teresa had to say about that. The poor are those with physical needs and those with spiritual needs.
Spiritual poverty involves a commitment to doing God’s will whether you have much or little. And it cautions that too many material cares can corrode our souls and make our commitments difficult.
Genuine spiritual poverty transforms our lives and is creative of life energy and contentment.
In other words, only the Christian spirit of poverty trusting deeply in God can calm the emptiness or restlessness that is produced in good economic times and in bad economic times. Our helping others can fill the emptiness that is at the heart of our material possessions.
In the end, let us compare this Christian spirit of poverty with two opposing views:
First, let’s remember the Christian spirit of poverty trusts in the Lord in good times and in bad and never forgets the poor and is grateful for whatever God gives to use on our way to heaven.
In contrast to this Christian view, a Marxist view is that we should envy and despise those who are rich. We should pull them down. We should reduce them to poverty. We should overtax them. There should be class warfare. We should hate them.
Then there is the secular view that is so pervasive in our society today, namely, that money creates power. Here’s what one author has to say: “Like a king, a person with money is endowed with great power. But waving a handful of money in the air am otherwise a significant person can command others to wait on them to satisfy their every need and will, shine their shoes, clean their clothes, pour their wine, satisfy their needs and desires. A $50 bill can work magic in a restaurant, making a nonexistent table suddenly appear out of nowhere. A $100 bill can produce even more stunning results. Money clearly has a magical quality to it. It is power. It says: I can give whatever you need. Put your trust in me.”
posted by Fr. Peter | 3:56 PM
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