Friday, December 04, 2009
Even before the economic downturn so many Americans sensed something wrong with our consumer society. They often felt a sense of spiritual unease knowing, as they do, we are consuming too many of the world’s resources and sharing too little with those less fortunate.
But within the past several decades when they looked for ways to address this, their alternatives were too often inadequate to the task.
Some turned to Karl Marx’s withering critique of capitalism. Granted, he was writing of the early industrialization of his 19th century Europe, yet despite the ultimate failure of his program, he had many useful, critical insights about the false consciousness of the wealthy vis-à-vis the poor. His moral outrage at the exploitation of workers strikes a sympathetic cord in the hearts of many. But his central notion of class struggle has taught too many people to hate the rich. No just society can be built on that hatred. John Francis Kavanaugh in Following Christ in a Consumer Society (1982) uses a Marxist critique to help focus on the power of the gospel to transform the lives of consumers. Unfortunately, the Marxist critique is a turnoff to many so they miss the point of Kavanaugh’s, otherwise, very excellent critique of a consumer society.
Dorothy Day in her autobiography The Long Loneliness (1952) was a dedicated Marxist, but then became a Christian and she writes: “If I could have felt that Communism was the answer to my desire for a cause, a motive, a way to live in, I would have remained as I was. But I felt that only faith in Christ could give the answer. The Sermon on the Mount answered all the questions as to how to love God and one’s neighbor.”
Similarly, others looked for ways to address a consumer society in the writings of humanistic psychologists.
For example, Abraham Maslow was convinced that humanistic psychology was a perfect replacement for the materialism of the age. Many Christians embraced Maslow’s teaching without realizing he wanted humanistic psychology to also replace not just materialism but also even ecclesial institutions such as the Catholic Church. He writes in his diary of a talk he gave in 1962 at Sacred Heart College in Newton, Massachusetts. “They shouldn’t applaud me. They should attack me. If they were fully aware of what I was doing, they would.”
Or take for example Carl Rogers who started the human potential movement. In 1960 he published On Becoming a Person, popularizing the idea that to become a person, one has to find the real me and get rid of all the false me’s that socialization, including materialism, created. Very unfortunately, Rogers set aside the whole marvelous Christian tradition on scarcity and plenty. His work did not have the impact he thought it would, namely, a liberating impact and instead, more often than not, made simply a narcissistic impact. Too often in my view the Christian message in those days was wrapped in outmoded terminology and the wrapping was confused with the gift.
So let us turn now to the power and glory of the Lord’s way to deal with material goods in times of scarcity and in times of plenty.
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 $60,000 a 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 lady 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 seemed close to hopelessness, as she lamented: “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 is close to losing hope.
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. The sadness they feel is all about having to live with less, not all about losing happiness. Remember that.
In addition, the flower lady and my friend need to realize that in some ways their lives were helped greatly by abundance. They had fun 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 impoverished 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? They do not know how to sacrifice. 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 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 gifts our Christian faith gives us that enable us to find happiness in good times and in bad, “for richer, for poorer.” The 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. Notice how 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 material emptiness or 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. “Man does not live on bread alone.” There is a longing in the depths of each of our hearts which can never be satisfied by material goods or by a higher 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 material emptiness or ontological poverty. Yes, the evangelical spirit of poverty 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 by a marketing world that entices and tempts us. It is 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 is 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.
Affluence tempts us to believe if we love our children, we will give them the best, namely, more material things. But only materialism makes us believe that is the best. The best is really calling them to a life of virtue and moral greatness.
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 buy too much on credit, to forget to save for rainy days. After all, only suckers do those things. And this attitude doesn’t just involve material goods. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Only suckers believe otherwise. So we are 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 so far, 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, yours and mine, a big problem, namely, a lack of a gospel spirit of poverty.
If we look into the scriptures, we will see certain ideas about poverty:
In the Old Testament in early Israel, the journey to the Promised Land by the Nomadic Hebrew people found everyone being, more or less, equally poor.
On coming into the Promised Land and especially when Saul became king and others followed, there was an increase of wealth among the upper class and dire poverty elsewhere. Amos, the prophet, cries out against oppression of the poor, the denial of basic dignity to them, unjust demands for debt repayment. Other prophets followed suit. The Lord does not forget the cry of the poor.
There is another theme in the Old Testament, namely, that poverty and disaster are the result of Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord.
In the Wisdom literature, there is a middle state between excessive wealth and excessive want, a state most helpful for virtuous living. We should not have too much, less we be tempted to rely on ourselves and not on God and have too little and be tempted to curse God.
The person with this spirit of poverty is one trusts the Lord in good times and in bad. This person furthers God’s holy purposes.
Many authors, when speaking of spiritual poverty, point to three steps that can be seen as spiritual poverty grows in our hearts to maturity. Let us look at the three steps in this process:
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, 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 at 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 holding possessions in common and, even there, the surrender of private possessions was not mandatory.
There is also 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, what does the spirit of Christian poverty do for us?:
The spirit of Christian poverty asks us to “consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.” It asks us to trust the goodness of God in all ways.
Christian poverty asks us to be open to the needs of others. Dives’ sin was not that he mistreated Lazarus, but that he just did not notice him or even care.
In other words, our desire for wealth has to be moderated by our willingness to share.
The only things we ever keep are those we give away.
In summary, spiritual poverty gives us a number of important messages:
Mother Teresa pointed out that the poor of the world have a sacramental meaning. Here, in the poor, we encounter Christ. The poor are those with physical needs and those with spiritual needs.
Spiritual poverty cautions us about too many material goods that can corrode our souls and make our commitments difficult. The widow’s might is a powerful message.
Genuine spiritual poverty can help us in our current economic crisis.
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.”
Postscript: for further study, read A Good Life of St. Francis of Assisi, also John McKenzie’s, Dictionary of the Bible under the heading poverty or riches. See also Christopher Lasch’s Culture of Narcissism (1978). Also Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (1964)
But within the past several decades when they looked for ways to address this, their alternatives were too often inadequate to the task.
Some turned to Karl Marx’s withering critique of capitalism. Granted, he was writing of the early industrialization of his 19th century Europe, yet despite the ultimate failure of his program, he had many useful, critical insights about the false consciousness of the wealthy vis-à-vis the poor. His moral outrage at the exploitation of workers strikes a sympathetic cord in the hearts of many. But his central notion of class struggle has taught too many people to hate the rich. No just society can be built on that hatred. John Francis Kavanaugh in Following Christ in a Consumer Society (1982) uses a Marxist critique to help focus on the power of the gospel to transform the lives of consumers. Unfortunately, the Marxist critique is a turnoff to many so they miss the point of Kavanaugh’s, otherwise, very excellent critique of a consumer society.
Dorothy Day in her autobiography The Long Loneliness (1952) was a dedicated Marxist, but then became a Christian and she writes: “If I could have felt that Communism was the answer to my desire for a cause, a motive, a way to live in, I would have remained as I was. But I felt that only faith in Christ could give the answer. The Sermon on the Mount answered all the questions as to how to love God and one’s neighbor.”
Similarly, others looked for ways to address a consumer society in the writings of humanistic psychologists.
For example, Abraham Maslow was convinced that humanistic psychology was a perfect replacement for the materialism of the age. Many Christians embraced Maslow’s teaching without realizing he wanted humanistic psychology to also replace not just materialism but also even ecclesial institutions such as the Catholic Church. He writes in his diary of a talk he gave in 1962 at Sacred Heart College in Newton, Massachusetts. “They shouldn’t applaud me. They should attack me. If they were fully aware of what I was doing, they would.”
Or take for example Carl Rogers who started the human potential movement. In 1960 he published On Becoming a Person, popularizing the idea that to become a person, one has to find the real me and get rid of all the false me’s that socialization, including materialism, created. Very unfortunately, Rogers set aside the whole marvelous Christian tradition on scarcity and plenty. His work did not have the impact he thought it would, namely, a liberating impact and instead, more often than not, made simply a narcissistic impact. Too often in my view the Christian message in those days was wrapped in outmoded terminology and the wrapping was confused with the gift.
So let us turn now to the power and glory of the Lord’s way to deal with material goods in times of scarcity and in times of plenty.
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 $60,000 a 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 lady 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 seemed close to hopelessness, as she lamented: “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 is close to losing hope.
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. The sadness they feel is all about having to live with less, not all about losing happiness. Remember that.
In addition, the flower lady and my friend need to realize that in some ways their lives were helped greatly by abundance. They had fun 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 impoverished 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? They do not know how to sacrifice. 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 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 gifts our Christian faith gives us that enable us to find happiness in good times and in bad, “for richer, for poorer.” The 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. Notice how 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 material emptiness or 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. “Man does not live on bread alone.” There is a longing in the depths of each of our hearts which can never be satisfied by material goods or by a higher 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 material emptiness or ontological poverty. Yes, the evangelical spirit of poverty 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 by a marketing world that entices and tempts us. It is 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 is 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.
Affluence tempts us to believe if we love our children, we will give them the best, namely, more material things. But only materialism makes us believe that is the best. The best is really calling them to a life of virtue and moral greatness.
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 buy too much on credit, to forget to save for rainy days. After all, only suckers do those things. And this attitude doesn’t just involve material goods. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Only suckers believe otherwise. So we are 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 so far, 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, yours and mine, a big problem, namely, a lack of a gospel spirit of poverty.
If we look into the scriptures, we will see certain ideas about poverty:
In the Old Testament in early Israel, the journey to the Promised Land by the Nomadic Hebrew people found everyone being, more or less, equally poor.
On coming into the Promised Land and especially when Saul became king and others followed, there was an increase of wealth among the upper class and dire poverty elsewhere. Amos, the prophet, cries out against oppression of the poor, the denial of basic dignity to them, unjust demands for debt repayment. Other prophets followed suit. The Lord does not forget the cry of the poor.
There is another theme in the Old Testament, namely, that poverty and disaster are the result of Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord.
In the Wisdom literature, there is a middle state between excessive wealth and excessive want, a state most helpful for virtuous living. We should not have too much, less we be tempted to rely on ourselves and not on God and have too little and be tempted to curse God.
The person with this spirit of poverty is one trusts the Lord in good times and in bad. This person furthers God’s holy purposes.
Many authors, when speaking of spiritual poverty, point to three steps that can be seen as spiritual poverty grows in our hearts to maturity. Let us look at the three steps in this process:
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, 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 at 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 holding possessions in common and, even there, the surrender of private possessions was not mandatory.
There is also 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, what does the spirit of Christian poverty do for us?:
The spirit of Christian poverty asks us to “consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.” It asks us to trust the goodness of God in all ways.
Christian poverty asks us to be open to the needs of others. Dives’ sin was not that he mistreated Lazarus, but that he just did not notice him or even care.
In other words, our desire for wealth has to be moderated by our willingness to share.
The only things we ever keep are those we give away.
In summary, spiritual poverty gives us a number of important messages:
Mother Teresa pointed out that the poor of the world have a sacramental meaning. Here, in the poor, we encounter Christ. The poor are those with physical needs and those with spiritual needs.
Spiritual poverty cautions us about too many material goods that can corrode our souls and make our commitments difficult. The widow’s might is a powerful message.
Genuine spiritual poverty can help us in our current economic crisis.
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.”
Postscript: for further study, read A Good Life of St. Francis of Assisi, also John McKenzie’s, Dictionary of the Bible under the heading poverty or riches. See also Christopher Lasch’s Culture of Narcissism (1978). Also Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (1964)
posted by Fr. Peter | 9:52 AM
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