Question: Can the Poor Really be Happy?

Recently, I read a very good book.

 

Get it, read it, ponder it.

The book was about living evangelical poverty, regardless of your state in life. By evangelical poverty, we mean the virtue of poverty, as spoken of by our Lord in the Gospels - NOT destitution, NOT squalor, NOT lack of being able to provide for one’s basic human needs. This type of material poverty is an offense against human dignity, and we should work to eliminate it. In fact, this is actually part of the reason why, all throughout the Gospels, Jesus promotes a lifestyle of voluntary poverty as an ideal way of living.

“He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals, but not a second tunic.”
– Mk. 6: 8-9 -

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven….”
– Mt. 6:19 -

Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”
–Mt. 19: 21-24 -

That’s pretty radical.

Fr. Dubay points out that many of us read these and other words of Jesus and tend to believe that such radicality is reserved only for priests and nuns or foreign missionaries or this saint or that…..but not me. Or we content ourselves with a “poverty of spirit”, believing that it is enough to pursue detachment from our possessions without having to change our comfortable lives. Don’t get me wrong, spiritual poverty is desirable, necessary, but I believe evangelical poverty is more than this.

Jesus, Himself, though He was God, chose to live as a poor man, beginning His life in a cold and dirty stable...

 

 

 

 

 

 

spending the majority of it doing the simple work of a carpenter....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and ending it stripped naked on a Cross. If His words are not enough, the witness of His life shows His regard for a poverty that is not merely spiritual but actual.

Indeed, evangelical poverty may look different for a priest or a nun, or even for two different lay people, but the point Fr. Dubay wishes to make is that we are called to practice it. The Gospel is for everyone! In our lives, the practice of this actual poverty takes the form of an authentic frugality, a willingness to give all of the gifts of oneself (time, talent, treasure) without “counting the cost”, even at times giving from our substance and not merely from our abundance (Mk. 12: 41-44). It is, as Father calls it, a “sparing-sharing” lifestyle, choosing ourselves to “have-not” so that others may “have.” We need the help of God to do this, because it is not easy. But it just might be easier than getting a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

The most important thing I took away from this book is the SO THAT. I realized that I viewed poverty itself as the end to be achieved, the ideal to be lived. But this is not the case. Evangelical poverty is only a means to the same joint ends I mentioned in last week’s blog: love of God and love of others. Living a life of poverty is meant to free us from the love of money and material possessions and, therefore, free us to be more attentive and responsive to God’s Will and to others’ needs. And believe it or not, it frees us to be more generous in our giving, because it requires and engenders trust that God is going to provide what we need when we need it. I know people who practice such poverty and generosity and it is not uncommon for them to witness "miraculous" events and obvious answers to prayer in their life, because 1) they expect them and 2) they are dependent on God and not on their own resources. And the witness of these people makes others realize that the “Word of God is living and effective” (Heb. 4:12), even attractive. True Gospel poverty, because it leads to an authentic freedom, generates JOY!

 

Here is a snippet of the examination Fr. Dubay includes, to help you prayerfully reflect on how God may be calling you to greater evangelical poverty in your own life:

1)      Am I willing to embrace the self-denial and suffering Gospel poverty entails?

2)      What stands in the way of my giving myself more completely to God? Of my abandoning myself to Him with a radical faith? Of my trusting Him completely?

3)      Where am I too comfortable in the world?

4)      Could I explain what Gospel poverty is and isn’t? Why it is beautiful and good?

5)      Do I rationalize my lack of factual frugality on the basis that I am detached from what I have? What proof do I have of my detachment?

6)      Have I turned poverty into an end rather than a means to be sought for what it makes possible?

7)      Do I live in such a way as to have something to share with the poor?

8)      Does my witness of poverty give credibility to the Gospel?

9)      Does the thought of heaven influence my daily decisions? Does my use of creation speak God to others? (How do I use or abuse creation?)

10)   Does my pilgrim status prompt me to want only necessities or do I hoard superfluous things? (How might my consumer decisions affect others, now and in future generations?)

 

Happy are you, poor! ;)