Posted on 08/17/2015 7:43:45 AM PDT by Salvation
There are three evangelical counsels in Christianity: poverty, chastity, and obedience. Each, of course, presents challenges, but all are rooted in a similar goal: detachment. In obedience, God gives us the grace to free ourselves from pride and willfulness. In chastity, God gives us the grace to order and moderate our sexual passions according to our state in life, thereby reducing our obsession with their energy. And in poverty, God gives us the grace to suppress our greed and to make moderate, proper use of the things of this world.
For priests and religious, the challenge of obedience looms especially large. It is concerned with both daily matters and long-term ones, such as assignments and where one will live.
Chastity certainly challenges all: married, single, priest, religious, and laity. However, for the married and for priests and religious, chastity can be very workable as long as proper boundaries and structures are in place.
Poverty seems especially challenging to those who are married and have children. In my discussions with family and friends over the years, I’ve learned that the summons to poverty seems irksome, and even improper to many. Some say things like “Father, I have children to raise; I need to provide for them. And have you seen how much college costs these days? We need a decent house to live in. And medical insurance seems to increase by leaps and bounds every year. Poverty for me and my spouse would be foolish.”
Their objections are understandable. However, they are based on the notion that the counsel to poverty means a call to destitution, hand-to-mouth living, or a state in which one owns very little. To be sure, some are called to this sort of poverty. Religious own nothing and share all of what they earn or have with the community to which they belong.
But poverty as a spiritual counsel is deeper than what is in the bank, or the square footage of one’s home, or how much is in the college savings plan or 401-K. The poverty referred to points more to attitudes than assets. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange speaks of the spirit of poverty in this way:
The meaning of this evangelical beatitude is as follows: Blessed are they who have not the spirit of wealth, its pomp, its pride, its insatiable avidity; but who have the spirit of poverty and are humble. … Our Lord counseled voluntary poverty, or detachment in regard to earthly goods … to combat cupidity, the concupiscence of the eyes, the desire of riches, avarice and the forgetfulness of the poor (The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life, Vol. 2, Tan Pub. pp. 141-142).
Great humility is necessary for us in our riches, since it is too easy for us to consider ourselves owners of them rather than stewards. That is to say, we are given goods by God to administer in the way He would have us, not merely according to our whims or desires. In his treatise on justice, St Thomas Aquinas says,
It is lawful for man to possess property … [but] with regard to external things [and] their use … in this respect man ought to possess external things, not as his own, but as common, so that, to wit, he is ready to communicate them to others in their need (Summa Theologica IIa IIae q. 66, art 2).
Now certainly God would have us care for our own household first. But in an age such as ours, in which abundance knows few limits, the spirit of poverty is a necessary gift from God to help us to rightly assess what is meant by excess and superfluity. For indeed it is from our abundance that we ought to give to the poor and needy. In the lives of parents, the first who are needy are their children. But though charity does begin at home, it does not end there. And thus our notion of the poor and needy is rightly expanded to include many beyond our kith and kin.
Our culture does a poor job of schooling us in what is meant by abundance. Indeed the message today is that we can never have enough and that we absolutely need what we merely want. Is it really necessary for us to have homes of 3,500 square feet and up? Are granite countertops really essential? Are six televisions truly necessary? When have we reached the point at which we can say, “My family and I have what we need, and even a good bit of what we want. Now it is important to give out of our abundance”?
The counsel of poverty is aimed at addressing this prudential judgment. As a poor author who has never met most of you, I cannot give you the precise definition of what it means for you to give out of your abundance prudentially and generously. I cannot lecture you on how you merely want what you think you need. This is ultimately a matter between you and God.
That is why it is important to cultivate what we call the spirit of poverty. By it, we learn to be content with and grateful for what we have. By it, we can say to God, “Thank you, Lord. It is enough.” By the spirit of poverty we learn to be detached from the excesses of this world. By living more simply, we are able to be more generous both with our children and with the poor.
Through voluntary poverty we are freed of many of the extra cares of the world as well as from excessive preoccupation with external and passing things. By travelling lighter, our pace toward God and the Kingdom of Heaven can become more rapid. Our life is simpler and more focused on things that matter; we are less concerned with running after the latest upgrade, less anxious about securing and maintaining all of our many possessions.
A simpler life is less busy, so there is more time for relationships with God and others. There is more time for spiritual reading and edifying things. The goods of our heart and intellect are savored, while the goods of the body are less appealing.
Thus, the counsel of spiritual poverty is, at its heart, the call to a spirit of detachment, disengagement from what is less important in order to connect more closely with what is more important. Thus, poverty is not about less; it is about more. Voluntary spiritual poverty makes room for more of what is good, true, and beautiful; more of what is holy, edifying, and helpful.
By this counsel, God is not asking us to live in destitution. In fact, for parents with children, that might even be irresponsible. But, honestly, does not our obsession with worldly things rob us of more important ones?
Let the Holy Spirit counsel you on what spiritual poverty means for you.
Let the Holy Spirit counsel you on what spiritual poverty means for you.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
I'm curious as to what specific passages from Scripture are seen as the basis for each of these.
St. Paul talks about these virtues all the time.
Especially the poverty (shipwrecked, in jail, etc.) and obedience (that he is obedient to the Lord, Jesus Christ.)
He also writes about chastity — in fact — there was a 3rd letter to the Corinthians that really chastised them and their way of living (compare with today’s way of living in a homosexual world) that was not accepted for the Bible.
Even Christ talked about poverty — no pillow to lay one’s head.
Yes, I understand that. And Jesus spoke of such things. Blessed are the poor (in spirit), etc. Matt 5:3-11
I'm looking for specific references.
Chastity is not celibacy. They are too different things. I am chaste, but not celibate since the Lord commanded me to be fruitful and multiply.
It is incredible how the Catholic church has twisted God's clear meaning in Scripture and forced it into a worldly, self-serving stricture.
This is an unsettling title to me, as I see it as being taken as having another meaning: One needs to be poor in spirit of God’s gift of salvation and an inner belief in our salvation.
I can understand his point of needing to separate ourselves from our links to material possessions and came to, fortunately, understand that spiritual “poverty” or “letting go of connections/want/need” a couple of decades ago.
Your words are timely for me, Salvation. Thank you very much!
The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. [17] And he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? [18] And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. [19] And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer. [20] But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?[21] So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. [22] And he said to his disciples: Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. [23] The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment. [24] Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much are you more valuable than they? [25] And which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit?
[26] If then ye be not able to do so much as the least thing, why are you solicitous for the rest? [27] Consider the lilies, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. [28] Now if God clothe in this manner the grass that is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more you, O ye of little faith? [29] And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink: and be not lifted up on high (Luke 12:16-29)
On celibacy as a specific form of chastity:
[27] Then Peter answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have? [28] And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [29] And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name' s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting. [30] And many that are first, shall be last: and the last shall be first. (Matthew 19:27-30)He that is without a wife, is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided. (1 Corinthians 7:32-33)
2) Chastity is not celibacy. Read the article, from which I quote: "In chastity, God gives us the grace to order and moderate our sexual passions according to our state in life, thereby reducing our obsession with their energy." and "Chastity certainly challenges all: married, single, priest, religious, and laity. However, for the married and for priests and religious, chastity can be very workable as long as proper boundaries and structures are in place." You are, quite simply, disagreeing with a position the author does not hold.
3) Your accusation simply is inconsistent with the facts. See (1) and (2) above.
Thank you ... that’s at least a partial answer to my curiosity in #3.
Monsignor Pope’s words.
Spiritual poverty is nothing to chase after.
Christians are rich in Christ and have the fullness of Him living in us.
There is no inherent value in being poor in the eyes of the world.
And it’s laughable that people, as Americans, sit around and pontificate about being *poor*.
We live in the richest, most prosperous country this world has EVER seen. We have indoor plumbing, electricity, heat, access to the best medical care, some of the best education, we have houses, cars, jobs, computers, cell phones, electronic gadgets galore, time and money to spend on ourselves just for our leisure. We don’t have to worry about where our next meal is coming from, our safety, being in a war zone. We are free to travel where we want, when we want, how we want.
We don’t have a clue about what real poverty is.
Even the poorest of us is better off than most of the world.
Denying ourselves some little comfort for a season is no great virtue, especially if we end up thinking about how spiritual we are for doing it. That defeats the whole point.
Exactly. When I was still in the military I was privileged enough to travel to some of the worst hellholes in the world. (Yes, privileged)
In Liberia I saw street people who were naked. Not one stitch of clothes. No shoes, nothing. Our street people have layers of clothes and a shopping cart full of their possessions. And they have a place to sleep at night, if they so choose.
..and mansions and streets of gold and pearls and jewels and abundance.
Preach it; Brother!
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