English
Documentation
Time for the poor
Pablo Cabellos
These lines are not written in praise of hunger, hardship or any kind of human want. They are intended to be in praise of using wealth rightly, temperance, generosity and detachment.
We are entering on a period of difficulty, economically speaking, and perhaps this means it is an appropriate time to make better use of what we possess. I am not taking a dig at anyone’s legitimate ambitions, and neither am I offering an easy excuse for politicians, economists, employees or businessmen. What I am suggesting is something that has always been around and is a matter of common sense; but there are times when common sense – the least common of all the senses, as a childhood teacher of mine used to say – needs sharpening up a little. Or perhaps we should recall the phrase about making a virtue of necessity.
The first Beatitude states that the poor are happy because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. St Matthew speaks of “the poor in spirit”; St Luke says “the poor” without further qualification. The two ideas are not contradictory, and St Matthew’s phrase is not a watering-down of St Luke’s. Benedict XVI writes: “The poverty of which this tradition speaks is never a purely material phenomenon. Purely material poverty does not bring salvation, though of course those who are disadvantaged in this world may count on God’s goodness in a particular way. But the heart of those who have nothing can be hardened, poisoned, evil – interiorly full of greed for material things, forgetful of God, covetous of material possessions” (Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 76-77).
On the other hand, the poverty of which the Gospel speaks, as the Pope also says, is not merely a spiritual attitude either. Not all of us are asked for the same thing in regard to having nothing or having less, but we all need sufficient renunciation for our hearts not to be weighed down and dulled by riches. Possessing things should be a way of serving others, that sets the development of inner freedom up in contrast with the desire to accumulate possessions. For Christians, because this is the way to achieve the detachment that is needed in order to possess the Kingdom of Heaven and love other people. For those of other religions or none, because avarice will never build a better society.
“Earthly goods,” said St Josemaria, the Founder of Opus Dei, “are not bad, but they are debased when man sets them up as idols, when he adores them. They are ennobled when they are converted into instruments for good, for just and charitable Christian undertakings. We cannot seek after material goods as if they were a treasure (…) ‘for where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also’.” If we accumulate possessions, if we don’t use what we own to promote justice and charity, if we are not detached from material things, our hearts and our minds become steadily narrower – I would even say cheaper – because we are called to greatness, to higher, more generous goals, and that is where our true treasure lies.
The current times are difficult ones from the viewpoint of economics, and according to the experts, the situation will get worse. Solving it will take the cooperation and efforts of everyone together. But it is an excellent opportunity to tighten our belts – not the people who have least, but those who have a comparatively easy existence. It is time to do away with the uncontrolled consumerism that seeks an ever higher degree of material well-being; time for sobriety in drinking, eating, and buying clothes; time for generosity to people and organisations that are struggling, or that are involved in working for the good of others; time to moderate our expenditure; time for the kind of advertising that does not aim to arouse desire for whatever is most expensive; time to reflect on how to educate our children in a practical knowledge of what things cost, and why efforts are demanded of them; time to do without some superfluous creature-comfort or unnecessary whim…
Hardship is not a good thing in itself. But if it is voluntary, or if unavoidable hardship is borne with freedom of spirit, and points to higher goals, it can become a virtue: temperance, detachment, or the virtue of poverty. Many may find the following maxim, taken from St Josemaria’s book The Way, useful: “Don’t forget: he has most who needs least. Don’t create needs for yourself.”
Las Provincias, June 24, 2008
The first Beatitude states that the poor are happy because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. St Matthew speaks of “the poor in spirit”; St Luke says “the poor” without further qualification. The two ideas are not contradictory, and St Matthew’s phrase is not a watering-down of St Luke’s. Benedict XVI writes: “The poverty of which this tradition speaks is never a purely material phenomenon. Purely material poverty does not bring salvation, though of course those who are disadvantaged in this world may count on God’s goodness in a particular way. But the heart of those who have nothing can be hardened, poisoned, evil – interiorly full of greed for material things, forgetful of God, covetous of material possessions” (Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 76-77).
On the other hand, the poverty of which the Gospel speaks, as the Pope also says, is not merely a spiritual attitude either. Not all of us are asked for the same thing in regard to having nothing or having less, but we all need sufficient renunciation for our hearts not to be weighed down and dulled by riches. Possessing things should be a way of serving others, that sets the development of inner freedom up in contrast with the desire to accumulate possessions. For Christians, because this is the way to achieve the detachment that is needed in order to possess the Kingdom of Heaven and love other people. For those of other religions or none, because avarice will never build a better society.
“Earthly goods,” said St Josemaria, the Founder of Opus Dei, “are not bad, but they are debased when man sets them up as idols, when he adores them. They are ennobled when they are converted into instruments for good, for just and charitable Christian undertakings. We cannot seek after material goods as if they were a treasure (…) ‘for where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also’.” If we accumulate possessions, if we don’t use what we own to promote justice and charity, if we are not detached from material things, our hearts and our minds become steadily narrower – I would even say cheaper – because we are called to greatness, to higher, more generous goals, and that is where our true treasure lies.
The current times are difficult ones from the viewpoint of economics, and according to the experts, the situation will get worse. Solving it will take the cooperation and efforts of everyone together. But it is an excellent opportunity to tighten our belts – not the people who have least, but those who have a comparatively easy existence. It is time to do away with the uncontrolled consumerism that seeks an ever higher degree of material well-being; time for sobriety in drinking, eating, and buying clothes; time for generosity to people and organisations that are struggling, or that are involved in working for the good of others; time to moderate our expenditure; time for the kind of advertising that does not aim to arouse desire for whatever is most expensive; time to reflect on how to educate our children in a practical knowledge of what things cost, and why efforts are demanded of them; time to do without some superfluous creature-comfort or unnecessary whim…
Hardship is not a good thing in itself. But if it is voluntary, or if unavoidable hardship is borne with freedom of spirit, and points to higher goals, it can become a virtue: temperance, detachment, or the virtue of poverty. Many may find the following maxim, taken from St Josemaria’s book The Way, useful: “Don’t forget: he has most who needs least. Don’t create needs for yourself.”
Las Provincias, June 24, 2008
Prayer
RSS
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
YOUTUBE