"Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me ... How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! ... 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," (vv. 21,23,25).
No, Jesus is not telling us to simply get rid of our riches and wealth because these are evil. The beauty and the bounty of creation are God’s riches on earth – all around us. In God’s own providence, they are meant to be developed and enjoyed, according to his own law of on-going creation. And we are missioned precisely to be his co-creators. But for what purpose? Ah, this is the punch line.
God’s riches on earth are meant for ALL, especially for those who have little or none at all. Thus, to know how to get rich through God-inspired ways is certainly not a curse. It is rather a privilege as well as a unique responsibility given by the Lord. And for this to come about, the rich and wealthy simply have to learn how and when to let go of God’s riches entrusted to them. When to hold on, when to let go. This is the spirituality of on-going discernment.
"When we learn to let go, we can go back to ‘things’ and possess them without being possessive; we can even compete without being competitive; we can succeed without being successes; we can fail without being failures. In short we can live again. We can celebrate." (M. Fox).
This can be our way of life to the very end. As the same author puts it so well: "Our learning to let go is a preparation for an ultimate letting go that will be ours: the letting go of life ... Death then is a very real letting go. We practice for it – by learning to let go well before death. Which is identifical to learning to live before death. And to taste eternal life before death." (Ibid.)
Let me reiterate here that this is not a disdain or contempt for the beauty and bounty of God’s creation. Rather, it is a liberation from an inordinate attachment to them. "Where our clinging to things end is where God begins to be." (M. Eckhart).
It is in this context that we are deeply inspired by the launching last weekend of the Gawad Kalinga 777, a community development and empowerment program for the poor and marginalized, with the vision of building 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in 7 years. To date, this God-inspired program has spread to more than 200 communities all over the country, including 6 Muslim communities in Maguindanao, at the heart of MILF territory!
Gawad Kalinga is a wholistic program that includes shelter, education, health, livelihood, and community development through the neighborhood association called Kapitbahayan – which inculcates the values of "stewardship and accountability, team effort and cooperation, unity and community spirit."
Most of all, each Gawad Kalinga community is a faith community, God-centered and interfaith. "Each one is free to express one’s faith. The community is bonded by their common love for God, and from this, love is expressed concretely in terms of respect and care for each other."
In faith, I am deeply convinced that the leaders, organizers, and members of Gawad Kalinga put together are nothing less than a living miracle.
The miracle of giving till it hurts. The miracle of letting go . . .