Witness of poverty

If we think we have been fulfilling the exacting demands on our following of Christ, we should not be offended at Jesus’ word telling us that we have only done our duty. Hence, we cannot lay claim to special treatment from God. What special treatment, for example? Well, that we are favored by God with material possessions; that we’ve got more money than all the rest which classifies us among the affluent, the prestigious, people of substance or society’s créme de la créme. After all that we have done to fulfill all what God commands, we remain unprofitable servants.

Let’s not misinterpret that. Jesus is just enunciating a radical truth that we are all poor without God; that of ourselves we are nothing and do not possess anything; that what we have are all given – gifts of God to us, of which we are all unworthy. That may sound too disappointing. We would like to have some satisfaction out of meriting something like an efficient servant or employee who has served really well. We are not speaking against the idea of reward or punishment to whoever would deserve either. We are speaking of bowing to the truth that all that we are, all that we possess come from God, out of Love’s free giving. God can take those anytime from us if He wills. We cannot be proud of anything.

Poverty is the first vow professed by men and women in consecrated life, the very first of the evangelical counsels before two others – chastity and obedience. Jesus denounces His woes upon the rich and satisfied (Lk 6:24) and declares the poor in spirit blessed (Mt 5:30. Present interpretation takes this to mean the really poor and afflicted who bear their real economic poverty in resignation, not the submissive, the beggars before God, the spiritless. Jesus requires His consecrated own to renounce property (Mt 8:20), not for an ethical motive but for the sake of the freedom to follow Him that is thus to be won, and perhaps on account of the unit necessary in His community (see the hostility towards the rich in the New Testament, for example in St. James, community of goods in the primitive Church).

"There is a special presence of Christ in the poor, and this requires the Church to make a preferential option for them. This option is a testimony to the nature of God’s love, to his Providence and Mercy; and in some way history is still filled with the seeds of the Kingdom of God which Jesus Himself sowed during His Earthly life whenever He responded to those who came to Him with their spiritual materials needs" (John Paul II, New Millenio Ineunte, 49). Voluntary poverty is intended to be a form of Christian asceticism, a sign of the Church’s belief that the last days have begun, and to point to the ground of Christian hope. Its actual practice for instance, the individual renunciation or possession of property by the religious community becomes very difficult in the pluralistic world of today.

Our world has just crossed the threshold of the new millennium burdened by the contradictions of an economic, cultural and technological progress which offers immense possibilities to a fortunate few, while leaving millions of others not only on the margins of progress but in living conditions far below the minimum demanded by human dignity. The scenario of poverty can extend indefinitely, if in addition to the usual forms of poverty there is the current threat of marginalization or social discrimination. In this context, Christians must learn to make their act of faith in Christ by discerning His voice in the cry for help that rises from this world of poverty calling for even greater resourcefulness. A great example of such resourcefulness is Pondo ng Pinoy launched by Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales and being implemented in all the parishes of the archdiocese. Here even the poor contribute individually twenty-five centavos each day. This is an effective way of getting close to the poor in such a way that the help is not a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters. Would not this approach be the greatest witnessing to Divine Providence and our poverty, a most effective presentation of the God news of the Kingdom?

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary time, Luke 17-5-10.