"Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Matt. 5: 3Since we have treated of humility and meekness, it is
fitting that we consider the virtues corresponding to the evangelical
counsels. As we have already spoken of virginity in connection with
chastity, it remains for us to explain how poverty and obedience
cooperate in Christian perfection.
To attain perfection, man must practice the three counsels
effectively: in other words, in the use of legitimate goods it is
expedient that he retrench before reaching the limit of what is
permitted, that he may not be led into excess. The effective practice
of the three counsels, as we have seen, (1) is a road leading more
easily, rapidly, and surely to perfection, which is reached in this
way more often in the religious life than in the married state.
However, Christian perfection does not consist essentially in the
practice of the counsels; it is chiefly in charity.(2) Moreover, to
reach perfection, one must have at least the spirit of the counsels,
which is the spirit of detachment, as St. Paul says: "The time is
short. It remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had
none; . . . and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they
that use this world, as if they used it not. For the fashion of this
world passeth away." (3)
We shall discuss, first of all, the spirit of poverty, recommended
to all by our Lord when He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
THE VALUE OF VOLUNTARY POVERTY
The meaning of this evangelical beatitude is as follows: blessed
are they who have not the spirit of wealth, its pomp, pride,
insatiable avidity; but who have the spirit of poverty and are humble.
Christ says: "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven"; not only will it
be theirs later on, but in a sense it is theirs even now.
Voluntary poverty can be practiced either in the midst of the
abundance of worldly goods, when the spirit is not attached to them,
or in destitution when one bears it generously for love of God. The
value of voluntary poverty may even appear to those who have not
faith, because they see the disorders which arise from cupidity, the
concupiscence of the eyes, the desire of riches, avarice, the excesses
of capitalism, and the forgetfulness of the poor who are dying of
hunger.
We must begin to detach ourselves from earthly goods in order to
grasp clearly the following truth often uttered by St. Augustine and
St. Thomas: "Contrary to spiritual goods, material goods divide men,
because they cannot belong simultaneously and integrally to a number."
(4) A number of persons cannot possess integrally and simultaneously
the same house, the same field, the same territory; whence
dissensions, quarrels, lawsuits, wars. On the contrary, spiritual
goods, like truth, virtue, God Himself, can belong simultaneously and
integrally to a number; many may possess simultaneously the same
virtue, the same truth, the same God who gives Himself wholly to each
of us in Communion.
Therefore, whereas the unbridled search for material goods
profoundly divides men, the quest for spiritual goods unites them. It
unites us so much the more closely, the more we seek these superior
goods. And we even possess God so much the more, the more we give Him
to others. When we give away money, we no longer possess it; when, on
the contrary, we give God to souls, we do not lose Him; rather we
possess Him more. And should we refuse to give Him to a person who
asks for Him, we would lose Him.
Consequently to combat cupidity, the concupiscence of the eyes, the
desire of riches, avarice, and the forgetfulness of the poor, our Lord
counseled voluntary poverty, or detachment in regard to earthly goods
which divide men. Christ leads us thus to desire keenly spiritual
goods, which unite men.
The spirit of detachment is even necessary for the Christian that
he may clearly understand the true meaning of the right of individual
ownership instead of infringing on this right, which is often
forgotten; interior souls should have a profound knowledge of it. As
St. Thomas shows, the right of ownership is the right to acquire and
to administer material goods; but in regard to their use, they must be
given readily to those who are in need.(5)
St. Paul says: "Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded
nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who
giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy: to do good, to be rich in
good works, to give easily, to communicate to others, to lay up in
store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that
they may lay hold on the true life." (6)
Such is the spirit of detachment; it should remind all of us of
what St. Thomas says elsewhere: namely, that if a poor man in a case
of extreme necessity asks for a piece of bread and is refused, he may
take it, and not be guilty of theft. He has a right to it in order not
to die of hunger. A man's life is clearly worth more than a piece of
bread which we have not the right to retain jealously if one of our
brothers is in absolute need of it.
It is a precept that a man should give alms from his superfluity
that he may aid him who is in grave necessity.(7) What has been said
of a piece of bread should be said of clothing and necessary shelter.
There must be a return to the spirit of evangelical poverty in order
to combat today the abuses of capitalism which exasperate the laborer
who is out of work and unable to feed his children. Scripture tells
us: "Whilst the wicked man is proud, the poor is set on fire." (8) The
rich man, far from being a monopolist, should administer the goods
given by God in such a way that the poor profit in regard to what is
necessary. Then man no longer lives under the reign of covetousness
and jealousy, but under the dominion of God.(9)
It is fitting today to recall these elementary truths even when
speaking of the progress of the interior life, for the grave
disturbances and perils of modern society require that we consider
these truths from a higher point of view and that we put them into
practice with a great spirit of faith and detachment. This is the true
remedy for two extreme deviations which are mutually contradictory:
the abuses of capitalism and the excesses of communism, two contrary
disorders springing from a materialistic conception of human life and
from forgetfulness of the Gospel.(10) The value of voluntary poverty
is brought out by these very disorders, which are disturbingly
serious.
The value of detachment appears in a more positive way when we
remember the true goods we should ardently desire. Christ tells all of
us what they are, and interior souls should have a deeper
understanding of His teaching: "Be not solicitous for your life, what
you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the
life more than the meat, and the body more than the raiment? Behold
the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, . . .
and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value
than they? Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice,
and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore
solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself.
Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof."(11)
The spirit of detachment thus leads us to a stronger desire for the
goods of heaven and to reliance on the help of God to reach the end of
the journey. Voluntary poverty and confidence in God go hand in hand;
the more detached man is from earthly goods, the more he desires those
of heaven; and the less he relies on human helps, the more he places
his confidence in God's help. Thus confidence in God is the soul of
holy poverty. All Christians should have the spirit of this counsel.
Since we are considering the effective practice of voluntary
poverty, let us recall the answer our Lord gave to the rich young man
who wished to know the surest road to perfection. Christ answered him:
"Go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor; and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven. And come, follow Me. Who being struck sad at
that saying, went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." (12)
He preferred to keep them rather than to follow our Lord and win
souls, rather than to become a "fisher of men" like the apostles.
The effective practice of voluntary poverty is of counsel; it is
not obligatory; but to be perfect one must have at least the spirit of
the counsel, the spirit of detachment in the midst even of riches, if
one keeps them.
St. Francis de Sales (13) develops this teaching, saying that
voluntary poverty is a great good, but one which is little known; that
it is a principle of happiness; that it must be observed in the midst
of wealth and also in real poverty, if we should happen to lose
everything.
Now if you love the poor, be often in their company, be glad to
see them in your house, and to visit them in theirs. Converse
willingly with them, be pleased to have them near you in the church,
in the streets, and elsewhere. . . . Make yourself then a servant of
the poor: go and serve them in their beds when they are sick. . . at
your own expense. . . . This service is more glorious than a
kingdom.. . . St. Louis frequently served at table the poor whom he
supported, and caused three poor men to dine with him almost every
day, and many times ate the remainder of their food with an
incomparable love. When he visited the hospitals, . . . he commonly
served. . . such as had the most loathsome diseases, kneeling on the
ground, respecting in their persons the Savior of the world. . . .
St. Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Hungary, often visited the
poor. . . . But should you meet with losses which impoverish you. .
. as in the case of tempests, fires, inundations, . . . lawsuits,
then is the proper season to practice poverty. . . with meekness. .
. and patience.(14)
St. Francis de Sales adds that truly Christian poverty should be
gay, and that he who has chosen it should not seek his comfort, but
should suffer some discomforts for the love of God; otherwise, how
would this virtue be for him a means of union with God? The examples
of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic, and St. Benedict Joseph Labre,
show us to what close union with God this virtue can lead us when
practiced for love of God.
THE FRUITFULNESS OF VOLUNTARY POVERTY
St. Thomas (15) tells us that Christ willed to be poor for four
reasons: (I) because voluntary poverty is fitting for the preacher,
who should be freed from the care of earthly goods; (2) because He
wished to show that He desires only the salvation of souls; (3) that
He might lead us to desire especially eternal goods; (4) that divine
power which saves souls might stand forth more clearly in the absence
of human helps. This is also the reason why Christ chose poor
fishermen of Galilee as His apostles. Thus is demonstrated the
fruitfulness of voluntary poverty; it is the hundredfold promised by
Christ.
In the first place, the spirit of poverty frees us from excessive
preoccupation about exterior goods, which are then no longer an
obstacle in our progress toward God, but a means of doing good. Thus
delivered, the Christian may run the way of perfection; he no longer
thinks of settling down on earth as if he were to remain there always,
for he understands that he is there only temporarily. He is no longer
embarrassed, as it were, by useless baggage in his journey toward
eternity; aware of being a traveler, a viator, he aspires to reach his
last end without delay. His pace is even quickened, becomes ever more
rapid, because he is always more drawn by the last end in proportion
as he approaches it.
In the second place, voluntary poverty is a sign of
disinterestedness, particularly necessary for an apostle; for it
should be evident he has no interest but that of winning souls for our
Lord, as St. Dominic told the prelates who arrived in Languedoc with a
whole suite to preach the Gospel to people seduced by the errors of
the Albigenses. These prelates understood then that they should preach
first by example, by true detachment; and they sent away their
retinue.
In the third place, voluntary poverty is materially fruitful in a
degree that sometimes borders on the miraculous. To see this fact, one
need only visit certain convents dedicated to the care of the poor,
such as the homes of the Little Sisters of the Poor, or the piccola
casa of St. Joseph Cottolengo in Turin, "a little house" which
shelters ten thousand indigent sick, and which subsists only on the
alms received from day to day. It is like a perpetual miracle worked
by divine Providence in response to the trust of the holy founder and
his sons, who understood the profound meaning of Christ's words: "Seek
ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these
things shall be added unto you." (16) These servants of the poor live
by the supernatural contemplation of this truth and by its practice.
Fourthly, more admirable still is the spiritual fruitfulness of the
spirit of poverty. It teaches us patience, humility, detachment in
regard to higher goods, to all that is not God and the love of God,
that is, in respect to the goods of the intellect, of the heart, and
of certain goods of the soul.
The goods of the intellect are our knowledge, our talents if we
have any. In study we must know how to avoid curiosity, vainglory,
useless natural eagerness; how to place this study truly at the
service of God, detaching ourselves from our own lights, from our
excessively personal views. If we do this, the Lord will in this case
also give us the hundredfold: a superior simplicity, that of true
contemplation, which forgets itself in order to lose itself in its
object. St. Albert the Great practiced this spirit of poverty in
respect to the immense learning he had acquired. He was told that he
would lose the use of his memory; this took place, and during the
rather long period of life that was left to him, he remained as if
completely absorbed in the contemplation of God. In place of the
acquired learning that he had lost, he received a very superior
treasure, a lofty degree of infused contemplation that he might live
most profoundly by the mysteries of salvation.
The goods of the heart are our affections, and also the affection
full of esteem and confidence that others show us. We must live in a
certain detachment in regard even to these goods that we may not fall
into sentimentalism. We must not cling to being loved, esteemed; we
must also consecrate our legitimate affections to God, placing them
under the influx of true charity, which will reveal to us what a
treasure is a truly supernatural friendship that is wholly generous.
It is a great gift of God, which He occasionally grants to those who
have renounced all.
Finally, the spirit of poverty also teaches us to practice
detachment from certain goods of the soul, that is, spiritual
consolations. They must certainly not be sought for themselves; were
this done, they would cease to be a means of progress toward God and
would become an obstacle. We must consent to be weaned from them when
the Lord judges it to be for our good. Following the advice of St.
Grignion de Montfort, many interior souls strip themselves of all that
is communicable to others in their prayers and good works and entrust
it to the Blessed Virgin that she may use it to the best advantage of
souls on earth or in purgatory in greatest need of it. By this
denudation the Christian prepares himself for a higher spiritual
poverty, which is a great gift of God and recalls the destitution of
Christ on the cross, abandoned by His people, by many of His own, and
to all appearances abandoned by His Father. Interior souls find this
higher spiritual poverty in the last purification which St. John of
the Cross calls the dark night of the soul. Victim souls experience
more profoundly than others this absolute stripping of themselves and
this immolation which configures them to Christ that they may obtain
the salvation of sinners.
Thus, in different degrees, the spirit of poverty and still more
voluntary poverty effectively practiced for love of God, enrich the
Christian while stripping him and obtain the hundredfold for him. Such
is the lofty meaning of the evangelical beatitude: "Blessed are the
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
THE MERIT OF THE VOWS
With St. Thomas (17) we must add that it is more meritorious to
perform a good act with a vow than without, and this for three
reasons: (I) because the vow is an act of the virtue of religion, or
of the worship of latria. This virtue is the most noble of the
moral virtues; hence it renders more meritorious the acts of poverty,
chastity, and obedience which it inspires, commands, and offers to God
as a holocaust.
Moreover, charity itself inspires the vow; it is made out of love
and is a true testimony of love that is at times highly meritorious.
If anyone greatly loves another, he places himself at the other's
service out of affection. Thus the soul that wishes to love God
greatly places itself forever at His service out of love, binding
itself to Him by a vow. It has been objected that he who is already
closely united to God through charity, the highest of the virtues,
does not find an additional perfection in binding himself to God by a
vow. If he is already a friend, he does not have to become a servant;
so much so that our Lord said: "I will not now call you servants. . .
. But I have called you friends." The answer to this objection is that
he who loves God finds an additional perfection in placing himself
through love at God's service for his entire life.(18)
St. Thomas adds two other reasons: (2) he who promises God a
succession of good works and accomplishes them subjects himself more
to God than if he accomplished them without having promised them. Thus
he who gives the tree and its fruits offers more than if he offered
only the fruits while retaining possession of the tree. (3) Lastly, by
the vow the will is immutably fixed in the good, which is an
additional perfection.
Consequently it is evident that the vows of religion, especially
perpetual and solemn vows, add to the acts of poverty, chastity, and
obedience, an additional merit, that of the virtue of religion, which
is itself offered to God as worship by charity that inspires all the
other virtues. The soul consecrated to the Lord thus belongs more
intimately to Him.
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1. Cf. Vol. I, chap. 13.
2. Cf. IIa IIae, q. 184, a.3.
3.Cf. I Cor. 7:29-31.
4. St. Thomas, IIIa, q. 23, a. I ad 3um: "Spiritual goods can be
possessed by many at the same time; not so material goods." Cf. Ia
IIae, q.28, a.4 ad 2um.
5. Cf. IIa IIae, q.66, a.2: "Two things are competent to man in
respect to exterior things. One is the power to procure and dispense
them, and in this regard it is lawful for man to possess property. . .
. The second thing that is competent to man with regard to external
things is 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 (I Tim. 6:17f.)." Cf. Ia IIae,
q.105, a.2, c.
6. Cf. I Tim. 6: 17-19.
7. Cf. IIa IIae, q.32, a.5.
8. Ps. 10 (according to the Hebrews): 2.
9. His Holiness, Pius XI, points out in one of his encyclicals that
the Lord distributes temporal goods to the good and the bad with holy
indifference. Temporal goods have in reality no value in themselves;
their worth lies in the use that is made of them in view of eternal
life.
10. The saints have often said that love is an act by which
cupidity retrenches its superfluity so that others may have what is
necessary. . . . The Incarnation of the Word is the example of
compassion.
These thoughts often recur in the Imitation de la vie pauvre de
Notre Seigneur, a work attributed to Tauler, and in his authentic
sermons.
11. Matt. 6: 25-34.
12. Mark 10:21 f.
13. Introduction to a Devout Life, Part III, chaps. 14-16.
14. Ibid., chap. 15.
15. Cf. IIIa, q.40, a.3; q.35, a.7.
16. Matt. 6:33.
17. Cf. IIa IIae, q.88, a.6.
18. This superior influence of love is manifested also in the fact
that interior worship excels exterior worship. It is more perfect to
offer God our acts of faith, hope, and love, than exterior acts. The
theological virtues inspire the virtue of religion, which through love
thus renders the worship due to God. Cf. IIa IIae, q.81, a.5 ad 1um.
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