[As taught by Fr Iker]
What has to be lived by everybody? How do we live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience? Generally, the vow of poverty includes and is based on the Christian attitude of poverty, namely, the will of the Father, the salvation of mankind. All other things are in terms of this will of God. Surrounded by people and things, we have to keep in mind the main value: the will of God and the salvation of mankind. The vow of poverty includes the imitation of Christ poor and a participation in His poverty. The apostles were poor but they were not without money. Matthew was a tax collector and some of the others were fishermen. We refer to the spiritual poverty of Christ. Christ became poor for us. (Phil. 2) This may have different aspects. It is related to the way I will live with poverty. It includes the intellectual aspect. When we are dealing with the things we value in life or the way we value things in life.
1 Cor. 2:3 I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was the knowledge of Jesus, and of Him as the crucified Christ.
Phil. 3:8-9 But what were once my assets I now through Christ Jesus count as losses. Yes, I will go further: because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else as loss. For Him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and look on them all as filth if only I can gain Christ
What are the things I mentally value? What are my dreams? What do I long for? Name? Fame? A rich life? Summer vacations in an island in the Pacific? Besides the intellectual aspect, there is also the social aspect—our behaviour. Christ was born in a manger. He lived in a little town in Nazareth. He had simple, ordinary friends. He did not reject the rich but He dealt mostly with the poor.
Luke 7:22-23 Then He gave the messengers their answer, ‘Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see again, the lame walk, those suffering from virulent skin-diseases are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the good news is proclaimed to the poor;
It is not with whom I meet or socialize. So whom do I long to meet? Do I long to be with famous people? What manifestation of the Spirit of poverty is there? The material aspect concerns what I use in my life.
Luke 9:58 Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head.’
We are to have necessary things, not useless things. We are to have ordinary things, not special things. We are to live frugally in our dressing, our eating and in the way of living. The material aspect really originates from the social and intellectual aspects. (Read 89 and 90 on consecrated life, aimed at religious sisters)
Other related elements—part of the vow of poverty— include an occasional lack of things such as psychological insecurity, lack of power, simplicity of life and sharing. Collective ownership is practiced, for example, in the Society of Jesus. One works eight hours a day. Part of being poor is to work. There are no poor people who do not go to work but go to golf clubs. Why? The motivation is not to work endlessly so that I can be satisfied myself. I must work until I can no longer work. Then I accept it and that is really the spirit of poverty. ‘Why do I do what I do?’ is an important question to ask.
Psychological development. Personal and/or inter-personal needs come from the fact that our hearts are not free. We are not poor. Many other things which are not for the salvation of the world become our needs and our worries. So we are not free. Poverty should give us tremendous freedom and we are concerned with the salvation of the world.
Bishop Paul Tan’s sharing – 2008
Consolation and salvation. Jesus Christ still acts in us. Eternal mediator.
I made a visit to a doctor who was dying and complaining. I left feeling depressed for here was a person who could not accept his suffering. In another visit I saw a woman who was at peace and smiling. She said that her suffering was offered up for someone who needed it.
Let us live our vow of poverty with these in mind:
- Simplicity of life
- Solidarity with the economically poor, the marginalised, the outcasts, the unwanted and the migrant workers.
- Building a community based on the Trinitarian community with love as the basis and driving force.
- Being humble like Mary.
- Enjoining your suffering with Christ to make up for what is lacking in the body of Christ.
- Having total dependence on God – the most important point.
How you will live this vow of poverty is primary. It is the spiritual aspect. That people see you as a religious living out your vow of poverty. In our society we have saints and sinners, the rich and the poor. The young Capuchin in my example felt a call to be in solidarity with the poor. He discerned that he had a calling to live with the poor under the bridge. But remember the vow of obedience too. I once felt called to live in the slums. My Superior told me that I could do so if I still had such a desire after a few years. He told me to go home first. My Spiritual Director said that looking at my training and the culture I came from, the thought came from the devil and not from God. It was my own desire and not the will of God. I came back to Malaysia.
God can do anything. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Work with the rich who are also the children of God but do not live like the rich.
St. Augustine’s expression of his discovery of God is that of “supreme beauty and supreme love.”
“[...] You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace,”
Pope Benedict XVI reflected that the Saint of Hippo sought to describe the ineffable mystery of his encounter with God, with God’s love that transforms all of life with these images.
“It is a love that is limitless and that precedes us, sustains us and calls us along the path of life, a love rooted in an absolutely free gift of God.”
[As taught by Helene de Beauregard]
POVERTY–this is to follow Christ. It is a choice of life, sober and mortified. There is freedom and detachment of the heart in regard to what we possess. (Read the Rule, p.10) Material things are temporal. We strip our hearts of all attachments, even our very selves, and from all passing things. We put ourselves in God who alone is our wealth. There is absolutely nothing that we have. We put ourselves in God alone, and not on ourselves, our families or our gifts. The poverty St. Angela speaks of is rooted in faith. Our life and destiny is completely in the hands of God. He will never abandon us in our needs. So we are to be always ready for Christ, always available. We count only on God. There is interior detachment and simplicity in the use of things. There is abandonment to divine providence.
In the Constitutions, we read of the poverty of the Saviour. He received everything from the Father and he returned it all to God. We are to have total dependence on God who wants our good and our joy. We use the things of the world with abandonment. We know how to accept our problems and trials. We serenely accept them. We are always ready to give money, time, goods, advice and prayer. There is availability on our part and we are attentive to emerging poverty in all its forms—material, spiritual, psychological etc. We are attentive also to the demands of the Church and the needs of the Company.
There is always dialogue. How do we live our poverty in our own lives? There is a spirit of sharing and a moderate style of living. We look at our own personal economic situations and we look at things like loans, guarantees, extraordinary expenses in buying a car, a house or even making large donations of $50 thousand etc. In an emergency we are to act prudently and then inform the Directress quickly.
The evangelical counsels of Virginity, obedience and poverty show us that our will means nothing. We belong to God, the Supreme Good and all riches have no value.
I made some notes by Bishop Paul Tan SJ. This is an extract on living the spirit of poverty.
How does one live out the spirit of poverty in practical, modern ways? One would be disappointed with the suggestions for we are to rely on God, not people. We will disagree too as we will interpret this vow of poverty in different ways according to the charisms we have. Let our conscience tell us how to live it out in practice. Some diocesan priests laugh at us and they say that while we preach it, they live it out. This comment must make us rethink, reflect and redirect our life styles. It may be a joke but there is some truth in it.
There was a young and idealistic Capuchin who wanted to live his life under a bridge with some drop-outs. He complained when he was not given permission to do so. His Spiritual Father asked him why he liked to live under the bridge with the drop-outs since he would have no means and no power to help them. The Capuchin eventually left his Spiritual Father and the Franciscans.
We are not to take the vow of poverty on its own but to take it in the total context. To a large extent, the environment we are in influences us. Just reading some books like Gerard Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel” and another author’s “The Super Nature” will show us. Young people today are in the ‘World Wide Web’ world. Social communication is enormous. Their speech includes emotions, icons, images and symbols. They are not attracted to logic or rational thinking. The icons of Mother Teresa and John Paul II spoke to millions especially the young. The young are for doing the extraordinary and the impossible even if it is for thrills, adventure, and self-glorification. The fighting spirit is still there. Self-denial, sacrifice, following Christ poor and humble will turn few ears.
So we must speak of our vow of poverty as an adventure into freedom to do the impossible. The word ‘Adventure’ is attractive to youths, gaining ‘Freedom’ is everyone’s goal and doing the ‘Impossible’ is the in- thing. We are to be free from materialism, consumerism and attachments to places and people. We are to be the anawim (Hebrew word) of God. The young have dreams and they love the group ABBA and the song “I have a dream”.
I have a dream, a song to sing To help me cope with anything
Some of our dreams might have been devastated with Vatican II. The dreams of Jesus’ disciples were crushed when Jesus was lifted up to the cross. But let us look at new meanings and new hopes. Man proposes but God disposes. It is good to dream and even if our dreams should be shattered, let that not crush us. We must look for dreams that will lead us closer to God.
More from notes made in 2008 – a talk by Bishop Paul Tan, SJ
In monastic poverty, there is a simple community life with mission as its aim and poverty is geared to carry out that mission. We all can have myriad interpretations and different views but there is one common denominator and that is: the imitation of Christ, to become poor to enrich others. We have a special call to holiness.
We are to be special icons of Jesus the poor. Ours is an adventure into freedom to achieve the impossible. We must look at the life of Jesus Christ. (Phil 2:5-11) Jesus became a slave. A slave has absolutely no rights and is always at the beck and call of his master. Jesus did not become a servant. A servant has certain rights and so this translation is not accurate. Jesus then is our icon of a person who has achieved the impossible. His life attracted millions. For such a life, rigorous preparation known as asceticism is necessary. To embark on an adventure, one must be prepared for extreme cold, fatigue, obstacles etc. One has to be detached from comfort zones, life styles. Asceticism entails rigorous preparation in suffering, stress and strain. The mountaineer gives a cry of joy and experiences a feeling of freedom when he has achieved what looked impossible. We are to live like an anawim of God. The Blessed Virgin Mary is an icon of an anawim. She was simple, chaste and humble. She was obedient to God’s voice. She was not rich and not miserably poor either; she would be what we consider middle class. She was the perfect disciple of Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant of God. Other examples in the Old Testament would include Moses who trusted completely in God’s leading.
We prefer the word anawim as this does not refer only to the economically poor but also the oppressed, the homeless, the socially poor. Ours is an adventure into freedom. The word anawim is richer in meaning and more in tune with the true meaning as Jesus Christ has shown us. The first step is to express God’s love (John 4:8, 16). Phil 2:5-11 says He did not cling to his divinity. He emptied himself. He made himself free. He discarded his divinity and his infinity to be human and finite. This is against human logic. This is a contradiction. Nothing is impossible to God. He IS God.
So self-emptying is the first step as an anawim. Total trust and hope in God. The most fundamental is to have total dependence on God, the distinguishing mark of an anawim. Love. God is love. IS – in the present, the eternal IS. I AM WHO AM – the eternal IS. Love is identified with God. It is God’s very nature. He so loved the world.
