Step 17: Poverty

“The poor monk is lord of the world.”

--St. John Climacus

“Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not more important than they?”

--Matthew 6:26

Strange, isn’t it, how God’s values are often the opposite of the world’s.  Yesterday we looked at the way that wealth can become a problem.  Today we look at the way that poverty can be a blessing.  If we look at poverty as a healthy indifference toward our possessions, it doesn’t matter if we have a little or a lot.  We can all benefit spiritually from a spirit of poverty.

Yesterday I said that wealthy people are not, as some Christians think, necessarily bad people.  Poor people are not necessarily good either.

Climacus says, “A man who is poor for no good reason falls into a double misfortune.  He goes without present goods and is deprived of these in the future.”  I think that what he means is that there is no virtue in not having things.  Being poor and bitter means that one is poor both materially and spiritually.  But if I learn from my poverty how to be grateful for what I do have and how to rely on God, then in the end, I will come out a richer man for it.

I don’t have to be poor economically to learn these lessons.  Poverty often comes in the form of illness, grief, family conflict.  Any time our own resources; material, emotional, or spiritual, are not enough and we are dependent on the charity of God and others, that is an opportunity for us to learn the lessons of gratitude and faith that poverty teaches.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, give us the grace of knowing that if we have you, we have enough, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

St. John Climacus, pray for us.