The Ascetic Life and the Path to Christ, the Charity of Poverty (Part 2)
By Family of Saint Sharbel USA Editorial Team
Poverty is normally considered a state of not having enough. It is a condition that we nearly all, reasonably, hope to avoid and work to keep ourselves and others out of. Yet religious “poverty” is considered a virtue, and consecrated religious, such as St. Sharbel, take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as part of their consecration to Christ. What kind of poverty does the Church consider a virtue, and what does it have in common with material poverty? Why is this virtuous kind of poverty necessary to live the love God asks of us, and how can it be possible for lay people?
Let us take for an example the path of most religious brothers and sisters. When consecrated religious like St. Sharbel take a vow of poverty, they typically, materially, vow to freely give up owning personal property. They “sell all they have, give to the poor” and come follow Jesus (Mark 10:21) as a response to His specific call for them, and they vow to remain in this state until their passing. This renunciation of property, materially, seems drastic, but, spiritually, it says two important things. Firstly, leaving everything behind to follow Jesus means total entrustment to God’s providence, at least regarding your physical needs. Secondly, choosing God over everything else says and shows that God is more important to you than any created thing, or at least that you want Him to be. He is first in your heart and, consequently, your choices.
Following this personal renunciation of belongings, if one enters a religious community, it would be typical to find that all property the brothers or sisters use is held in common; property belongs to the community rather than any individual within it, even if one person uses a particular item more than others by virtue of their communal role. (A brother tasked with maintaining his order’s social media page, for example, might use a phone more often, but that does not make the phone his property.) Each member of the religious community, materially, has nothing to their name, and the community as a whole, in turn, is called to live a sparing-sharing lifestyle; rather than amassing a great deal of things in the community’s name for common use, the community itself and all within it are called to take only what they need, sometimes intentionally practicing going without things (through fasting and penances, for example). This practice enables the brothers and sisters to grow spiritually, recalling both the world’s passing nature and God’s permanence each day. Furthermore, it makes resources more available to give to others who lack necessities—those in the type of poverty mentioned at the beginning of this article—as Jesus told his followers to do: “Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none, and whoever has food should do likewise.” (Luke 3:11).
Though, in a material sense, the path of a religious brother or sister may differ from that, say, of a lay person, God’s spiritual call to all is the same. The virtue of Gospel poverty, lived in numerous material ways, can be considered this spiritual call’s answer. Materially, consecrated religious vow to give away all they have, which is one unique expression of spiritual poverty. Spiritually, however, consecrated religious vow to be “poor” as Jesus meant in the Beatitudes (“blessed are the poor in spirit” - Matt. 5:3), and this is the call that all of us share. As a person who knows they are in need—like the materially poor, for example—becomes more open to relying on others out of necessity, a person who understands their spiritual need (“poverty”) for God relies on Him to provide help rather than on themselves, be it for matters material or spiritual. The poor in spirit know and live in acceptance of their unending need for God. Thus, practicing a life of “virtuous poverty” means living a life that reflects radical trust in God—not oneself or any other created thing—to provide for all your needs, and this can come in endless forms. Religious communities’ material arrangement has value not necessarily because of grave physical lack—consecrated religious are called to live in genuine simplicity, taking no more than what they need, but not all holy communities (or saints in general, for that matter) live in total, literal destitution—but because our relationship with material things has spiritual meaning, and any practice of true spiritual poverty will somehow be physically expressed.
Why is the virtue of poverty necessary?
In the Gospels, Jesus often spoke about spiritual and material wealth. He taught that, “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle” than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom (Matt. 19:24) and that no one can faithfully serve both God and material things (Matt. 6:24). He showed his disciples that material wealth easily distracts and can be destroyed, but Heaven (eternal communion with God) lasts forever and belongs to the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3). In the same sermon, Jesus told his disciples to “store up treasure in Heaven” (Matt. 6:20-21) in the form of good and generous deeds. To help them understand this better, he finally counseled his disciples to learn from the birds and the way the wildflowers grow (Matt. 6:26-28) and trust God to provide for them the same way. This type of trust would replace time spent worrying about how to survive and, consequently, enable them to cling less to God’s gifts.
Each of these teachings, subtly but clearly, reveals the inherent relationship between the virtue of poverty and the Great Commandment - the call to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). The virtue of spiritual poverty is, in fact, necessary to live the Great Commandment: it is impossible to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength without accepting that your heart, mind, soul, and strength were made to rely on God. Reliance on and acceptance of the grace of God alone makes such a total love of God possible. In turn, it is likewise impossible for us to truly love ourselves—let alone to love our neighbors as ourselves and “store up treasure in Heaven”—without letting ourselves lean on the One who loves us more than we love ourselves, not making the burden of trying to fully control our lives ours when it never had to be ("for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” - Matt. 11:30). Living with spiritual poverty—knowing our constant dependence on God and trusting that we do not have to worry about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34)—is what makes us free to adopt a pilgrim relationship with material things. Then, in turn, we may steward everything we receive with generosity toward God, self, and others. Spiritual poverty enables us to live out the Great Commandment, and that is what makes it necessary.
What does poverty look like for lay people?
Most of us reading are lay faithful; we have not taken religious vows, we are not priests, and many of us have families. Where does this leave us? Lay people, especially those who have children, might not be asked to live the radical material poverty that people like St. Sharbel lived. Simply by virtue of their vocation, it may not be right for some laity to wear tattered garments (to a business meeting, for instance), intentionally put themselves in the position of begging for food, or sell everything they have as some saints did. They may own a modest home or car to provide safe shelter and a way to reach other people and places. They may need to save money to be able to retire or cover an unexpected medical bill. They may need to provide nutritious food to their growing children. Nonetheless, the laity are called to rely on God just the same as any saint—totally and constantly—and they are called to train their hearts to prize God above all things. They are called to be generous stewards of all God gives them—be it time, money, wisdom, or other resources—in both their homes and broader communities; they are called to trust God in family planning and other career, medical, and financial decisions, even when God's call is counter-cultural; they are called to recognize that what they have on Earth is passing in nature, but the choice to love touches eternity.
Some Questions to Consider:
Where do I find it most difficult to rely on God? How do I define necessity for myself? How, if at all, has my idea of necessity differed from God’s? What might God be asking me to offer back to Him in trust?
May God bless you and grant you the grace to abide in His love for you always.
Recommendation for Further Reading: Happy Are You Poor by Fr. Thomas Dubay
Click to read part 1: The Ascetic Life and the Path to Christ, Mortification of the Senses
Let us take for an example the path of most religious brothers and sisters. When consecrated religious like St. Sharbel take a vow of poverty, they typically, materially, vow to freely give up owning personal property. They “sell all they have, give to the poor” and come follow Jesus (Mark 10:21) as a response to His specific call for them, and they vow to remain in this state until their passing. This renunciation of property, materially, seems drastic, but, spiritually, it says two important things. Firstly, leaving everything behind to follow Jesus means total entrustment to God’s providence, at least regarding your physical needs. Secondly, choosing God over everything else says and shows that God is more important to you than any created thing, or at least that you want Him to be. He is first in your heart and, consequently, your choices.
Following this personal renunciation of belongings, if one enters a religious community, it would be typical to find that all property the brothers or sisters use is held in common; property belongs to the community rather than any individual within it, even if one person uses a particular item more than others by virtue of their communal role. (A brother tasked with maintaining his order’s social media page, for example, might use a phone more often, but that does not make the phone his property.) Each member of the religious community, materially, has nothing to their name, and the community as a whole, in turn, is called to live a sparing-sharing lifestyle; rather than amassing a great deal of things in the community’s name for common use, the community itself and all within it are called to take only what they need, sometimes intentionally practicing going without things (through fasting and penances, for example). This practice enables the brothers and sisters to grow spiritually, recalling both the world’s passing nature and God’s permanence each day. Furthermore, it makes resources more available to give to others who lack necessities—those in the type of poverty mentioned at the beginning of this article—as Jesus told his followers to do: “Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none, and whoever has food should do likewise.” (Luke 3:11).
Though, in a material sense, the path of a religious brother or sister may differ from that, say, of a lay person, God’s spiritual call to all is the same. The virtue of Gospel poverty, lived in numerous material ways, can be considered this spiritual call’s answer. Materially, consecrated religious vow to give away all they have, which is one unique expression of spiritual poverty. Spiritually, however, consecrated religious vow to be “poor” as Jesus meant in the Beatitudes (“blessed are the poor in spirit” - Matt. 5:3), and this is the call that all of us share. As a person who knows they are in need—like the materially poor, for example—becomes more open to relying on others out of necessity, a person who understands their spiritual need (“poverty”) for God relies on Him to provide help rather than on themselves, be it for matters material or spiritual. The poor in spirit know and live in acceptance of their unending need for God. Thus, practicing a life of “virtuous poverty” means living a life that reflects radical trust in God—not oneself or any other created thing—to provide for all your needs, and this can come in endless forms. Religious communities’ material arrangement has value not necessarily because of grave physical lack—consecrated religious are called to live in genuine simplicity, taking no more than what they need, but not all holy communities (or saints in general, for that matter) live in total, literal destitution—but because our relationship with material things has spiritual meaning, and any practice of true spiritual poverty will somehow be physically expressed.
Why is the virtue of poverty necessary?
In the Gospels, Jesus often spoke about spiritual and material wealth. He taught that, “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle” than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom (Matt. 19:24) and that no one can faithfully serve both God and material things (Matt. 6:24). He showed his disciples that material wealth easily distracts and can be destroyed, but Heaven (eternal communion with God) lasts forever and belongs to the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3). In the same sermon, Jesus told his disciples to “store up treasure in Heaven” (Matt. 6:20-21) in the form of good and generous deeds. To help them understand this better, he finally counseled his disciples to learn from the birds and the way the wildflowers grow (Matt. 6:26-28) and trust God to provide for them the same way. This type of trust would replace time spent worrying about how to survive and, consequently, enable them to cling less to God’s gifts.
Each of these teachings, subtly but clearly, reveals the inherent relationship between the virtue of poverty and the Great Commandment - the call to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). The virtue of spiritual poverty is, in fact, necessary to live the Great Commandment: it is impossible to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength without accepting that your heart, mind, soul, and strength were made to rely on God. Reliance on and acceptance of the grace of God alone makes such a total love of God possible. In turn, it is likewise impossible for us to truly love ourselves—let alone to love our neighbors as ourselves and “store up treasure in Heaven”—without letting ourselves lean on the One who loves us more than we love ourselves, not making the burden of trying to fully control our lives ours when it never had to be ("for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” - Matt. 11:30). Living with spiritual poverty—knowing our constant dependence on God and trusting that we do not have to worry about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34)—is what makes us free to adopt a pilgrim relationship with material things. Then, in turn, we may steward everything we receive with generosity toward God, self, and others. Spiritual poverty enables us to live out the Great Commandment, and that is what makes it necessary.
What does poverty look like for lay people?
Most of us reading are lay faithful; we have not taken religious vows, we are not priests, and many of us have families. Where does this leave us? Lay people, especially those who have children, might not be asked to live the radical material poverty that people like St. Sharbel lived. Simply by virtue of their vocation, it may not be right for some laity to wear tattered garments (to a business meeting, for instance), intentionally put themselves in the position of begging for food, or sell everything they have as some saints did. They may own a modest home or car to provide safe shelter and a way to reach other people and places. They may need to save money to be able to retire or cover an unexpected medical bill. They may need to provide nutritious food to their growing children. Nonetheless, the laity are called to rely on God just the same as any saint—totally and constantly—and they are called to train their hearts to prize God above all things. They are called to be generous stewards of all God gives them—be it time, money, wisdom, or other resources—in both their homes and broader communities; they are called to trust God in family planning and other career, medical, and financial decisions, even when God's call is counter-cultural; they are called to recognize that what they have on Earth is passing in nature, but the choice to love touches eternity.
Some Questions to Consider:
Where do I find it most difficult to rely on God? How do I define necessity for myself? How, if at all, has my idea of necessity differed from God’s? What might God be asking me to offer back to Him in trust?
May God bless you and grant you the grace to abide in His love for you always.
Recommendation for Further Reading: Happy Are You Poor by Fr. Thomas Dubay
Click to read part 1: The Ascetic Life and the Path to Christ, Mortification of the Senses
