Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
5th August 2018

How Christ Dignified Poverty
by Monsignor Luigi Civardi

Before Christ, the wealthy man could use and misuse his goods without any limitations and without any consideration for others. Even in the midst of starving people, he could destroy the wheat with which his granaries were bulging. Pity for the poor, help for the needy and almsgiving were generally unknown, neglected and often despised as acts of weakness.

Pagan religion and philosophy imposed no duty upon the rich toward the poor. Dives, gorging himself and letting Lazarus starve at his door (Luke 16), is the type of the rich man in pagan times. Such was the idea, and the use of riches in the pagan world. After the coming of Jesus into the world, there is a complete reversal of values. Poverty is made honourable. It acquires a sacred character and is surrounded with help, with protection and veneration. Jesus dignified poverty by example and by His teachings.

He is the King of Israel, but is born in a stable and lives as a poor workingman in the little home of Nazareth until He is thirty years of age. One day one of the scribes, having seen Him perform many miracles and thinking that by following Him he could acquire wealth and glory, says: "Master, I will follow you wherever you shall go". But Jesus disillusions him at once by replying: "Foxes have holes, and birds have nests; but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head" (Matt. 8:20).

Jesus practiced poverty first then preached it. He began His preaching by calling Himself He who is sent to "preach the gospel to the poor" (Luke 4:18). He sets forth His program in the Sermon on the Mount, and His first words are "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 5:3). Christ later on confirms His doctrine with the famous parable of Lazarus and Dives (Luke 16). This parable is an exaltation of poverty, and at the same time the condemnation of wealth, as understood by paganism.

Jesus was not satisfied with exalting the poor, He commanded that the poor be relieved. He said bluntly to the rich: "Give that which remains as alms" (Luke 11). One day a rich young man asked Christ what he should do to obtain eternal life: Jesus gave him this advice: "If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven" (Matt. 19).

Jesus did more; He identified Himself with the poor. On the Day of Judgment, He will speak these words to the elect: "Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to the one of these my least brethren, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:40). Oh, the dignity of the poor! Hidden in him is the Lord Himself incognito!