Parable and Conscience Meditation December 12

Poverty  December 12

And what good is it to scatter one’s wealth abroad by giving to the poor, even to become poor oneself, when the unhappy soul is thereby more given to pride in despising riches than it had been in possessing them? (Rule of St. Augustine, 8).

Each day the Buddhist monks, dressed in orange sarongs, leave their monastery in silence and file down to the village.  Each one carries a small bowl.  In all humility, they approach the houses of the people of the village, each monk holding out his bowl without saying anything.  The people are waiting for them and fill their bowls, also in silence, with a little rice or something else to eat.  All smile.  The monks live off the solicitude of their neighbors.  Their daily need to eat satisfied, the monks file back to the monastery to continue another day in sober and solitary prayer.  Considering their style of life, they seem to be far from the people who feed them.  But it is because of this daily act of begging that the people of the village say that the monks, despite their cloister, are their true brothers.  There is an exchange between the inhabitants of the monastery and those of the village.  In their interdependence, they live in a big community that goes beyond the evident differences of clothing, priorities and activities.  How can I regularly hold out my bowl to my poor brothers and sisters to receive something vital from them that I lack in their service?

Someone small makes use of taller people to raise himself up.  (Shi) 

Parable and Conscience Meditation December 11

Poverty  December 11

The vow of poverty is concretized in living soberly, asking permission to use common goods and doing manual and intellectual work assiduously (Congolese Regional Statutes, 1.16).

Confronted by the dangers of riches that Jesus spoke of and, particularly, of the ever-present weaknesses of the human heart, one has to watch over oneself always with a clear head.   What kind of personal discipline is necessary in the use of community resources and what are the personal motivations?  That the personal use of community goods requires community authorization is a help to an honest discernment in the practice of poverty.  Requiring such permission, often obtained in dialogue with the superior or in other approved ways, is right on the mark.  Nothing belongs to the individual; all belongs to the community.  One doesn’t use other people’s property without asking.  What’s more, the dynamics of discernment, of authorization and use, are related to the mission, both interior and exterior, of the community.  Respecting the value of community goods in work and study is an act of concern for the efficaciousness of the apostolate of the community.  Community discipline, then, regarding poverty has nothing to do with fostering infantilism.  Quite the opposite, it demands an adult strength.  The mature religious is clear in the commitment to poverty and empty of resentment.

Unity in the pride obliges the lion to go to bed hungry.  (African proverb)

Parable and Conscience Meditation December 10

Poverty  December 10

We must keep in mind that bodily health and physical fitness are important for the vitality of our community and for personal development (Const. 19.6).

In their sufferings during the time of their atrocious slavery in America, Africans sought their consolation and their hope particularly in images from the Old Testament.  Often they expressed this in their songs, the “Negro Spirituals,” which were full of melancholy and great desire.  In a famous spiritual, they used the vision of Ezechiel about the dry bones of Israelite warriors in the valley after their massacre (Ez. 37: 1-14).  Spurred on by the Word of God, the prophet begins to disturb the bones.  Quickly, with a terrible noise, the scattered bones form into whole skeletons.  Nerves, flesh and skin cover them.  Then, a wind coming from every direction makes them stand up, alive and ready to continue the battle in the name of God.  The message is clear.  Despite all discouragement, the resources for bringing about the Kingdom of God will never be lacking.  It is in this sense that we see our human bodies and our mental health.  They are resources, gifts of God, which have an irreplaceable role in making the Kingdom present.  They are capable of making a contribution to human destiny, but their limits must be respected and they must be well taken care of.

Eggs that are not incubated do not become chicks.  (Madagascar)

Parable and Conscience Meditation December 9

Poverty  December 9

The rich, for their part, who seemed important in the world, must not look down upon their brothers who have come into this holy brotherhood from a condition of poverty (Rule 8).

In Hippo, St. Augustine’s community was made up of all kinds of people: rich and poor, weak and strong, healthy and sick.  Certainly one of his objectives in founding the community was to protest against the spirit of his day, which divided people in classes of “fortunate” and “unfortunate,” all based on the criterion of wealth.  The Rule opens with a fundamental demand that all strive to achieve unanimity at every level of life, avoiding all discrimination, as the way to God.  The challenges of our own times are as great as those of Augustine’s world—and maybe even greater.  Our economic divisions are hemispheric and technological; our divisions are cultural and racial.  Religious in international communities in the developing nations bring together people from all sides of these abysses.  “Fortunate” are those who construct the bridges well and cross over them.  “Unfortunate” are those who are content to live with the distances.

The turtledove gets to know its fellow turtledove in the beaten straw.  (Moba)

Parable and Conscience Meditation December 8

Poverty  December 8

To be poor in the sense of the Gospel is to base our existence on the life of others and no longer to root our concern in ourselves (Const. 12.1).

The Virgin Mary is the model of evangelical poverty.  She chanted, for all generations to hear, her confidence in Him who notices the little ones, protects the powerless and feeds the hungry.  Her experience of God made a formidable messenger of her.  Her poverty contradicts the spirit of the world.  What an appetite the world has for a life of advantage!  And at what price!  Workers risk becoming slaves of others who manipulate the economy.  The earth risks becoming a disfigured, exploited, polluted place.  People of means risk becoming monstrous egotists.  What a shock a life of evangelical poverty is in such an environment!  Sharing the spirit of Mary’s confidence in God, religious are liberated Christians without a thirst for possessions, persons full of wonder at creation, devoted to the service of others’ needs!  A sign of things to come!  The witness of a life of evangelical poverty is an apostolate in itself.  However forcefully the world may reject the vision, religious remain nonetheless attractive because their very life-style speaks to the most profound aspirations of the human heart.

A hen who finds a grain of rice always shares it with her chicks.  (Kusu)