Poverty 2 The bible and the life of Jesus
Poverty in the Bible.
In the Old Testament, there was the idea that richness is the fruit of the blessing of God, while poverty is the fruit of a punishment for something done wrong.
Only with the prophets come out the idea that often the rich are so because they exploit the poor. In Amos, but also in Isaiah and Jeremiah we find already the message that the Lord will listen to the cry of the poor and oppressed.
In the Psalms we find the invitation not to attach our hearts to material things which are destined to perish.
So poverty becomes something acceptable, but surely not a kind of life to be directly chosen.
In the New Testament we have a radical change. Phil 2 says that Jesus Christ though he was rich in heaven decided to lower himself and become a servant. For this choice the Father glorifies him. Is in Christ that poverty, humility, weakness are made choices needed to carry on God's plan: the plan of salvation.
The life of Jesus
Nazareth was the smallest village in Galilee (remember the episode in which Nathanael comments: “can anything good come from Nazareth?”). Mary was a simple young girl, Joseph a humble carpenter. Nobody could have forbidden God to choose the Palace of Herod to be born in, if he wanted so. Yet the poverty of Nazareth was not enough; they had to go up to Bethlehem, where nobody wanted to accommodate them in their house, they had to be contented with a stable. Only the humble shepherd came to visit them, yet the powerful king, full of terror for this child, tried to kill him.
Because of the persecution of the king, the holy Family had to escape in a foreign country where they knew neither people nor their way of living or religion. In spite of having a so important and urgent and complicated mission to accomplish, Jesus decides to spend 30 years in the silence of his house working (that is 10 times more than the time dedicated to the apostolate). When he started preaching, he did it to the humble people; when he chose his disciples (the future leaders of his Church), he didn’t choose them among the scribes (teachers), the Pharisees (priests) or the Sadducees (politicians) but he went among the fishermen and simple ones, and the tax collectors, with a bad mixture of temperaments, which could have exploded every single moment. Whenever he addressed the powerful ones he used hard words. To the rich he gave the invitation to give up the possessions and distribute them to the poor (see Zaccheus and the young rich fellow).
The first of the Beatitudes in Matthew is “Blessed the poor in Spirit”, while in Luke we have “Blessed are you poor”. The difference between the two statements, which is so deep from the theological point of view, is almost not existent in the meaning of the words of Jesus because there is no real poverty if it is not internalized, and no real poverty in Spirit which will not translate itself in real poverty. To the disciples he tells: “The Son of man has nowhere to put his head”.
The main point of Jesus' poverty can be so described:
- Incarnation: The word “sharing” is not deep enough. Jesus becomes one of us.
- Rescue (Salvation): the incarnation is not meant for having an extra poor person but for rescuing the poor from their situation. The poor are blessed because now Jesus is there to save them.
- Providence: the instrument to be used is much higher than any human thing can be, so poverty is in order to make us available to administer the power of God himself. As long as we are for him we can be sure that he will provide us for whatever we are in need of. The material richness is the consequence of giving things away and not of working hard for them (you will receive a hundred fold).
- Purification: In order to recognize God and his plan we need pure eyes, not obscured by material things.
- Spirituality: the apostolate is done in order to achieve a spiritual good, not a material one so we have to learn to be detached from material things. God has to be always at the first place: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the rest will be given unto you”.
- Full acceptance: He does not criticize people or their situation, but he makes them feel accepted as they are.
- Co-operation: He does not simply help the poor from above, but he wants their collaboration. He works with them and make use of what they give. The poor become the main agent of their own salvation (see the fish and bread accepted as tool for the multiplication of bread.
- Focusing on the goal and not on the means. What we are here for is for God’s plan not our plan. We should never forget that.
- Material things are important but at the end we will be asked to give account on how we have used them (I was hungry, thirsty etc.; see also the parable of the Talents).