Money and the spirit of poverty

Fr. Roy Cimagala .

MANY times, we are given the impression that money and the Christian spirit of poverty are incompatible. To a certain extent, there is some truth to that view.

Even St. Paul went to the extent of saying that, “the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they  have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Tim 6,10) We do not have to look far to verify the undeniable truth of these words.

But we need to remind ourselves also that money in itself is not an inherent evil. It is when we fall into an improper attachment to it that it becomes an evil or, better said, a tool for evil. But in itself, if handled properly, it can in fact be a tool for doing a lot of good and of glorifying God.

We just have to make sure that our attitude toward money is inspired by our love for God and for others, and the way we deal with it faithfully reflects the will of God which definitely is for our own salvation and the salvation of everyone.

Only then can we apply the use of money in accordance to Christ’s words: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6,21) Only then can we say that money will show how much we love God, rather than how depraved we have fallen.

This should be the perspective within which money and its creation and use should be viewed. In this context, we can even say that we can and should develop a healthy love for money which is not for anything other than to glorify God and to truly serve our needs, without falling into the anomalies of pride, greed, lust and the like.

I would even go to the extent of saying that we should not be afraid to become millionaires or even billionaires if our pursuit for money is in accordance to this perspective. Only then can we say that the apparent oxymoron of being both rich in money but poor in spirit according to one of the beatitudes would be happily achieved.

But we should neither forget that the pursuit for money according to this spirit will always involve a lot of suffering too.

This is unavoidable and is actually a clear sign that we are taking the right path. We should be ready for this aspect, unafraid and eager to face the challenge, bear the burden and tackle the trials.

Temptations will surely abound and stressful moments will surely come aplenty.

Of course, this is easier said than done. That’s why we need to constantly examine ourselves and rectify our intentions, seeing to it that all our transactions are in accordance to the will of God and the objective good of all of us.

Many times we have to pause and review the way we generate and use money, and to make appropriate consultations just to make sure that we avoid falling into the subtle traps of inordinate attachments, greed, etc. Yes, a certain transparency is needed here, a system of checks-and-balances also has to be installed.

More importantly, we have to toughen ourselves and arm ourselves with the appropriate moral and spiritual means and weapons to carry out the heavy responsibilities involved in this matter.

In this regard, I was happy to meet someone who talked to me about the importance of savings and of investing in stocks. It kind of made me of aware of the intricacies of the different instruments that can be used to generate money and to contribute to the common good.

Yes, a certain financial literacy is also needed by everyone, including those involved in the works of charity and spiritual and pastoral ministries. Money can and should be an important element in our spirit of poverty.

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Burning with Desire. Given our notorious tendency to fall into spiritual lukewarmness and complacency, if not coldness, we need to often exert conscious effort to burn with desire and to light up our fire to love God and everybody else. We cannot deny that we often are good only at the beginning of an activity but peter out later on. We need to be guarded against this tendency.

This is actually what is proper and ideal for us. We are meant for this condition of being fervent in our desire as long as it is properly motivated and oriented, and also as long as we use our faculties properly, that is, without abusing and stretching them too much. Yes, a certain restraint and moderation is also needed here. Let’s always give due attention to the limitations of our bodily dimension.

This burning desire should start in our mind and heart, in our spiritual powers before it is manifested in our senses and our bodily parts. Of course, our senses and bodily organs, once properly animated, can also help in sustaining the ardor in our spiritual faculties. Hopefully, we can keep a mutually perpetuating cycle of our bodily and spiritual faculties in the service of desire out of love.

In this, we should be inspired by the example of that woman with haemorrhages who, out of fervent desire, struggled to touch the cloak of Christ despite the thick crowd. (cfr. Mk 5,21-43), or of

Mary Magdalene who, in spite of the difficulties, visited the tomb of Christ in haste. There are actually many characters in the gospel who manifested this burning desire to see Christ in spite of all odds.

We can cite the example of the paralytic who was brought by his friends to see Christ. Since they could not get close to him due to the crowd, they went up to the roof, bore a hole there and lowered the paralytic until he was right before Christ. Christ was so impressed by their burning desire that the healing that was asked was given pronto. (cfr. Mk 2,1-12)

Or that blind man, Bartimaeus, who in spite of his condition, could not be restrained by those around him as he shouted to get the attention of Christ. Again, Christ was impressed by the fervor of his faith. (cfr. Mk 10,46-52)

Since in our piety there are things that we do often and regularly, like praying, going to Mass, etc., we need to see to it that our desire to show genuine love for God and others through these acts is maintained. We cannot deny that if we are not careful, we can easily fall into routine, and before we know it, we can appear to be more dead than alive when doing these acts of piety.

What can help is to repeat many times during the day many small acts of faith, hope and charity, in the form of spontaneous aspirations and ejaculatory prayers. They can serve as little twigs to maintain the waning embers of our piety if not to fan that dying piety into a bursting fire.

Of particular interest is our desire to receive Christ in communion, which practically constitutes the summit of our love for him here on earth. We can formulate some acts of spiritual communion to keep that desire burning and to prepare us adequately to receive him in actual communion.

We really need to be always in this state of burning desire in spite of the condition of our body. As said earlier, it is first of all a matter of exercising our spiritual faculties to ask for the grace of fervent love. Let us hope that we know how to do this. We can only expect many good things that can come from this, in spite of the varying conditions and situations in our life, many of them, quite adverse to our spiritual health.

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com