Are You Wealthy?

One day, I was reading an article and I came across Madame Imelda’s theory on wealth: “my economic theory is that money was made round to go round.  Money was made to encircle man so that he would blossom with many flowers.  The whole trouble is, the center is money.  All the heads of people thinking about money.  All the hands of people reaching out for money.  All their poor little bodies working for money.  They are running, in all directions for money.” Research shows that craving material possessions can cause depression and anger (cf. Business World, 4-VII-01).  Material possession may give a person a sense of control through owning something, but research shows that materialism is negatively correlated with life satisfaction. (cf. Shaun Saunders, one of the authors of the report from the University of Newcastle, Australia).  "Money can't buy you love." One source of depression among dedicated consumers was the fact that the property they acquired tended to lose value quickly. If your self-worth is invested in what you own, as can be the case in our market-driven society, then these things may not hold their value for very long. In the first encyclical of Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Hominis (Redeemer of Humankind), he set out the following propositions, among others: materialism is the enslavement of the spirit.  Are you wealthy?  If yes, then be careful not to be attached to your wealth.  How does one knows if he is detached from his wealth and possessions?

 

Poverty is the virtue that facilitates having  a  heart for  God.   We need a free heart so that God can occupy  or  take over our whole heart. We need to live poverty because we want to imitate  Christ: poorer than a beggar. We want to be alter Christus, ipse Christus: another Christ or better yet, Christ Himself.   Our Lord gave  up  every­thing. He is the example of detachment and generosity. Jesus Christ, because he is God, was in need of nothing; but by becoming man he voluntarily despoiled himself of the splendor of his divinity and lived on earth as a poor man - from his birth in poverty in Bethlehem to his death on the cross; sometimes he did not even have the bare necessities of life. He could have chosen to be born in a palace but He  chose to  be born in a stable. And when He was dying on the Cross,  He had  nowhere to lay his head. 

To be ipse Christus, we have to imitate how Christ lived poverty.  The bonus odor Christi comes from poverty. Poverty is enriching. St John Chrysostom comments: "if you do not believe that poverty is enriching, picture your Lord and you will doubt me no longer. For had he not become poor, you could not have become rich. By a miracle which men cannot understand, poverty has produced these riches - the knowledge of God and godliness, liberation from sin, justification, sanctification, the countless good things which he has bestowed on us and will bestow on us in the future. All those things have accrued to us through his poverty - through his taking our flesh and becoming man and suffering what he suffered. And yet, unlike us, he did not deserve punishment and suffering." So, we have  to keep  alive  in us the life of our Lord. We should always be ready to leave everything in order to follow Jesus Christ. We have to check that the things that attract us, the things that we use, something of our own character, etc. are converted into a treasure  and we put our heart there. For all the souls to   fit into  our  heart,  we have to exert effort that it be empty  of material things.

In a book about the Blessed John Paul the Great  that I have read some years ago, there is a portion there that talks about his philosophy on what he calls the Law of the Gift: that we, men are continually struggling to be the persons that we are to the persons we ought to be. And that struggle can only be resolved by self-giving. The Pope said that it is in God the Holy Trinity, a "community" of self-giving "persons" who lose nothing of their uniqueness in their radical self-giving, that we see confirmed the Law of the Gift and the truth about freedom as freedom-for-self-donation. It is rather heavy but a good food for thought. The spirit of poverty and detachment from wealth is purely self-giving.

Since we began with a theory of wealth, we will also end with another theory on wealth.  I found this prayer of self-dedication to Jesus Christ  in the Daily Roman Missal: Lord Jesus Christ, take all my freedom, my memory, my understanding, and my will.  All that I have and cherish you have given me.  I surrender it all to be guided by your will.  Your grace and your love are wealth enough for me.  Give me these, Lord Jesus, and I ask for nothing more.