VERBUM SERAPHICUM
PAX ET BONUM OCTOBER -- 2000 A. D. AVE MARIA
"If thou wilt
be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,
. . . and come follow Me." Matthew 19:21
|
INTRODUCTION This is the seventh issue of VERBUM SERAPHICUM: a newsletter for vocations to traditional Franciscan life. The purpose of this publication is to provide information that assists in the discernment of a supernatural vocation to religious life and to the priesthood. O Mary, Mediatrix of every Grace, pray for us! The Poverty of Christ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King shall come to thee, the Just and Savior: He is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. (Zach 9:9) Thus did the Prophet Zachariah foretell the poverty of the Messiah: a truth so dear to the Triune God, that the Holy Spirit made it known beforehand to the people of Israel. When at last He came unto His own. His authority and wisdom as a Teacher of Righteousness was so evident that disciples flocked to Him from all sides. Then was the poverty of the Master evident, as St. Matthew writes: And a certain scribe came, and said to Him: Master, I will follow thee withersoever thou shalt go. And Jesus said to him: The foxes have dens, and the birds of heaven nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head. (Mt 8:19-20) The poverty of Christ is a most sacred thing: a spiritual mystery and as it were a sacrament. One can see its power to manifest the hidden intentions of hearts, for as St. Mark writes: And when He was gone forth upon the road, a certain man running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting? And Jesus said to him: Why callest thou Me good? . . . And Jesus looking on him, with love, and said to him: One thing is wanting thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come follow me. Who being struck sad at that saying went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. (Mk 10:17-22) |
Possessions weigh down the soul and turn it away from the joy of the Kingdom and from that perfect discipleship of Christ which is the religious life. Indeed, no one truly set on the riches of Heaven allows temporal goods to turn him aside from his path. For salvation consists in the love of God for His own sake, to which the love of creatures for their own sake is irreconcilably opposed. To teach the way to Heaven, Christ taught the way of poverty. St. Paul says: For you know the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that being rich, He became poor, for your sakes; that through His poverty you might be rich. (2 Cor 8:9) He was born in poverty: in a grotto, placed in a manger, wrapped in poor garments (Lk 2:11-12) He did not have the opportunity of an education (Jn 7:15) And when He went to the Cross all He had to give away was the seamless garment which covered His Body and His own Mother. (Jn 19) He traveled on foot and when once he rode, he rode on an ass, not even a horse. Christ not only taught poverty by His deeds; but also exhorted us to poverty. Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. (Mt 19:21-24) And again, He teaches: Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth, where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. (Mt. 19:19) And He declares that the one who seeks riches cannot grow rich in grace: So he is that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. (Lk 12:16-21) For, No man can serve two masters. For either he will hast the one, and love the other, or he will endure the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Mt 6:24) Indeed St. Paul warns us: But they that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and to perdition. For the desire for money is the root of all evils; which some coveting, have erred from the Faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows. (1 Tim 6:9-10) St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! |
VERBUM SERAPHICUM
PAX ET BONUM OCTOBER -- 2000 A. D. AVE MARIA
"If thou wilt
be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,
. . . and come follow Me." Matthew 19:21
|
Therefore, Our Lord, who desires so much that we share in true joy, in grace and in the way to salvation, exhorts us: Sell what you possess, and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in Heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth. (Lk 12:33) How amazing it is, that so many confess the Divinity of Christ, but so few are willing to profess the poverty of God! Is this not unreasonable? It is reasonable, if the believer is seeking not God but rather himself; his own comfort and benefit and not the honor and glory of God, which consists rather in a life of evangelical perfection and the quest for the salvation of souls. The great power and efficacy and utility of poverty is derived from the love of God for His own sake. For to love God primarily for His own sake, and not primarily for one's gain, is to subordinate all temporal goods to eternal goods, and all eternal goods to the will of God for me. Thus have the Saints manifested their devotion and loyalty to Jesus Christ Our God. They sought not themselves; and so they sought not money nor property nor conveniences. They understood that they ought to Give freely what you have received freely. Indeed it is supremely unreasonable to trust in possessions of any kind. For riches are not omnipotent; but he who trusts in God, trust in the omnipotent. And money cannot do all things; but the grace of God, which is so much more able to convince our neighbor to do the will of God, than money is able to buy a thing, this grace of God is the true currency of the Kingdom, the true source of riches and divinization in Christ. And thus is manifest the folly of those who trust in riches, in money, and in possession. Religious do a disservice to Christ and His Church when they limit their service of Christ and His people by attachment to wealth and property and money. How great has been the scandal of avarice among religious and the clergy throughout the history of the Church! How many souls have been lost because of the scandal of avaricious men, who ought to have served God and not mammon! Published by The Franciscan Archive |
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us! Alas, their number is too great to count! To put an end to this scandal, Christ sent the Apostles into the world poor: Take nothing with you one the way: neither gold nor silver, nor two tunics, nor a traveling bag, nor a walking stick, nor sandals . . . (Mt 10:10; Mk 6:8; Lk 9:3 & 10:4). To remind the whole Church of the necessity and utility of poverty, Christ sent St. Francis into the world to proclaim the poverty of Christ by deeds. St. Francis owned only one tunic; he went around barefoot; he renounced his inheritance; he forsook the ownership of all things; he forsook especially money; and had nothing to do with it: calling coins "worthless flies" and money "the deceit of the devil," St. Francis precepted in the Rule, with an command to be observed inviolably, poverty in common and poverty in person; and the non-use of money. (Chapters 1, 2 & 4) Indeed, to emphasize the primacy of poverty in the Franciscan charism, Pope St. Innocent XI said in his motu proprio Sollicitudo pastoralis that the non-use of money is "the chief precept of the Rule". If the Church has become poor in spiritual goods to a certain extent in our day, with the falling away of so many from the Faith, of so many from the clergy, of so many from religious life; of so many from virtue and from the state of grace, certainly Franciscans ought to call them back to repentance by living the poverty of Christ. Christ gave us to the world to proclaim His poverty! He did this that we might lead men to Christ, to His Church, and to holiness of life, which consists in loving God for His own sake primarily, and in subordinating all thing to this love. We need not fear because the poverty of Christ has a miraculous power to save souls. As St. Peter said to the man born lame, sitting at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple: Gold and silver we have not; but what we have we give you: in the Name of the Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk! (Acts 3:6) The poverty of Christ sets the heart free from inordinate love of creatures. It keeps the religious safe from satisfying his inordinate desires. It directs the Friar Minor to seek first the Kingdom of God, wherein all good things shall be added unto him. |