“The poor you will always have with you. . . “(Matthew 26:11a).
Poverty is like a black hole in the space of humanity. This dark darkness of poverty among us, around us, has a gravitational pull on one side. We are therefore attracted by the inherent forces of poverty to help those who compose it through the power of personal interest. The black hole of poverty simultaneously gives off a magnetic repulsion on the other hand. We are revolted by its potential to discover our own pretense. We therefore bounce with the relief of the gravitational field.
Yet the prolific darkness of poverty grows like cancer cells. What are we doing?
Mary anointing Jesus: an act of lavish love or wasted relief of the poor?
In John 12:1-8, the traitor, Judas Iscariot, the treasurer of the disciples, reproached Mary for anointing Jesus’ feet with costly perfume. Judas expressed a vision of the Church and poverty that was not based on biblical theology. Instead, Judas’ comments were a response of naughty self-interest. But Jesus defended Mary’s generous expression of love: “Leave her alone.”
Lavish love costs everything. Gifts to God, for example in the areas of art, architecture, evangelistic missions, education and music, do not conflict with the simultaneous obligation to give for the relief of poor. We give to God for God’s sake. At the same time, sincere expression of our love and worship of Jesus Christ in other forms does not diminish the responsibility to care for the poor.
We might suppose that our charitable response to poverty brings some comforting spiritual merit. Or, we might consider that our fair acts of charity toward those in poverty have the power to erase our past sins of commission or omission. Of course, acts of charity towards those in poverty do not impute either Justice nor remove sin.
How should Christians respond to poverty?
Poverty is a scourge that demands our attention. In most cases, this requires backup resources. Yet poverty is an incredibly voracious beast. The nature of poverty possesses a sinister and insatiable hunger for the resources of others. Thus, poverty is like a deadly disease that can infect those who seek to treat its devastating symptoms.
Our charity toward the poor can serve as a memorial to our own miserable past. In such cases, our memorial stones for our merciful escape from poverty are erected on the backs of God’s other children, crushing them; their own dignity which bleeds from humanity. When we give to the poor without recognizing the image of God in them, we inevitably cause the poor to become our unwilling sacrifice to Ba’al.
Economic poverty in others can make us uncomfortable with spiritual poverty in ourselves. It is interesting that self is so complicit in cases of poverty.
We need a theology of poverty based on Bible in order to serve the poor without perpetuating the dehumanizing byproducts of poverty.
Here are three essential questions from Sacred Scripture that will help us arrive at a theology of poverty. This catechetical approach to the subject “The Bible and poverty” allows us to respond more faithfully to God in our personal, pastoral and ecclesial relationships with people in need.
Rather than expound on each of these points, I invite my dear reader to consider the answers to the questions in your own life, your own family, your own church, and your own community.
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