Anyway, today I came across a passage from Matthew 6 about depending on God. I think that passage can be a great "explanation" for poverty. We'll get to that, and a few other verses, in a second. But, in the meantime, a picture.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan?...
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'
All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."
-Matthew 6:25-27, 31-34
I think this is one of those passages that we can sometimes use to justify our faults. "I don't have to work! It's in the Bible!" The problem with that is if you read this verse literally, you should also read any number of passages in Wisdom and Sirach that really don't look kindly upon sluggards...
No, this is not a biblical rationalization of laziness, but a call to abandonment. God provides a worm for every bird, but he doesn't drop it in their nest. Similarly, we must work for what we need. As St. Augustine said, "God provides the wind, but we must raise the sails."
God is calling us to rise above. The worldly person worries about things of this world: food, money, clothes...material things. We, who are above the world, must place our desires above it as well. We must "lift up our hearts to the Lord" and not dwell on earthly matters.
That's what poverty is about - rejecting materialism. Rejecting the idea of more. Rejecting the thought in society that says success is measured by how much you have. In Exodus, we find the Israelites on their march to the Promised Land. They're hungry. There were no Chick-fil-A's in the Egyptian desert of Antiquity. Nevertheless, God provided. He sent bread from heaven, and "When they measured it out by the omer, he who had gathered a large amount did not have too much, and he who had gathered a small amount did not have too little." (Ex. 16:18). God provided them just as much as they needed. Not too much, not too little. In fact, those who tried to stockpile the manna "became wormy and rotten" (16:20).
God is clear that he wants us to have "enough". At the feeding of the four thousand, everybody ate until they were filled. They did not try to eat until they were sick.
That's what poverty is - abandoning the rat race to get more and focus on more important things. Leave the things of this world to God so that we can spend our time doing things that are not of this world.
How can we apply this to our lives? I think Jesus meant more than just not to worry about food and clothes. We must rise above everything of this world. We are "in the world, but apart from it." What can we do? We can focus even more on living the Gospel in our lives every day. We can keep ourselves from getting too caught up in things. We can rise above.
God "lifts the needy from the ashes" (1 Samuel 2:7) and calls them to something greater: abandoning the world. "Seeking the Kingdom of Heaven"
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God - Luke 6:20
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