Jesus invites us to live simply
Surely poverty isn’t good. In fact the church has committed itself to trying to end poverty. So I always used to puzzle as to why Jesus said “Blessed are the poor.”
Now I begin to understand. St Matthew’s Gospel says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”
What do you suppose that means?
I’ve read various explanations of being ‘poor in spirit’, including the idea that if you realise and acknowledge to yourself and to God that you are not much good (poor) spiritually, then God is able to help you because you are humble enough to admit that you are not perfect and you are in need. Even if we have enough materially, our spirits are in poverty until they are enriched by the mercy and love of our Saviour.
I would not quarrel with that.
But there is another meaning which appeals to me. If a friend invites me to attend a special occasion, and I can’t go, I’m likely to say “I will be with you in spirit!” By this I mean “I’ll be thinking of you, just as if I were there.”
If we apply this meaning to ‘the poor in spirit’, it can also mean “I am not materially or financially poor like some people, but I can think about them and try to live ‘as if’ I had practically nothing, and give away as much as I can to those who are truly in need.
When John Taylor was Bishop of Winchester he wrote a book called ‘Enough is Enough’. He pointed out that we do not need many luxuries to live happy lives, and we can be contented with the necessities of life. This explains why so often you see smiles on the faces of really poor people in other countries. If they have enough to get through the week, they are happy!
In our western world, as we have seen very recently with the expenses scandal, even rich people may try to defraud their company or the government. This makes it even more important to take to heart our Lord’s words about true riches and true poverty.
Modern advertising appeals to human greed and envy to encourage us to buy things which we either do not need or can’t afford. ‘Buy now and pay later’ they say. Some children become obsessed with the urge to have designer clothes and footwear, and often their parents run into debt in the effort to give them what they want.
Debt is one of the most widespread of our present social evils. It seems to get worse and worse and often leads to marriage breakdown or even to crime. It seems so sad to me that this is so, and that it can often be avoided if we were willing to live more simply and give up our desire to have more and more things.
Oh yes, there is a lot to be said for the simple life and the contented mind! Jesus was right, as usual.
I think it would be great if we could encourage each other NOT to buy lots of things, and to send the money we might have spent to one of the many excellent charities that deals with debt counselling or acute poverty.
The poor really do! What do you think?
