First Conference – Poverty & Hope

I. Under the old practice of professing vows, never was the vow of poverty made, because lay Carmelites could not realistically renounce ownership and still be able to fulfill the obligations of their state in life or support themselves in the world, but they were told to live the spirit of poverty – to be poor in spirit as the beatitudes suggest. Now, the promise is to live in the spirit of the evangelical counsels of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, all three. At this time I would like to talk about poverty and its relationship to the virtue of Hope.

II. One of the things every human being needs more than anything is a “sense of security”. A sense of security is the knowledge we have that no matter what our needs are or when we experience them; no matter what our obligations or responsibilities are, we will always have the resources on hand to have our needs satisfied, to fulfill our obligations and to discharge our responsibilities. If we do not have that “sense” of security, then we panic, we suffer severe anxiety and anguish of soul. It can put one into deep depression and cause a kind of spiritual paralysis. Most of us have never had that experience of panic and that anguish. The closest I ever came to it was when I was dreaming that I was a space explorer, exploring the region near the sun, when all of a sudden the sun went out – instinctively I felt terrible panic – instantaneous, no reasoning involved. After all, without the sun, there would be no life on earth. You can all imagine that to understand how having the assurance always available whatever resources we need at a given time is essential to our mental health, our emotional well being. Anyway, poverty is related to that, and Hope is related to poverty. I’m speaking about the supernatural gift of Hope, the Theological Virtue.

III. We have a special name for the state of being in which we have that “sense of security” – we call it “morale”. If our morale is good, there isn’t any difficulty or problem that arises that we can’t overcome or resolve. Without good morale, nothing is done. Generals of armies at war are most concerned about the morale of the troops. If the soldiers’ morale is good, the general feels that victory is assured, and he can proceed confidently and with every expectation of gaining the victory. In spiritual matters, in what pertains to the life of our soul, what pertains to our eternal salvation, what pertains to being faithful to all the obligations we have as Christians in our state of life and in our vocation as Carmelites, the morale we need is provided by the supernatural virtue of Hope, a gift of God.

IV. But poverty also has a certain relationship with morale, and it differs in regard to mere human needs and responsibilities, and in regard to supernatural needs and obligations, those pertaining to human life – the life of the body and psychic life, - and those pertaining to our spiritual life, the life of grace in our souls – our life as children of God. Poverty destroys morale as regards the merely earthly aspect of our lives, but it is the best guarantee of good morale as regards the other-worldly aspect of our lives – our sharing in the life of God by grace. But it is Hope that enables us to have morale in the case of poverty.

V. Conversely – money is the best guarantee of good morale in regard to our bodily life and our natural psychic life while it can be the greatest threat to our spiritual life and the life of grace in our souls. As Jesus said: How difficult it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven, that is to save his soul. Of course, Jesus refers to an attachment to money – equivalent as taking money to be one’s god. “You cannot serve God and Money.”

VI. Now we know that we have many different kinds of needs about which we need a sense of security. We have many obligations about which we need a sense of security, that is, to have the means to fill them. And most of them pertain to our “ego”, our “psyche”. The thing that is dangerous about money is that we tend to believe that money can buy everything and anything. Having money makes us feel important: a psychic need. It causes us to have an adequate influence and control of the world about us: a psychic need. It enables us to have friends and companionship: a psychic need. It amply supplies for all our bodily needs for food and clothing, shelter and for diversion and recreation: a combined bodily and psychic need. So really, money is great for merely natural morale – morale about mere earthly existence. Money can buy also the things we need from a psychic point of view in regard to our mere earthly life. We need intelligence, we need skills and abilities, and we need to present a good appearance. If we don’t have any of them, we can buy these services of intelligent, skilled and able people – and we can buy the attention and affection of the “beautiful” people. In other words, money makes us feel we are totally independent and self-sufficient. It makes us feel we don’t need anybody or anything other than our money. At least, that is what rich people easily can begin to think. That is why money is a threat to the life of grace. “Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Little children have no resources. Yet all their needs are satisfied – provided, of course, they have loving parents. It is the love of their parents; the provident care of their parents that gives little children morale. When we are poor in spirit; when we turn and become like little children – hope puts us in touch with the love of God and the provident care of God, and that gives us our morale and best guarantee that we will save our souls, that we will attain the holiness we have determined to attain through following our Rule of Life as Carmelites.

VII. Hope then puts us in touch with the loving Providence of God who is all wise and all powerful: His power is at the service of His Wisdom and His Wisdom is at the service of His Love. Then all our reliance is upon God and we no longer rely upon ourselves or our personal talents and resources. Therefore, St. John of the Cross says that Hope purifies our memory. We can say that our memory is purified when we no longer remember our personal human talents, our human abilities and human resources as being reliable in bringing us to salvation and union with God, but we remember those things that truly we can rely upon in order to attain blessedness. Jesus gives us a list of them in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor of spirit, - which contains them all – Blessed are the meek, blessed are the pure of heart, blessed are those who mourn – are suffering, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice – who are deprived of what is rightfully owed a person as a human being, blessed are the merciful and blessed are those persecuted for the Gospel’s sake – because of holiness of life. These things do not bring power and prosperity, wealth and influence and therefore do not bring worldly gratification and success. But they do bring eternal happiness – they do attract the attention and the grace and support of God. “The Lord hears the cry of the poor” – those who are deprived of worldly resources and those who are not attached to worldly resources, who see that no mere human wealth or power or ability can cause our salvation, our union with God. St. Therese is the best example of how Hope purifies the memory: She says, the greatest grace God gave me was to make me understand and by myself I am utterly unable to attain the Holiness I desire. The elevator that will raise me to the highest sanctity are your arms, O Jesus! Therefore, I must only remain small, I must become smaller still.

VIII. The memory is the arsenal where we store the remembrance of the spiritual weapons to use in overcoming all the obstacles to our life of grace and our advancement to deeper union with God. When our arsenal is filled with the things Jesus says makes us blessed: weakness in the eyes of the world; foolish in the eyes of the world; meekness and humility of heart, the remembrance of undeserved sufferings and trials; the awareness of our sins, that we are sinners, these feed our confidence and reliance upon God, upon Jesus, who saves sinners, not those righteous and just in their own estimation.

IX. Hence we see the reason why Hope is a supernatural gift; it gives us a super-human power; enables us to have good morale and enthusiasm and zest for our daily carrying of our crosses: From the natural point of view, littleness, powerlessness, being at the mercy of forces beyond our control: those cause discouragement and even depression, the very opposite of good morale. We do well as a means to purify our memory and keep it pure by remembering the experience of St. Paul, who wanted to be delivered from the buffeting he experiences at the hands of an angel of Satan. Our Lord told him: My grace is enough, for in weakness power is perfected. And then Paul himself could say: God forbid that I glory in anything except the Cross of Jesus Christ, by which I am crucified to the world, and the world to me.

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