Interior Poverty

 

I wonder how many of us identify with the rich young man who asked Jesus, “Teacher, what good must I do to possess everlasting life?” (Matthew 19:16-22)   I know that I often ask that same question in prayer.

Jesus answered the young man’s question in two stages.  First, Jesus told him, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”  Jesus’ advice confirms that the commandments comprise the attitudes and actions that lead to life.  But Jesus distinguishes between “entering into life” and possessing fullness of life.  Obeying the commandments, which the young man has always done, puts us on the path of life; but it’s not enough to lead us into everlasting life.  That’s why in the second part of His answer Jesus said that if the young man truly seeks “perfection,” he must rid himself of his possessions and “give to the poor.”  In other words, if the rich young man truly wanted to cross the threshold into fullness of life by becoming the person God created him to be and that God’s grace, love, and goodness enabled him to be, he had to strip himself of anything that would prevent that from happening.  Because he couldn’t yet let go of a lesser good for the sake of a much greater good, the rich young man “went away sad.”  His attachment to wealth and possessions kept him from the wholehearted commitment to Christ that leads to fullness of life.

Jesus does call some people to literally sell all their possessions and give them away.  For those who answer this call, they discover great freedom in their detachment from all material belongings.  Their vocation is a sign to all of us of the radical interior calling we each have been given.  But what about the rest of us?  What is that radical interior calling given to us by our Lord?  It’s a calling to spiritual poverty.  By “spiritual poverty” we mean that each and every one of us is called to detach from the things of this world to the same extent as those called to literal poverty.  The only difference is that one calling is both interior and exterior, and the other calling is only interior.  But it must be just as radical.

What does interior poverty look like?  It’s a Beatitude; “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” as St. Matthew says (Matthew 5:3), and “Blessed are the poor,” as St. Luke says (Luke 6:20).  Spiritual poverty means we discover the blessing of spiritual riches in our detachment from the material enticements of this age.  Material “things” are not inherently evil.  That’s why it’s fine to have personal possessions.  But it’s quite common for us to also have a strong attachment to the things of this world.  Too often we want more and more and fall into the trap of thinking that more “things” will make us happy.  It’s not true and we know that deep down, but we still fall right into the trap of acting as if more money and possessions will satisfy.  There’s an old saying, “He who has money never has money enough.”

In the rich young man we meet ourselves because like him we’re afraid to relinquish whatever we love and trust and care for more than God.  Until that changes, we’ll spend our lives walking away sad.