Of Three Degrees of Poverty

THE saints and masters of spiritual life lay down three degrees of poverty. The first is that of those who outwardly have left the things of the world, but not inwardly; they have not left them with their will, but remain attached to them. Of such we have already said that they are not truly poor, but pretenders to poverty, and falsely bear the name of religious. The second degree of poverty is of those who have left all things in effect and will, and also here in religion have given up affection for superfluities, but hold strongly by necessary things. They take care that nothing be wanting to them of which they stand in need. They like to be well served all round, in food, dress, lodging, and everything else, and when anything is wanting there, they resent it and complain. That is not perfect poverty. St. Bernard says very well: “It is a sad thing to see how many there are today who glory in the name of poverty, but wish to be poor on such terms as never to be short of anything, but to have everything well up to the mark. This is not poverty but riches, and indeed riches so great as even rich folk in the world have not.” For they suffer many inconveniences in these things, sometimes for not getting all they want; at other times, to save expense, they suffer more than we do for love of virtue; at other times, though they have the money and spend it, they do not succeed in making their servants do everything to their taste. And you a religious, you who profess poverty and have made a vow of the same, you want never to feel the pinch of necessity or suffer anything! This is not being a lover of poverty, but a lover of your own conveniences and of having all things up to the mark. There in the world perhaps you would have had much more to go without. It is not right that here in religion, where we come to mortify ourselves and do penance, we should seek more comfort and more conveniences than what we had there.

If, then, we wish to attain to the perfection of this poverty of spirit, and realize to the full the name of religious, bringing our life into accordance with the name that we bear, we must endeavor to move on to the third degree of poverty, which is poverty of necessary things; “for he who is truly poor makes little account even of what is necessary”—vere enim pauper etiam necessaria parvi pendit. We must give up any affection, not only for things superfluous and useless, but also for necessaries, so that in them also we should be poor and show in them an affection and desire for poverty. And now that we cannot dispense with and abandon them altogether, at least let us take what is “necessary” charily and strictly, reducing it to the narrowest compass we can, rather than extending it and giving it liberal measure, rejoicing always to suffer something herein for love of poverty. A saint says it is only then praiseworthy to be a poor man when, besides being very poor, one loves the poverty one suffers and rejoices in it and gladly bears the shortages that go with it for love of Christ. He, then, who wishes to see whether he is poor in spirit and is advancing in that virtue, should see whether he rejoices in the effects of poverty and her friends and companions, which are hunger, thirst, cold, weariness, nakedness. See whether you rejoice in an old garment and a patched shoe; see whether you rejoice when you miss something at table and they forget you, or things are not served so much to your taste; see whether you rejoice when your room is not so comfortable; for if you do not rejoice in these things and love them not, but rather shun them, you have not attained to the perfection of poverty in spirit. This point we shall further enlarge upon.