10 — VOLUNTARY POVERTY

Presence of God. — O Lord, deign to show me the treasures hidden in voluntary poverty and the duties that flow from it.

Meditation

1 — St. Thomas teaches that to reach perfection of charity it is required to detach the heart as much as possible from the things of the world, so as to concentrate in God all one’s affections. “Now, he who possesses temporal things, by the very fact that he possesses them is drawn to love them... This is why the first foundation for acquiring perfect charity is voluntary poverty, when one lives possessing nothing as one’s own, as the Master says in St. Matthew: ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give to the poor, come and follow Me’” (II-II, q. 186, a. 3).

This is lived in a particular way in religious life through the vow of poverty. But consecrated souls who live in the world, if they want to tend to perfection, must also embrace voluntary poverty. The Church makes it obligatory for all secular institutes; precisely because the state of perfection requires a serious commitment to poverty, the members of such institutes must make a “vow or promise of poverty, by which they do not have free use of temporal goods” (Apostolic Constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia). The essence of voluntary poverty consists precisely in this renunciation of the free and independent use of temporal goods. In fact, only one who renounces using earthly goods freely can, as St. Thomas says, live “without possessing anything as his own.” And in this way he reaches the freedom necessary to follow Jesus on the way of perfection.

2 — If you have made profession of voluntary poverty, reflect that you have lost the freedom to use temporal things as you please.

Even if the rules of your institute allow you to possess certain goods, you can no longer use them as a master: the vow of poverty has taken away this power. Of your own will, then, you cannot dispose of anything, not even things necessary for life, but in everything you must regulate yourself according to the norms of your constitutions and depend on your superiors.

Not all the rules of the various Orders, religious institutes, or secular institutes are equally severe regarding the use of temporal goods: some, very strict, forbid free use even of the smallest things that have monetary value; others, broader, leave greater freedom. But if you want to practice your vow perfectly, adopt the rule of never using and disposing of anything with a spirit of ownership. The more you know how to live truly as if you possessed nothing, not even a book or a garment or a piece of bread, the more you will become like Jesus and will be free to follow Him until you are admitted among His intimates.

Another consequence deriving from the vow or promise of voluntary poverty is to embrace spontaneously, for love of God, living conditions similar to those of the truly poor. The poor man is forced to do without comforts, must economize, must work to live.

You, by exercise of virtue, must spontaneously and willingly renounce the superfluous and comforts, you must allow yourself no waste, and you must moreover submit yourself to a life of assiduous work. And this not from a spirit of avarice, not from love of gain, but for exercise of virtue.

If then, at times, you should lack something necessary, thank the Lord who thus gives you the finest opportunity to live as a true poor person.

Colloquy

O Lord, how great are the treasures enclosed in holy poverty!

“Poverty is a good that encloses in itself all the goods of the world, confers universal dominion and makes us masters of all the goods of the earth, because it makes us despise them. What do kings and lords matter to me, in fact, if I do not know what to do with their riches, if in order to please them I might come to offend You, even in the least thing, O my God? And what interest have I in their honors, if I am convinced that the greatest honor for a poor person is to be one truly?... True poverty, the one embraced for love of You, O Lord, carries with it an honor so great that it imposes itself on all, because it cares for nothing but pleasing You” (T.G. Cam. 2, 5-6).

O Lord, praise be to You who granted me to embrace holy poverty, which frees me from every material care and emancipates me from every earthly slavery! Thus I, a miserable creature, have the great honor of serving You alone, King of heaven and earth.

O Lord, grant me to keep intact the sweet bonds of holy poverty, which tear me from earth in order to bind me to You. Make it so that, in conformity with the commitments taken in my profession, poverty may truly be “the motto of my banner and that I observe it everywhere: in the house, in clothing, in words and much more in thought” (ibid., 8). Yes, even in thought, so that my desires may no longer return, not even fleetingly, to what I left for love of You.

I understand and confess it, my God: every time I have complained of some privation or discomfort, that I have regretted a better treatment, that I have desired an easier life, every time I have been demanding, I have moved away from the ideal and from the effective practice of voluntary poverty. In this way I have also moved away from You and returned to the slavery of material things. What madness, O Lord, to divide the heart between You, infinite richness, and the miserable nullities of earthly things!