materialism

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The Poor are Not Necessarily the Needy

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”- Matthew 5:3

The more we work with the homeless and the poor, the more we realize that being poor is not synonymous with being needy. I think the verse above sums up what I mean by needy perfectly; it is to be poor in spirit. Many of the poor are not necessarily poor in spirit: they are just poor in resources. Christian Ministry is not about ensuring that the poor have resources to become wealthy; it is about discovering the path of true happiness.

It is obvious that we live in a materialistic world. There might be cultures that are less materialistic than others, but eventually the internet will convince them of the vast array of material possessions they need to have before they die. People want or desire to accumulate wealth for one reason. They think that wealth can give them more control of the outcome of their personal happiness. It is really about control. We love to be in control and consequently we love the thing that gives us control.

The love of money has become the goal of society. The rich and middle class send their children to expensive private schools and colleges to obtain successful careers enabling them to become materially wealthy. The poor try to use their limited resources to acquire material possessions but this only drives them to debt and greater poverty. Some of the poor use the negative resources available to them such as violence and criminality to achieve this aim. This is not to say that the rich are not criminals. They just have more resources to exhaust before reaching this point, unlike the poor.

The children and teens living in the streets are no different from the teenagers from the middle class society. They want money to buy the latest iPhone. They want to have tablets and dress in the latest styles. They might be poor but they want control. They want to have the control to determine their happiness and they believe that money and material possessions give them this control. As long as they desire this control over their happiness, they will never be poor in spirit. They will just be poor in resources. Giving them resources at this point is not the same as pointing the way to happiness. It is just helping them to become miserable rich teenagers.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?-Matthew 16:26

The point where the poor become poor in spirit or needy is when they decide to pursue different goals than the rest of society. This is where the gospel comes in. The gospel gives us two options in regards of the pursuit of money.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”-Matthew 6:24

Mammon is our way of controlling our perceived happiness and the gospel says that we have to give up this pursuit and see the true path to Happiness. We tell teenagers who are in prison or dealing drugs in the streets to give up their source of income and settle for the evangelical happiness. For most of them, this means embracing a life of poverty without any resources for materialistic living. In this society, the kind of jobs available to them will be low paying jobs. They can educate themselves but most of them won’t have the time or money to do this. They will most likely never own a house or a car. They will struggle to pay rent every month. They will be truly needy as they will have to give up the pursuit of wealth as their goal. Before they can make this bold step towards becoming poor in spirit they need to be sure that material wealth does not contribute to their happiness. They have to see that those who preach the gospel are practicing what they preach. This is not just us, but everyone who preaches the gospel. We need to learn to be needy as well. We need to make sure that we don’t accumulate wealth to gain control of something is beyond our control. We need to realize that only those who give up their control to seek happiness will find it in the One who possesses it.

 

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From Water to Spirit and Truth

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)-John 4:9

This woman went to the well late. Usually one would draw water first thing in the morning, but she went at noon time. She was alone at the well and most likely she wanted to be alone. She had good reasons to do this. It was better this way. She chose to separate herself from others voluntarily. However, Jesus disrupted her plans.

The conversation between them is really interesting. They were both talking at different levels. Jesus initiated the conversation at the material level and brought it up from there. She was trying to keep things at a material level. She wanted to keep the conversation on the subject of water. Water was just an excuse the Lord used to bring this woman to new level of spirituality. Jesus wanted to her to become a true worshiper.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.-John 4:23-24

This verse above is the heart of the story. In order to get to this point, it was necessary for this woman to recognize that Jesus had something to give. However, Jesus could not give her anything until she was willing to face the Truth about herself. And she did. She confessed that she had five husbands and was presently in an adulterous relationship. This was why she went to the well late. It was not because she was a Samaritan. They were in Samaritan city and there was no need for them to hide from the Jews. However, her circumstances made her an outcast among a people who were already marginalized. She was considered the lowest of the lowest. Yet, she was the person with whom Jesus chose to share the Truth. She was not ready for it until she admitted to him why she was marginalized. The surprising twist is that Jesus did not dwell on this. He just wanted her to know that He knew about her life and this did not change His mind. She was still His candidate to become a true worshiper.

Jesus started the conversation with water and brought the conversation level up to true meaning of worship. He really knows how to talk up. It started with water, one of the basic material elements and the discussion went on to speak about the essence of God being Spirit. Today the conversations in the Church seem to go the other way round. It seems like everything is being reduced to materialistic notions. Success is gauged on materialistic standards. Today the person that Christians want to emulate is no longer the saint who embraced poverty but the financially successful businessman. I know a group of Christians who skipped an important Church service to attend a talk on how to become a millionaire in five years. If they were at the well with Jesus, they would left Him there and went to this conference. 

In the church, we are still talking about water when Jesus wants to take the conversation upwards to worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. We will never hear the words of Jesus unless we are willing to leave behind our materialistic desires. We cannot have the best both worlds. For the true worshiper, only knowing how to worship in Spirit and Truth can satisfy the soul.

In our ministry, we see the failure of the materialistic mindset. It is not a compassionate mindset. It is a mindset that does not have room for mistakes or failures. Jesus approached a woman who was considered a failure in this world. She failed five times in her marriages and yet she was His choice to be a true worshiper.  God is Spirit and He is not confined by our materialistic notions of success or failure. He is defined by one thing and one thing only. St. John tells us that God is Love. Love is the standard by which God defines a successful person. It is the standard by which we learn to become true worshipers of God.

 

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Abundant Life or Comfortable Life?

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.- John 10:10

In my last post I mentioned a family we recently visited. This is the family of Maicon whom the team met in the streets. Maicon was incarcerated briefly in the juvenile detention center which gave him time to reconsider his life choices. Upon his release, Maicon returned to his house in the slums, a tiny shack for family of six with no running water or electricity. There was no bathroom.  Our team members visited Maicon and sensed that he was not going to last long at home. Within a few weeks, Maicon ran away from home and started getting involved with the local drug dealers. To make matters worse, some of the neighbors of Maicon’s family were trying to drive out his family so that they could occupy their space. His father’s life was threatened and he decided to move to another place. The father is hardworking man but he was disabled due to illness. He sold soft drinks in the streets to make ends meet but he did not make enough to rent a place. He sought the local social agencies for assistance. Unfortunately, this family did not meet the qualifications for the social programs for the present moment. The situation was becoming desperate when the drug lords in the neighborhood offered the father a place to squat in an old abandoned house. The father is an honest man and agreed to accept the offer out of desperation but only on the condition that he was not going to be involved in any shape or form with the drug operations. Most drug dealers have a “Robin Hood” complex here and they gave him their word that they would not expect anything in return. In reality, they don’t have to expect anything in return because three of their older children are already involved in the drug culture.

We visited this family in their new home just before Christmas. It was abandoned house that was dark and musty but it had two bedrooms and a bathroom. There was electricity but no running water. However, they could get water easily next door. Unfortunately, the house next to them is where the drug dealers do their business. The remaining children in this family are from ages 7 to 10. The 10 year old is girl. This house is terrible but it was a step up for them. They had privacy. They had a bathroom.

Mary with the Family

Mary with the Family

Abundant life is something greater than possessions. This family in a certain sense might be better off than some wealthy people. They know that they do not have abundant life yet. Many of us are blinded by false securities and hope but we think that we have it all. Most of the crack addicts think that they found everything they want in crack cocaine. Crack cocaine is their escape from reality. For others, materialism and other more accepted drugs are a way of escape.

I realized that our understanding of salvation is incomplete. Salvation cannot mean one thing for me and another things for someone else. This family has something to teach us about the meaning of salvation. They are able to face the harsh reality of life without giving up hope. They have hope. They see their hope materialized in things that we take for granted. We have something to teach them as well. We are both on the quest to discover the meaning of abundant life. I believe that God has brought us together so that we discover its meaning together.

 

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