Power of Poverty

Embracing poverty in order to preach the Good news

07/15/2018

Mark 6:7-13 Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick— no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers during my family vacation to India for the past two weeks. Let me give you a little taste of India. We wrapped our lips around delicious Indian delicacies like chicken curry and masala dosa. We rode around in 3-wheelers called “auto-rickshaws” and even though traffic was terrible, the cars parted around sacred cows in the road like the waters parted before Moses’s sacred staff. And one day we were walking along a road and a menacing male monkey came up threateningly to my 10-year old niece, Rebecca. It scared us. And like any loving uncle, I said, “Don’t move! I’m going to back up so I can get a good picture of both of you!” After all, my people need me back in Fort Smith.

But the most poignant part of our trip was seeing all the dire poverty. We saw one man with only one leg scooting along on a skateboard with a tin can begging for alms. My niece saw one mother washing her baby with rain water from the run-off of the street. And lots and lots of people were sleeping outside. I began to experience how poverty is a powerful motivator and tugs at the hearts of conscientious people to do one of two things. Most people respond to abject poverty by trying to alleviate it, by giving alms or provide some other assistance. But others see poverty as an invitation to join those who are suffering, a sign of solidarity with the poor, as if to say, “you do not suffer alone.”

One day a mother brought her unruly and rambunctious child to Mahatma Gandhi and asked his advice. After a few moments of discussion, Gandhi said, “I know what’s wrong with him. Come back in one month and I will tell you.” The puzzled mother left and returned after one month. Gandhi answered: “Your child has too much sugar in his diet. He must stop eating sweets.” The mother asked: “Why didn’t you tell me this one month ago?” Gandhi smiled and answered: “One month ago, I had not given up eating sweets.” Gandhi wanted to practice what he preached, especially poverty. If he was going to tell the child to be poor in sweets – give up candy – then he would be poor in sweets first. Gandhi was great because he showed solidarity with the poor; they knew they did not suffer alone.

Jesus wants his apostles also to practice poverty as they preach the gospel. In this way the apostles would awaken in others that two-fold desire either to alleviate their necessity, or even to join them in their journey of faith. We read in Mark 6: “Jesus instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” It’s as if he were saying, “When people see your poverty, they will open their homes to take care of you, and more importantly, they will open their hearts to your message. Poverty has an irresistible evangelical pull that draws people to the Good News of Jesus like bees are drawn to honey. The reason millions of poor Indians followed Gandhi was not only because of his oratorical skills – he certainly had those – but above all because he walked in solidarity with the poor. He became poor in sweets before he instructed a child to give up sweets, and Jesus teaches his apostles to do the same regarding poverty of the world’s goods.

My friends, we don’t have to travel half way around the world to see the poor. There is plenty of poverty right here in our own community. Last week Dc. Greg spoke about the first response of conscientious people to poverty, namely, make a donation in order to palliate a little of their pain. Today, I’d like to suggest some examples of the second response; that is, solidarity with the poor. Specifically, I’d like you to consider walking with the poor in terms of poverty of time, poverty of food, and poverty of sex. We will never convince the world of the Good News of Christ until we obey Jesus’ injunction to “take nothing for the journey but a walking stick.”

First poverty of time. You may already think you are “time poor” with not enough hours in the day to do everything you’ve planned. But I urge you to give even more of your precious little time to those in need, particularly those right around you like your family. When Bishop Sartain was bishop of Little Rock, he always seemed to have time to talk to me, and never seemed too busy. I remember thinking, “Man, I’d like to be a bishop someday – they don’t have anything to do all day but talk to people!” But I’ve learned that he was willing to become poor in time – have less time for himself – so he could make me rich with his time. Give to the poor some of your time.

Secondly, poverty of food. Are your eyes bigger than your stomach when you sit down for supper? When I saw all the people who seemed emaciated and perhaps even starving in India, I became very self-conscious of how much food I pile on my plate and then end up throwing away. A priest once told me that you should always get up from the table a little bit hungry, which is not only good for losing a little weight, but also helpful in walking in solidarity with the poor. Like Gandhi, we should not suggest someone else make sacrifices without carrying the cross ourselves; those who don’t have enough to eat know they are not alone.

Thirdly, poverty of sex. I apologize if this topic strikes you as inappropriate for church, but it too is part of the Good News, more precisely, practicing the virtue of purity. The Church’s stance on sex – no contraception, no premarital sex, no homosexual sex, etc. – seems to elicit the greatest guffaw from modern Americans, and perhaps for that reason, deserves all the more to be mentioned. In a sex-saturated culture like ours it seems ludicrous and laughable to suggest that we tame our sexual appetites. Who does that? Pope St. John Paul II explained that the virtue of purity or chastity requires self-mastery, or self-sacrifice. When we sacrifice sex, becoming poor in sex, we join in solidarity with the divorced, with the widowed, with the single people, and even with Catholic priests! When we give up a little sex, we tell those who do not enjoy that privilege they are not alone.

There’s a story about Mahatma Gandhi that is probably apocryphal but may well be true. He once reportedly said: “I would have become a Christian, if I had ever met a real one.” Maybe we would be more authentic Christians, and consequently convert more people to Christianity, if we practiced poverty like both Gandhi and Jesus taught and “take nothing for the journey.” How different the world would be if Gandhi had become a Roman Catholic.

Praised be Jesus Christ!