Have you experienced poverty? How was it? In short, it was miserable. There is nothing more painful and sad than forced poverty. Happiness cannot be bought with money, but poverty also does not guarantee happiness. Rather, the insight that wealth brings happiness and poverty brings misfortune is more realistic. Camus even says that it is spiritual vanity to say that a poor person can be happy.
Recently, poverty experienced by presidential candidates has been used in their approach to the citizens. Does it mean that you know the situation of the socially disadvantaged well because one has experienced poverty? The writer hopes that happens! This is because poverty is a common problem that must be solved by working together. Poverty is passed down through generations endured with discrimination and oppression. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "hope belongs to the poor and humble of the Lord; be prepared and zealous to help the poor." The Catholic Church has traditionally expressed love for the poor (Option for the poor).
There are many statements about church and poverty. Among them, it is said that "the church must follow the path of poverty, obedience, service, and self-sacrifice that leads to death". But why should the Catholic Church go down the road of poverty? You need capital and financial resources to build, for efforts to love your neighbor, and continue programs that help the marginalized.
However, there is something that takes precedence. It's "to remain in a lowly position." When you get rich, you stay away from the poor. Also, if the church fails to be poor it loses its prophetic vocation, the right to speak of justice and fairness. So poverty is the way of the church.
It is certainly not easy for a community of faith to choose poverty while facing the temptation of prosperity and the misery of poverty at the same time. However, the long history of the Church has given us examples of poverty of those who gave up their wealth to serve God. The joy of the gospel does not lie in worldly prosperity. Rather, it springs from poverty and detachment. That joy flows down to the lowest places, like water flowing down, and becomes abundant grace for all.
Poverty and detachment are the paths through which grace flows and the path the church must follow. It is also the spiritual way chosen by those who want to make the Lord's way in the world. As we ponder social doctrine with our readers, we are increasingly convinced that Christian participation in society must be witnessed together with the joy of the Gospel. This is because only the joy of the gospel presents true love, faith, and hope, and leads to the right path of faith.
The writer reflects on what kind of poverty is hidden in this age of abundant affluence. Isn't that the life of knowing God and living as if not knowing Him? So is this not sad knowing the way to freedom and joy and still choosing to walk in the dark?
The poverty that is imposed and unjust the church must continue to eradicate with the help of society and work to show the beauty of the minimal life and the life of simplicity and the spirit of poverty. Pope Francis said that poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel such that "if we were to remove poverty from the Gospel, nothing would be understood of Jesus' message."
