How to practise real poverty in the midst of riches.
The painter Parrhasius painted the Athenian people in a very ingenious manner, representing them as changeable, frivolous, passionate, unjust, inconstant, courteous, merciful, generous, haughty, proud and humble, brave and timid, all at once. For my part, dear Philothea, I would likewise have wealth and poverty enter your heart together, a great care for temporal things and a great contempt of them.
Take much greater care to make your possessions useful and fruitful than even worldly people do. Tell me, are not the gardeners of great princes more diligent and zealous in cultivating and adorning the gardens entrusted to them than if they owned them? Why is this? Because, doubtless, they regard those gardens as the gardens of princes and kings, whom they wish to please by their good service. Philothea, the possessions we have are not our own; God has given them to us to cultivate; He wills that we make them prosper; and therefore, to take good care of them at all times is to render Him a service pleasing to Him. But this care must be greater and more steadfast than the care worldly people have for their fortunes; for they work only for love of themselves, whereas we must work for love of God. Now, just as self-love is a violent, anxious, and restless love, so the care that springs from it is full of trouble, worry, and hardship; and just as the love of God is gentle, peaceful, and calm, so the care it inspires, even when it is directed towards worldly possessions, is a loving, gentle, and gracious care. Let us therefore have this gracious care for the preservation, and I shall also say for the increase, of our temporal possessions, whenever some just occasion presents itself and our condition calls for it; for God wills that we use them thus for love of Him.
The painter Parrhasius painted the Athenian people in a very ingenious manner, representing them as changeable, frivolous, passionate, unjust, inconstant, courteous, merciful, generous, haughty, proud and humble, brave and timid, all at once. For my part, dear Philothea, I would likewise have wealth and poverty enter your heart together, a great care for temporal things and a great contempt of them.
Take much greater care to make your possessions useful and fruitful than even worldly people do. Tell me, are not the gardeners of great princes more diligent and zealous in cultivating and adorning the gardens entrusted to them than if they owned them? Why is this? Because, doubtless, they regard those gardens as the gardens of princes and kings, whom they wish to please by their good service. Philothea, the possessions we have are not our own; God has given them to us to cultivate; He wills that we make them prosper; and therefore, to take good care of them at all times is to render Him a service pleasing to Him. But this care must be greater and more steadfast than the care worldly people have for their fortunes; for they work only for love of themselves, whereas we must work for love of God. Now, just as self-love is a violent, anxious, and restless love, so the care that springs from it is full of trouble, worry, and hardship; and just as the love of God is gentle, peaceful, and calm, so the care it inspires, even when it is directed towards worldly possessions, is a loving, gentle, and gracious care. Let us therefore have this gracious care for the preservation, and I shall also say for the increase, of our temporal possessions, whenever some just occasion presents itself and our condition calls for it; for God wills that we use them thus for love of Him.
But take heed that self-love deceive you; for sometimes it so well counterfeits the love of God, that one would say it is He. Now, to prevent it from deceiving you, and this care for temporal goods from turning into avarice, besides what I said in the preceding chapter, it is necessary very often to practise real and effective poverty in the midst of all the goods and riches that God hath given us. Therefore always renounce some part of your possessions, giving them with a good heart to the poor; for to give what one has is to become so much the poorer, and the more you give, the poorer you will become. It is true that God will repay you, not only in the next world, but also in this one, since nothing makes one prosper so much in temporal matters as almsgiving; but while you await God’s repayment, you will still be the poorer for it. O holy and rich impoverishment, which is wrought by almsgiving!
Love the poor and poverty; and by this love you will truly become poor, for it is said in Scripture that _we become like the things we love_. Friendship makes all things equal between friends. _Who is weak_, said Saint Paul, _and I am not weak with him_? He could also have said, who is poor, and I am not poor with him? because the affection he bore his neighbour made him like those he loved. If, then, you love the poor, you will truly share in their poverty, and be poor like them.
Love the poor and poverty; and by this love you will truly become poor, for it is said in Scripture that _we become like the things we love_. Friendship makes all things equal between friends. _Who is weak_, said Saint Paul, _and I am not weak with him_? He could also have said, who is poor, and I am not poor with him? because the affection he bore his neighbour made him like those he loved. If, then, you love the poor, you will truly share in their poverty, and be poor like them.
Now, if you love the poor, often place yourself among them, take pleasure in seeing them in your home and in visiting them in theirs. Converse willingly with them; be glad when they approach you in churches, in the streets, and elsewhere. Be poor in speech with them, speaking to them as their equal. But be rich in your hands, giving them of your wealth, as being more abundant than theirs.
Would you do still more, dear Philothea? Be not content with being poor like the poor, but be poorer than the poor. And how so? The servant is less than his master; therefore make yourself the servant of the poor, go and serve them in their beds when they are sick—I mean with your own hands. Be their cook, at your own expense; be their washerwoman and laundress. O Philothea! This service is worth more than a crown. I cannot sufficiently admire the zeal with which this counsel was practised by Saint Louis, one of the greatest kings that the sun has ever seen; but I mean a great king in every kind of greatness. He had a table at which the poor were fed and served by his own hand; almost every day he had three of them brought to his own table, and often ate their leftovers with the greatest pleasure, out of affection for them. When he visited the hospitals for the sick (which he did very often), he would ordinarily set himself to serving those afflicted with the most dreadful maladies—the lepers, the men eaten away with ulcers, and others like them—and he rendered them all these services bareheaded and on his knees, revering in their persons the Saviour of the world, and cherishing them with as tender a love as a gentle mother would have shown her child. Saint Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Hungary, would ordinarily mingle with the poor, and, for recreation, would sometimes dress as a poor woman among her ladies, saying to them: “If I were poor, I would dress like this.” O my God! Philothea, how poor this prince and princess were amid their riches, and how rich they were in their poverty!
Would you do still more, dear Philothea? Be not content with being poor like the poor, but be poorer than the poor. And how so? The servant is less than his master; therefore make yourself the servant of the poor, go and serve them in their beds when they are sick—I mean with your own hands. Be their cook, at your own expense; be their washerwoman and laundress. O Philothea! This service is worth more than a crown. I cannot sufficiently admire the zeal with which this counsel was practised by Saint Louis, one of the greatest kings that the sun has ever seen; but I mean a great king in every kind of greatness. He had a table at which the poor were fed and served by his own hand; almost every day he had three of them brought to his own table, and often ate their leftovers with the greatest pleasure, out of affection for them. When he visited the hospitals for the sick (which he did very often), he would ordinarily set himself to serving those afflicted with the most dreadful maladies—the lepers, the men eaten away with ulcers, and others like them—and he rendered them all these services bareheaded and on his knees, revering in their persons the Saviour of the world, and cherishing them with as tender a love as a gentle mother would have shown her child. Saint Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Hungary, would ordinarily mingle with the poor, and, for recreation, would sometimes dress as a poor woman among her ladies, saying to them: “If I were poor, I would dress like this.” O my God! Philothea, how poor this prince and princess were amid their riches, and how rich they were in their poverty!
Blessed are they who are thus poor, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. _I was hungry, and ye fed Me; I was cold, and ye clothed Me: possess the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world_: such shall be the words spoken to them by the King of the poor and of kings on the day of His great judgment.
There is no one who does not experience from time to time some privation and some inconvenience. A guest arrives whom one would gladly entertain, but for the moment it is not possible. One would like to have fine clothes in a certain place, in order to appear suitably there, but they will be found elsewhere. Or it happens that all the wines in the cellar turn sour and spoil, and that only bad, unripe ones remain. One finds oneself in the country, in a little hovel where everything is lacking; there is neither bed, nor room, nor table, nor service. In short, however rich one may be, it is easy often to be in need of something. Now, this is truly to be poor in what is lacking to us. Philothea, be glad of such occasions, accept them wholeheartedly, and bear them cheerfully.
There is no one who does not experience from time to time some privation and some inconvenience. A guest arrives whom one would gladly entertain, but for the moment it is not possible. One would like to have fine clothes in a certain place, in order to appear suitably there, but they will be found elsewhere. Or it happens that all the wines in the cellar turn sour and spoil, and that only bad, unripe ones remain. One finds oneself in the country, in a little hovel where everything is lacking; there is neither bed, nor room, nor table, nor service. In short, however rich one may be, it is easy often to be in need of something. Now, this is truly to be poor in what is lacking to us. Philothea, be glad of such occasions, accept them wholeheartedly, and bear them cheerfully.
When some mishap comes to impoverish you, either greatly or slightly, as storms, fires, floods, droughts, thefts, and lawsuits do, ah! then will be the true time to practise poverty, gently receiving these diminutions of income, and accommodating yourself with patience and courage to this impoverishment. Esau presented himself to his father with his hands covered with hair, and Jacob did likewise; but because the hair covering Jacob’s hands did not adhere to his skin, but to his gloves, it could be removed without in the least scraping him or causing him pain. On the contrary, because the hair on Esau’s hands adhered to his skin, which was naturally all hairy, whoever had tried to strip it from him would have caused him great pain and met with fierce resistance from him. When our fortune lies close to our heart, if the storm, the thieves, or the litigants snatch some part of it from us, what distress and impatience do we not feel! But when our possessions are bound only to the care which God wills us to take of them, and not to our heart, then, if they are snatched from us, we do not thereby lose our calm or our reason. The difference is the same as that between beasts and men with regard to their garments; for the garments of animals adhere to their flesh, whereas those of men are merely laid upon it, so that they can put them on and take them off whenever they please.