Part III, Chapter XV

How to Practise True and Real Poverty, Being Notwithstanding Really Rich

The painter, Parrhasius, painted the people of Athens in a very ingenious manner, representing their several variable dispositions,—choleric, unjust, inconstant, courteous, gentle, merciful, haughty, proud, humble, resolute, and timorous, and all this together. But I, dear Philothea, would infuse into your heart riches and poverty, a great care and a great contempt of temporal things.

Be more careful than worldly men are, to make your goods profitable and fruitful. Are not the gardeners of great princes more careful and diligent in cultivating and embellishing the gardens committed to their charge than if they were their own? And why? Because they consider them as the gardens of kings and princes, to whom they desire to make themselves acceptable by their services.

Philothea, our possessions are not our own, but were lent us by God to cultivate, and it is his will that we should render them fruitful and profitable, and therefore we do him an agreeable service in being careful of them; but then it must be a greater and more solid care than that which worldlings have of their goods; for they labor only for love of themselves, but we must labor for the love of God. Now, as self-love is violent, turbulent and impetuous, so the care which proceeds from it is full of trouble, uneasiness, and disquiet; and as the love of God is sweet, peaceable, and calm, so the care which proceeds from this love, although it be for worldly goods, is yet amiable, sweet, and agreeable. Let us, then, exercise this peaceable care of preserving, nay, of even increasing, our temporal goods, whenever just occasions shall present themselves, and as far as our condition requires, for God desires us to do so through love of him.

But beware lest self-love deceive you; for sometimes it counterfeits the love of God so closely that one would imagine it to be the same. Now, that it may not deceive you, and that the care of your temporal goods may not degenerate into covetousness, besides what I said in the former chapter, we must practise a real poverty in the midst of all the riches that God has given us.

Deprive yourself, then, frequently of some part of your property, by bestowing it on the poor with a willing heart; for to give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give; and the more we give the poorer we become.

It is true, God will repay us not only in the next world, but even in this; for nothing makes us so prosperous in this world as alms; but till such time as God shall restore it to us we remain so much the poorer by as much as we have given. Oh, how holy and rich is that poverty which is occasioned by giving alms!

Love the poor and poverty, and you shall become truly poor, since, as the Scripture says, “we are made like the things which we love.” Love makes the lovers equal. “Who is weak,” saith St. Paul, “with whom I am not weak?” He might have likewise said, Who is poor, with whom I am not poor? For love made him resemble those whom he loved; if, then, you love the poor you shall be truly a partaker of their poverty, and poor like them. Now, if you love the poor, be often in their company, be glad to see them in your house, and to visit them in theirs; converse willingly with them, be pleased to have them near you in the church, in the streets, and elsewhere. Be poor in conversing with them, speaking to them as their companion; but be rich in assisting, by imparting your goods to them, since you have more abundance.

Besides, Philothea, content not yourself to be as poor, but poorer than the poor themselves; but how may this be effected? The servant is lower than his master; make yourself, then, a servant of the poor; go and serve them in their beds when they are sick; serve them with your own hands; prepare their food for them yourself, and at your own expense; be their sempstress and laundress. O Philothea! this service is more glorious than a kingdom.

I cannot sufficiently admire the ardor with which this counsel was practised by St. Lewis, one of the greatest kings that ever graced a throne; great in every kind of greatness. He frequently served at table the poor whom he maintained, and caused three poor men to dine with him almost every day, and many times ate the remainder of their food with an incomparable love. When he visited the hospitals, which he frequently did, he commonly served the leprous, ulcerous, and such as had the most loathsome diseases, kneeling on the ground, respecting in their persons the Saviour of the world, and cherishing them as tenderly as any fond mother cherishes her child. St. Elizabeth, daughter of the king of Hungary, often visited the poor, and, for her recreation, sometimes clothed herself like a poor woman among her ladies, saying to them, “If I were poor I would dress in this manner.” Good God, Philothea, how poor were this prince and princess in the midst of their riches, and how rich in their poverty! Blessed are they who are poor in this manner, for to them belongs the kingdom of heaven. “I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was naked, and you clothed me; come, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” he who is the King of the poor, as well as of kings, will say, when he addresses himself to the elect at the day of general judgment.

There is no one, who, on some occasion or other, does not feel a want of some conveniency. Sometimes we receive a visit from a guest, whom we would entertain very well, but at present have not the means; at other times, our best clothes are in one place when we want them in another, where we must be seen. Again, sometimes all the wines in our cellar ferment and turn, so that there remain only those that are bad or green; at another time we happen to stop at some poor village, where all things are wanting; where we have neither bed, chamber, table, nor attendance; in fine, it is very often easy to suffer the want of something, be we ever so rich. Now, this is to be poor in effect, with regard to the things we want. Philothea, rejoice on these occasions, accept them with a good heart, and suffer them cheerfully.

But should you meet with losses which impoverish you, more or less, as in the case of tempests, fires, inundations, dearths, robberies, or lawsuits, then is the proper season to practise poverty, receiving those losses with meekness, and submitting with patience and constancy to your impoverishment. Esau presented himself to his father with his hands covered with hair, and Jacob did the same; but as the hair on Jacob’s hands belonged not to his skin, but his gloves, one might take away the hair without injuring the skin; on the contrary, the hair on the hands of Esau adhered to his skin, so that if any one would attempt to pluck off his hair it would have caused excessive pain. Thus, when our worldly goods cleave to our heart, if a tempest, a thief, or an impostor, should take any part of them from us, what complaints, trouble, and impatience do we not fall into? But when our goods do not cleave to our hearts, and are only considered on account of the care God would have us take of them, should they be taken from us, we lose neither our peace nor our senses. Hence the difference betwixt beasts and men, as to their garments; for as the garments of the former, viz., their skin, adhere to their flesh, those of the latter are only put upon them, so that they may be taken off at pleasure.

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