Why Would Anyone Choose Poverty? | #1540

Ordinary Time, 22nd Sunday (C) Jesus goes to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the guests at the banquet are observing them carefully. Jesus is also watching them. He offers some sage advice, a radical suggestion: fight for the lower spot. Make yourself as humble as possible, and wait for the host to exult you. 

Two news stories shocked me this week. The first was the shooting at Annunciation Catholic school in Minneapolis. The second was a priest of the Madison diocese who was arrested for pursuing an illegal relationship with a young girl. I don’t know a lot about these situations. And it’s always dangerous to judge things at a distance. But, with those caveats, I want to hazard a guess. I bet that deep down, both the perpetrators in these terrible situations had, at some point, refused to accept their own poverty. They looked for ways that they could grasp at that would make them feel powerful.

St Francis of Assisi grew up the son of a wealthy merchant. He liked expensive clothes and throwing lavish parties. He decided he wanted to be a knight. His father paid a pretty penny for a new suit of shiny armor and off he went to win glory in a local war. Instead he was captured and put in prison. He was held for ransom.

There in prison he began to have a change of heart. He realized that fighting for the best place at the table was not working for him. He realized that Jesus chose poverty. He decided to choose poverty. When he was released from prison, he started praying a lot and dressing like a beggar and begging for food. As you can imagine, the town thought he had gone crazy. But in reality, he was falling in love.

Francis chose poverty because it made him like Jesus. 
Jesus chose poverty because it made him like us.

You see, deep down we are really poor. The richest, most powerful man on earth will die and lose everything. We are all poor little creatures. And we can respond to our poverty one of two ways:
Grasping at more so we don’t have to feel poor,
or childlike trust in the Father's love with a gratitude that feels no need to possess.

When we grasp at things, we can only hold so much in our own two hands. And it's all slipping through our fingers. As my empire expands, that reality doesn’t really change. I only control so much and it can easily be lost, stolen, or corrupted.

When I live in childlike trust of my Father, I own nothing of my own, but the wealth of his kingdom is also mine. Paradoxically, by choosing to accept my poverty and see myself as a grateful steward, I become unimaginably wealthy. I don’t own anything but Daddy owns the sun, the moon, the stars, and the whole planet. And he lets me use whatever I need whenever I need it.

When we choose the path of childlike trust, then we can turn and be generous to others. Today Jesus holds a banquet and invites the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. He wants you to do the same for others.

(31 Aug 2025)

Going Deeper: Reflect on Psalm 131:

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
    my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
    too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
    like a child quieted at its mother’s breast;
    like a child that is quieted is my soul.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
    from this time forth and for evermore.

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