\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, for example, you see family\u00a0A\u00a0living in a fantastic house in the suburbs. They have three new cars in the driveway and every weekend they\u2019re out at their lake house having fun on their jet skis, dirt bikes and flotilla of boats. Then a year later you find out they\u2019ve gone bankrupt and everything they had was on a payment plan and they were deadly in debt. On the other hand you judge family B turning up at church in a beat up old car held together with duct tape and string and it turns out they\u2019re sitting on a pile of family money that they\u2019ve invested wisely and which they use quietly to support umpteen charitable causes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same in the church. You see Father Lazarus\u00a0who belongs to a religious order and goes around in his habit \u00a0with his vow of poverty, but on his day off he scoots off in his smart two seater convertible for a drive in the mountains and a meal out with some posh friends. \u00a0Of course he doesn\u2019t\u00a0own\u00a0<\/em>the sports car. He\u2019s taken a vow of poverty. Of course someone else pays for his vacations in Italy which are always a \u201cpilgrimage to Assisi\u201d. One diocesan priest chuckled about the friars, \u201cThey make a vow of poverty and we keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n Then you see Father Dives \u00a0who is in a wealthy parish, drives a new car, lives in a beautiful big rectory which is perfectly furnished and maintained. Then you learn that his predecessor fixed up the rectory like that, a parishioner owns a car dealership and donates a new car to the priest every three years as part of his tithe and the parish is actually in debt because they\u2019ve built a new school for poor kids.<\/p>\n It gets more complicated. Maybe you\u2019re inclined to judge Fr Lazarus harshly, but you don\u2019t know all the facts. Maybe beneath his seeming hypocrisy he\u2019s ashamed that he\u2019s not keeping his vow of poverty very strictly and he wants to do better and furthermore, it could be that his present lifestyle is a great improvement from five years ago. Similarly, when you get to know more about Fr Dives you learn that he is actually quite vain and has a secret stash of money of his own\u2026<\/p>\n Then you get into the management of finances. You find a parish in the poor part of town with what seems very few resources, then you check their books and find that the past four priests never spent anything and the parish is rolling in loot. On the other hand you might find a huge parish with rich parishioners that is in debt because they keep expanding as they are doing the Lord\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Money is a mystery and being a good steward of money is tricky. When you\u2019re weighing up appearances and trying to be a good servant of the Lord it gets even more complicated.<\/p>\n Consider Pope Francis who wants to give a good example and live simply. So he moves out of the Apostolic Palace to live in the St Martha Hostel. Rumors circulate, however, that the cost of renovating the St Martha Hostel to accommodate him and his security people has cost more than if he had occupied the secure and modest papal apartment in the apostolic palace and been done with it.<\/p>\n Friends of mine have a regular house guest we\u2019ll call Sylvia who affects poverty, but she\u2019s very fussy about her food and living conditions causing my friends to observer wryly, \u201cIt\u2019s rather expensive keeping Sylvia in the poverty to which she is accustomed\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n This is what I mean by a house of mirrors: you might take a vow of poverty but live like a prince or you might be fabulously wealthy and live \u00a0like a pauper. Which one is virtuous? Is there a sin in simply having nice stuff and enjoying the good things of life? I don\u2019t think so. Is poverty, on its own, a virtue? No.<\/p>\n Instead, we are to love all things according to their worth and while we enjoy the good things of life we are to be detached. We can take them or leave them, and if we find it hard to leave them, then that\u2019s just the time when we should make some new sacrifice to show that we\u2019re not attached to the wealth we have and the things we enjoy.<\/p>\n The fact is, we\u2019re not all called to poverty, but we are called to simplicity of life. Chesterton said, \u201cThere\u2019s more simplicity in a man eating caviar because he likes it than a man eating grape nuts on principle.\u201d If we observe simplicity, generosity and honesty in all things we\u2019re on the right track.<\/p>\n Finally, while we observe simplicity, generosity and honesty we should mind our own business and \u00a0not judge others. We don\u2019t have all the facts about their finances and judging by appearances will usually get us into trouble and not accomplish anything.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 So, for example, you see family\u00a0A\u00a0living in a fantastic house in the suburbs. They have three new cars in the driveway and every weekend they\u2019re out at their lake house having fun on their jet skis, dirt bikes and flotilla of boats. Then a year later you find out they\u2019ve gone bankrupt and everything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18305","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n