Patience in Economic Downfall
Detachment from Wealth and Patience in Losing It
The love of money does not only consist of the desire for another person’s property, but also in the attachment to wealth. Through the example of Jesus’ detachment from riches one should learn to make no account of the loss of them.
***
Is anyone disturbed by the loss of property? Let him go to the Holy Scriptures; there one is advised to despise the world. One can meet no better example of detachment from money than that of Jesus who did not own any worldly goods. He always defended the poor and condemned those attached to riches. Through Jesus’ detachment from riches one learns to make no account of the loss of them. Thus, Jesus set detachment from wealth as a training for the endurance of losses.
We should not be attached to wealth, since our Lord did not seek it. And if we lose the whole of it, we should bear the loss with serenity. The Spirit of the Lord, through the mouth of the Apostle, said: “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). (Tertullian, De Patientia, 7)
***
The love of money does not only consist of the desire for another person’s property, but also in the attachment to wealth. Even what seems to be our own belongs to another, for nothing is absolutely our own. All things belong to God to whom, we, too, belong. Thus, if we feel impatient when we suffer some loss, we show that we are attached to money, since we grieve for the loss of what is not really our own. We are seeking what actually belongs to another when we are unwilling to bear the loss of what belongs to another. The man who is upset and unable to bear his loss sins–one may say–against God; he prefers the things of earth to those of heaven. His soul–received from the Lord–is consumed with care for the things of this world.
Let us, then, renounce–if needed–worldly goods willingly to preserve those of heaven. One must say: “Let the whole world around me collapse as long as I gain enough patience to endure it.” (Tertullian, De Patientia)
***
A man must bear with fortitude a slight loss caused by theft, violence, or even his own stupidity. If he is not ready to suffer this loss, he probably will not be willing either to sacrifice his own for the sake of charity. For a man who refuses to undergo an operation at the hands of another will be even less willing to put the knife in his own body.
Patience to endure, shown on occasions of loss, is a training in giving and sharing. He who does not fear loss is generous in giving. (Tertullian, De Patientia)
***
The pagans are unable to bear all loss; they set worldly goods before their own lives. Thus, in their love for wealth, they engage in lucrative but dangerous commerce on sea; to get rich they take up causes in the forum which have no chance to be won; they hire themselves out as fighters for the games; they enlist themselves in the military service; and even, without fear for wild beasts, they dwell in desolate regions to commit robbery.
We are different from them. We should not give up our life for money but money for our true life, either by voluntary charity or by the patient endurance of loss. (Tertullian, De Patientia)
***
The bereavement of relatives and friends by death belongs also, in some measure, to detachment; and in this we must especially practice patience. Some people, at the loss of a parent or friend, can find no rest. They shut themselves up to weep in their chamber, and giving free vent to their sorrow, become insupportable to all around them, by their want of patience.
I would ask these persons, for whom do they thus lament and shed tears? For God? Certainly not. God’s will is that they should accept his plans. For the soul departed? By no means. If that soul is lost, she will abhor both you and your tears. If she is saved, and already in heaven, she will like you to thank God on her part. If still in purgatory, she will crave the help of your prayers; and she will wish you to bow with resignation to the divine will, and to become a saint, so that she will one day enjoy your company in paradise. Of what use, then, is all this weeping?
On one occasion, the Venerable Father Joseph Caracciolo was surrounded by his relatives, who were all bitterly lamenting the death of his brother. He said to them: “Come, come! Let us keep these tears for a better purpose: to weep over the death of Jesus Christ, who has been to us a father, a brother, and spouse, and who died for love of us.”
On such occasions we must imitate Job, who, on hearing the news of the death of his sons, exclaimed, with full resignation to the divine will, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away”; God gave me my sons, and God has taken them away. “As it has pleased the Lord, so is it done; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). It has pleased God that such things should happen, and so it pleases me; may he be blessed forever. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
Patience in Poverty
In this life we are like actors in a play. When the play is over everything will be taken away from us. Why should we become attached to riches or try to retain dominion over the borrowed things of the world around us?
***
Consider for a moment how absurd and out of place it would be for an actor who plays the part of a millionaire on the stage to try to keep for himself the clothes, furniture, and servants that he used during his act.
He would be quite mad if he thought that he was the real owner of the things that had been lent him for his part in the play.
Now, this world is a great theater in which each person has his part to play, each person has some things, some property. When the play is over, however, everything is taken away from him because he no longer needs it. It would be just as idiotic and senseless for us to become attached to or try to have dominion over the borrowed things of the world around us, as for an actor to try to use according to his own wishes the things lent to him. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
The needs of Jesus–like those of Mary and Joseph–were very few. Certainly we must work hard, but our heart must always be free and detached, for greed and avarice surround us on all sides, ready to trap us, If we have faith and do whatever we can, God always gives us what we need.
Our Lady did not complain or show any sign of being annoyed with poverty; at least St Luke says nothing about it. She had done all she could: she had knocked at every door. Then when the Child was born he filled her with peace and joy; his glance, his smile, his presence were so joyful that there was no time to think of anything else but him. Truly, the things of this world mean very little to those who live in the presence of God, who think of him and enjoy his peace. The heart can concentrate on only one thing at a time if it wants to possess that thing completely; that is why it is so difficult for the rich–whose heart concentrates on riches–to possess the kingdom of heaven; that is why, on the other hand, it is so easy for the poor to possess the kingdom of heaven because they are free of these false attachments to earthly things which pass away and vanish. This explains why the woman who gave her two small coins to the Temple received such admiration and praise from Jesus (cf. Mk 12:41ff): she had nothing else to give.
***
A poor man is properly one who does not have what he desires. On the other hand, one who desires nothing, and is contented with his poverty, is, in fact, very rich. Of such St Paul says: “Having nothing, yet possessing all things” (2 Cor 6:10). The true lovers of God have nothing, and yet have everything. When temporal goods fail them, they exclaim: “My Jesus, you alone are sufficient for me”; and with this they rest satisfied.
Not only did the saints maintain patience in poverty, but sought to be despoiled of all, in order to live detached from all, and united with God alone. Let us be contented with that state of life in which God has placed us. Let our solicitude be not for earthly goods, but for those of Paradise, which are immeasurably greater, and last forever. Let us be fully persuaded of what St Teresa says: “The less we have here, the more we shall have there.”1
St Bonaventure said that temporal goods were nothing more than a sort of bird cage to hinder the soul from flying to God. And St John Climacus2 said that poverty, on the contrary, is a path that leads to God free of all hindrances. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
Our Lord himself said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). In the other beatitudes, heaven in the next life is promised to the meek and to the clean of heart. To the poor, heaven (that is, heavenly joy) is promised even in this life: theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Yes, for even in the present life the poor enjoy a foretaste of paradise.
The poor in spirit are not those merely poor in earthly goods, but those who do not even desire them. They are those who, having enough to be clothed and fed, live soberly, according to the advice of the Apostle: “If we have food and clothing, we are content with that” (1 Tim 6:8). (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
One day Jesus Christ thus spoke to Blessed Angela of Foligno: “If poverty were not of great excellence, I would not have chosen it for myself, nor have bequeathed it to my elect.” Seeing Jesus detached from everything, the saints had a great affection for poverty. St Paul says that the ambition of growing rich is a snare of Satan, by which he has wrought the ruin of innumerable souls: “Those who want to get rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition” (1 Tim 6:9).
Unhappy beings who, for the sake of vile creatures of earth, forfeit an infinite good, which is God! St Basil the Martyr was quite in the right, when the Emperor Licinius proposed to make him the chief among his [pagan] priests, if he would renounce Jesus Christ. He was right, I say, to reply: “Tell the emperor that were he to give me his whole kingdom, he would not give me as much as he would rob me of, by depriving me of God.”3 (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
Let us be content then with God, and with those things which he gives us, rejoicing in our scarcity, when we stand in need of something we desire, and we do not have it; for this is our merit. “Not so much having nothing,” says St Bernard, “but the love of poverty, is considered a virtue.”4 Many are poor, but they do not love their poverty; thus, they merit nothing. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
This detachment from material possessions should be practiced by all. “Many,” says the same St Bernard, “wish to be detached; but on the condition that they lack nothing.”5 “Thus,” says St Francis de Sales, “they wish for the honor of poverty, but not the inconveniences of poverty.”6 To such persons is applicable the saying of Blessed Salomea, a nun of St Clare: “Those persons seeking sanctity who do not detach themselves from material goods shall be laughing stock to angels and to men. They pretend to be poor, yet they complain when they lack something.” Good Christians act differently. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
Footnotes:
1 Foundations, ch.14.
2 Scala sp. gr. 17.
3 Boll. April 26, Act. no. II.
4 Epist. 100.
5 In Adventu Domini, s. 4.
6 Introduction to Devout Life, ch. 16.
The love of money does not only consist of the desire for another person’s property, but also in the attachment to wealth. Through the example of Jesus’ detachment from riches one should learn to make no account of the loss of them.
***
Is anyone disturbed by the loss of property? Let him go to the Holy Scriptures; there one is advised to despise the world. One can meet no better example of detachment from money than that of Jesus who did not own any worldly goods. He always defended the poor and condemned those attached to riches. Through Jesus’ detachment from riches one learns to make no account of the loss of them. Thus, Jesus set detachment from wealth as a training for the endurance of losses.
We should not be attached to wealth, since our Lord did not seek it. And if we lose the whole of it, we should bear the loss with serenity. The Spirit of the Lord, through the mouth of the Apostle, said: “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). (Tertullian, De Patientia, 7)
***
The love of money does not only consist of the desire for another person’s property, but also in the attachment to wealth. Even what seems to be our own belongs to another, for nothing is absolutely our own. All things belong to God to whom, we, too, belong. Thus, if we feel impatient when we suffer some loss, we show that we are attached to money, since we grieve for the loss of what is not really our own. We are seeking what actually belongs to another when we are unwilling to bear the loss of what belongs to another. The man who is upset and unable to bear his loss sins–one may say–against God; he prefers the things of earth to those of heaven. His soul–received from the Lord–is consumed with care for the things of this world.
Let us, then, renounce–if needed–worldly goods willingly to preserve those of heaven. One must say: “Let the whole world around me collapse as long as I gain enough patience to endure it.” (Tertullian, De Patientia)
***
A man must bear with fortitude a slight loss caused by theft, violence, or even his own stupidity. If he is not ready to suffer this loss, he probably will not be willing either to sacrifice his own for the sake of charity. For a man who refuses to undergo an operation at the hands of another will be even less willing to put the knife in his own body.
Patience to endure, shown on occasions of loss, is a training in giving and sharing. He who does not fear loss is generous in giving. (Tertullian, De Patientia)
***
The pagans are unable to bear all loss; they set worldly goods before their own lives. Thus, in their love for wealth, they engage in lucrative but dangerous commerce on sea; to get rich they take up causes in the forum which have no chance to be won; they hire themselves out as fighters for the games; they enlist themselves in the military service; and even, without fear for wild beasts, they dwell in desolate regions to commit robbery.
We are different from them. We should not give up our life for money but money for our true life, either by voluntary charity or by the patient endurance of loss. (Tertullian, De Patientia)
***
The bereavement of relatives and friends by death belongs also, in some measure, to detachment; and in this we must especially practice patience. Some people, at the loss of a parent or friend, can find no rest. They shut themselves up to weep in their chamber, and giving free vent to their sorrow, become insupportable to all around them, by their want of patience.
I would ask these persons, for whom do they thus lament and shed tears? For God? Certainly not. God’s will is that they should accept his plans. For the soul departed? By no means. If that soul is lost, she will abhor both you and your tears. If she is saved, and already in heaven, she will like you to thank God on her part. If still in purgatory, she will crave the help of your prayers; and she will wish you to bow with resignation to the divine will, and to become a saint, so that she will one day enjoy your company in paradise. Of what use, then, is all this weeping?
On one occasion, the Venerable Father Joseph Caracciolo was surrounded by his relatives, who were all bitterly lamenting the death of his brother. He said to them: “Come, come! Let us keep these tears for a better purpose: to weep over the death of Jesus Christ, who has been to us a father, a brother, and spouse, and who died for love of us.”
On such occasions we must imitate Job, who, on hearing the news of the death of his sons, exclaimed, with full resignation to the divine will, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away”; God gave me my sons, and God has taken them away. “As it has pleased the Lord, so is it done; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). It has pleased God that such things should happen, and so it pleases me; may he be blessed forever. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
Patience in Poverty
In this life we are like actors in a play. When the play is over everything will be taken away from us. Why should we become attached to riches or try to retain dominion over the borrowed things of the world around us?
***
Consider for a moment how absurd and out of place it would be for an actor who plays the part of a millionaire on the stage to try to keep for himself the clothes, furniture, and servants that he used during his act.
He would be quite mad if he thought that he was the real owner of the things that had been lent him for his part in the play.
Now, this world is a great theater in which each person has his part to play, each person has some things, some property. When the play is over, however, everything is taken away from him because he no longer needs it. It would be just as idiotic and senseless for us to become attached to or try to have dominion over the borrowed things of the world around us, as for an actor to try to use according to his own wishes the things lent to him. (F. Suárez, Mary of Nazareth)
***
The needs of Jesus–like those of Mary and Joseph–were very few. Certainly we must work hard, but our heart must always be free and detached, for greed and avarice surround us on all sides, ready to trap us, If we have faith and do whatever we can, God always gives us what we need.
Our Lady did not complain or show any sign of being annoyed with poverty; at least St Luke says nothing about it. She had done all she could: she had knocked at every door. Then when the Child was born he filled her with peace and joy; his glance, his smile, his presence were so joyful that there was no time to think of anything else but him. Truly, the things of this world mean very little to those who live in the presence of God, who think of him and enjoy his peace. The heart can concentrate on only one thing at a time if it wants to possess that thing completely; that is why it is so difficult for the rich–whose heart concentrates on riches–to possess the kingdom of heaven; that is why, on the other hand, it is so easy for the poor to possess the kingdom of heaven because they are free of these false attachments to earthly things which pass away and vanish. This explains why the woman who gave her two small coins to the Temple received such admiration and praise from Jesus (cf. Mk 12:41ff): she had nothing else to give.
***
A poor man is properly one who does not have what he desires. On the other hand, one who desires nothing, and is contented with his poverty, is, in fact, very rich. Of such St Paul says: “Having nothing, yet possessing all things” (2 Cor 6:10). The true lovers of God have nothing, and yet have everything. When temporal goods fail them, they exclaim: “My Jesus, you alone are sufficient for me”; and with this they rest satisfied.
Not only did the saints maintain patience in poverty, but sought to be despoiled of all, in order to live detached from all, and united with God alone. Let us be contented with that state of life in which God has placed us. Let our solicitude be not for earthly goods, but for those of Paradise, which are immeasurably greater, and last forever. Let us be fully persuaded of what St Teresa says: “The less we have here, the more we shall have there.”1
St Bonaventure said that temporal goods were nothing more than a sort of bird cage to hinder the soul from flying to God. And St John Climacus2 said that poverty, on the contrary, is a path that leads to God free of all hindrances. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
Our Lord himself said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). In the other beatitudes, heaven in the next life is promised to the meek and to the clean of heart. To the poor, heaven (that is, heavenly joy) is promised even in this life: theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Yes, for even in the present life the poor enjoy a foretaste of paradise.
The poor in spirit are not those merely poor in earthly goods, but those who do not even desire them. They are those who, having enough to be clothed and fed, live soberly, according to the advice of the Apostle: “If we have food and clothing, we are content with that” (1 Tim 6:8). (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
One day Jesus Christ thus spoke to Blessed Angela of Foligno: “If poverty were not of great excellence, I would not have chosen it for myself, nor have bequeathed it to my elect.” Seeing Jesus detached from everything, the saints had a great affection for poverty. St Paul says that the ambition of growing rich is a snare of Satan, by which he has wrought the ruin of innumerable souls: “Those who want to get rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition” (1 Tim 6:9).
Unhappy beings who, for the sake of vile creatures of earth, forfeit an infinite good, which is God! St Basil the Martyr was quite in the right, when the Emperor Licinius proposed to make him the chief among his [pagan] priests, if he would renounce Jesus Christ. He was right, I say, to reply: “Tell the emperor that were he to give me his whole kingdom, he would not give me as much as he would rob me of, by depriving me of God.”3 (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
Let us be content then with God, and with those things which he gives us, rejoicing in our scarcity, when we stand in need of something we desire, and we do not have it; for this is our merit. “Not so much having nothing,” says St Bernard, “but the love of poverty, is considered a virtue.”4 Many are poor, but they do not love their poverty; thus, they merit nothing. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
***
This detachment from material possessions should be practiced by all. “Many,” says the same St Bernard, “wish to be detached; but on the condition that they lack nothing.”5 “Thus,” says St Francis de Sales, “they wish for the honor of poverty, but not the inconveniences of poverty.”6 To such persons is applicable the saying of Blessed Salomea, a nun of St Clare: “Those persons seeking sanctity who do not detach themselves from material goods shall be laughing stock to angels and to men. They pretend to be poor, yet they complain when they lack something.” Good Christians act differently. (St Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ)
Footnotes:
1 Foundations, ch.14.
2 Scala sp. gr. 17.
3 Boll. April 26, Act. no. II.
4 Epist. 100.
5 In Adventu Domini, s. 4.
6 Introduction to Devout Life, ch. 16.