The poor as the new elite

WE have to be most careful that in our laudable effort to

love the poor, we end up making them the new elite, and the rich guys

end up prematurely judged and condemned, ostracized and left to rot

here on earth even before hell.

             This can happen when our understanding of the poor is

mainly if not solely keyed on material poverty. Thus, we consider as

poor those with hardly any money, or those whom we generally describe

as having less in life, be it in terms of material possessions and

wealth, health, fame, talents, etc.

 

            The problem with this idea of poor is that we tend to

exaggerate things and fall to making unnecessary if not illegitimate

distinctions among people. We end up unnecessarily discriminating

against some people who are rashly judged and classified simply and

recklessly according to their economic status, etc.

             This has happened among those who blindly follow the

so-called “Liberation Theology” that while having good and valid

points, end up following a certain earthly ideology instead of

Christianity.

 

            In fact, back in 1984, the Vatican issued a document

entitled, “Instruction on certain aspects of the Theology of

Liberation,” precisely to clarify what the good and safe points of

such theology are, and what the unsafe and dangerous ones are.

             The poor is actually all of us, since all of us are in

need of God. That’s how poverty should be understood in its strictest

sense. That’s why Christ put as the first beatitude those who are

“poor in spirit” because they are the ones who acknowledge their

poverty with regard to God and are longing to be with God.

 

            If we understand “the poor” in this way, it can happen

that the poorest of the poor can in fact be the richest man in the

world, in terms of material wealth, because that man may be farthest

from God and may not be doing anything to solve his predicament. It

can happen that the poorest of the poor is not in the peripheries and

fringes of our society, but is right in the middle of society’s

mainstream.

 

            Now that we are in the Year of the Poor, we need to be

clear about this point, before we fall into the subtle trick of the

devil who can mislead us in our attitude toward the poor.

 

            Let’s remember that the weed can actually look like the

real plant, and the devil can present himself as an angel of light. We

have to be most discerning. We should not be naïve, especially

nowadays when many confusing and albeit attractive ideologies about

the poor are bombarded on us.

 

            It’s true that we have to give a kind of “preferential

option” to those who are materially poor, precisely because their

needs may be immediate. We cannot deny that there will always be some

kind of social inequality that causes this kind of poverty. Thus,

Christ told us: “You always have the poor with you, but you will not

always have me.” (Mt 26,11)

 

            Such inequality should trigger the dynamics and initiative

of concern and help. St. John in his first letter tells us: “If anyone

has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his

heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (3,17)

  

            We also cannot deny that there are instances when we find

ourselves at a loss as to how to help the poor in immediate material

needs. Many times, we can only cry and suffer in silence, praying hard

and thinking deeply as to how to restructure things that give rise to

this kind of social poverty. Let’s be ready for these occasions and

exert effort not to fall into despair. There’s always hope in the

mysterious ways of God.

  

            But this particular concern for the poor in immediate

material need, however, should not distract us from the ultimate

concern for the poor in the strictest and universal sense. We should

not forget that the ultimate concern is how to resolve the spiritual

and moral poverty of the people, i.e., how to combat temptations and

sin.

  

            This is where the real battle is. It is how to convince

the rich young man in the gospel (cfr Mt 1916-30), who actually

represents all of us, to go sell everything that he has and follow

Christ. It is how to undo what Christ said: “It is easier for a camel

to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the

kingdom of God.”

 

            We can only do this if we have the right poverty of spirit

as described in the beatitudes.