Talking Point by Fr Peter Day
“PRAYER and comfortable living are incompatible”, so said Teresa of Avila – one might tweak this a little and add “a comfortable Church cannot preach the Joy of the Gospel with authority”.
Pope Francis’ dream that we be a “poor Church for the poor” is both animating and disturbing.
It is also the seminal challenge of the age – a challenge that dioceses, parishes, and leaders must embrace wholeheartedly, surely?
We hardly need reminding that the Royal Commission has exposed, among many other things, the dangers inherent in a Church that adopts a powerful corporate mentality; one in which the protection of the company brand is prioritised ahead of vulnerable others.
Now, more than ever, people need to see a Church that embraces simplicity; a Church that is comfortable with a lack of comfort – a poor Church.
As a wise priest, now dead, once told me: “When you live among the poor, live as they do. When you live among the rich, do not live as they do.”
“(Indeed), for the Church, the option for the poor is primarily theological; (it is not) a cultural, sociological, political or philosophical (choice).
“God,” says Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, “shows the poor his first mercy.”
Whatever one may feel about this dream that triages the marginalised as a priority, we should be careful not to patronise it as noble sentiment or dismiss it as a niche aspiration for the specialised few – a kind of soup kitchen social work.
As Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est wrote in 2006: “Love for widows and orphans, for prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential to the (Church) as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel.
“The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the sacraments and the Word.”
A poor Church for the poor, like any divinely inspired dream, invites us beyond what is familiar, what is safe, what is comfortable – this is a disturbing prospect, especially for a rich, well-meaning young man – and archdiocese, and parish – looking to our Lord for some consolation, for an easier path.
But is not the response the same: “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me”. (Luke 18:22)
And who is it that calls us out and rattles our inner being, but Christ Jesus: “Who, being in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.” (Philippians 2:5-7)
God became poor.
“Far from being desirable, success and power prevent us from being truly ourselves.
“It is only when we recognise our weakness (our poverty), when we seek help, that we become human.
“We are not called to be perfect, we are called to be humble. And this is the gift we receive when we live with and work beside people who are fragile … The poorest lead us into another world.” (Jean Vanier, The Tablet, April 26, 2014)
Is it not the case that when one is in love, one is drawn to those places in which the beloved is to be found: “I want to be where they are”; “What’s important to them is important to me”; “I’ll risk and leave everything behind for them”?
Such devotion is beautifully portrayed in Ruth’s exchange with her mother-in-law, Naomi:
“Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you.
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16)
A poor Church for the poor is, first and foremost, God’s dream – not a man’s.
Fr Peter Day is a priest of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
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