Greed and Poverty

The answers to the questions are prepared by the theologian Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno, Central Assistant of the Apostolic Movement.

Q. How do you acquire virtues?

A. A virtue is not won in a day. The spiritual elevation masters say that if one acquires a virtue in ten years, he becomes a great saint. A virtue is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift of the heavenly Father, and it is then an exercise on our part. You target a virtue, the one you want; virtues are many and are all referable to the theological and cardinal virtues. For example, poverty is ascribable to faith, hope and charity. To the faith because you trust the word of the Lord. To charity because you make a gift of your life to others. To hope, because you live the present life under the form of eternity, because you know you have to go into eternal life. You target a virtue, and for this you talk with your spiritual father, you talk with your confessor or with one of your friends that can enlighten you on what virtue is more necessary to you to conduct well your life. Once you have targeted the virtue you must never stop to practice in it. Today, you can also fall, you can also fall tomorrow, but if you pray with intensity of love and faith and ask to the Lord for the virtue, that virtue you need; little by little, the Lord will transform you and will lead you to acquire that virtue you need to be pleasing to him. Prayer is very important, it is vital. Solomon was a king, and he was young; and one night, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and told him: “Ask me what you want and I will give it to you.” And Solomon said: “I am young, I do not know how to rule this people, I am inexperienced, I lack wisdom, I lack discernment and I lack all those virtues necessary to govern.” Then the Lord said to him, “Since you have asked for this, and have not asked for wealth, I am giving you such a wisdom that no man on earth has been wise up now, and no one else will be like you.” In fact, they speak of the wisdom of Solomon, famous throughout the Old Testament. Read the sixth chapter of the Book of Wisdom and you will see that Solomon says a beautiful prayer to the Lord when he asks for the gift of wisdom. In the chapters that follow then, there is the description of knowledge, that is of the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.

Q. In chapter 18 of Sirach it says that the man who lives in pursuit of pleasure, lust, greed and other things, has as a direct result the fact of living doubly in vice, of sinning doubly and being doubly poor. Can you better explain to us this double poverty?

A. When you live in vice, vice has a very high cost. Vice demands the thing that you want, which has a price. If you smoke, the mere smoke costs you a certain amount every day. Then if you add alcohol to smoking it costs you even more, and so on. One day I did the calculation to a person who was said he was poor, and I concluded that he was spending for his vices, which he cultivated every day, 460 thousand liras a month, and only for those innocent vices. Why do we speak of a double poverty? Because you have poverty on earth and then you have got it in heaven. Because if you have not made a gift of your life to the Lord, you have not served the Lord in the wretched, the poor and the little ones, as does the Lord go about giving you his kingdom? He cannot give it to you. You live in misery on earth and live in misery in heaven. And this is not convenient to anyone. The virtue earns us always, on earth and in heaven. To be able to do good you have to be virtuous. If I do not have vices I can do good, but if I have vices I cannot do the good, because nothing is enough for me. Let us put this principle in the heart, and you will see how much good we can do to all, without distinction. Even the poorest can do good. Think of the widow of the gospel that dropped into the treasury of the temple those two coins. Why could she drop those two pennies and be praised by Christ? Because that woman lived in perfect faith, perfect temperance and perfect love. If we do this, the Lord blesses us.

Q. Sometimes I get asked a question I cannot answer: “The Church always preaches to operate in poverty; however, noting facts it seems that she actually operates in pomp”. How to answer to this kind of question?

A. In our morality everyone is responsible for his actions. The Church is not involved. Because in the Church there are people who live in holy poverty and there are people who live in opulence. But it is not the Church that lives, it is man. Among you there is someone who can live in vice and someone who lives in virtue. But not for this I have to say that the youth lives in vice or that the youth lives in faith, or love, or charity. I have to say: this person does not give a holy witness and this one gives it. We need to have that insight, that wisdom to see the good and see the evil, see the vice and also see the virtue. The seen virtue gives you hope, because if the brother was able to live it I can do it too. There are many priests who live badly, but there are also many priests who live the standard of the people, who do not go beyond what is permitted. It is important that we always know how to discern this. The actions are of the person, of every single person. Let us get used to seeing things more gracefully, with more holiness and with more love. That the kingdom of heaven is like a net that takes all kinds of fish it is true. There are the good fish and there are bad ones. In the Church there are saints and there are sinners. There are great saints and there are also great sinners. But the holiness of the Church, of these holy men, many times is not even emphasized. We must say that there are saints who have brought honour to the Church; and every day they give luster to the whole world. Holiness in the Church exists and it is real, it is a real thing and it is visible. Even among us there is so much holiness. There can be much vice. But our journey is always towards holiness and we must be patient, have mercy and work. If we all this evening commit ourselves to wish the virtues, the virtues will come, and we upturn the vision people have of the Church, because there is a group of young people who want to live the holy virtues. And these young people are Church.

Q. What difference is there between avarice and parsimony?

A. Avarice is the hoarding of everything that is not yours. The miser never has enough of wanting. But the miser never gives anything. He takes with one hand and he does not give with the other. Avarice is a nasty disease, because the miser wished he could possess whatever is of the neighbour. For example, usury starts with the insatiable avarice. In chapters four and five, when he speaks of avarice St. James says that workers are abused, are starved for an insatiable avarice. Every vice produces other vices.. You become unjust because you have this vice of avarice. On the contrary, parsimony governs your life to make good use of the things you own, so that they are not consumed, wasted, dispersed and ill-used. However, the parsimonious does not close his assets in his heart, but use them wisely and opens his hand to the poor. Parsimony is necessary to be able to do good. So with one thing you do two: you keep one part for yourself and give the other to another person. Today we lack parsimony, because we are accustomed to spoil the good of God. If we use the gift of God well, we can do some good to our brother. If you save something with parsimony, you can give the saving to the brothers who need it. When St. Paul makes the collection for the poor of Jerusalem he recommends: “Every week set something aside, give up something, be thrifty and then give the proceeds from this collection to the benefit of your brothers that are in Jerusalem, and that suffer hunger, nakedness and persecution.” I renounce to something so that you may have something. Here is what poverty is. Poverty is not closing yourself in your lives, it is making a gift. Parsimony is not a virtue if you only mind saving. It becomes a virtue the moment you give, if you do something good. Many of you make long distance adoptions. To keep the long distance adoption a little parsimony, a little bit of savings are needed and at the end of the year you have the opportunity of making a long distance adoption.

Q. In the book of Tobit there is written that, if you meet on the street a poor with a faithful heart you have to invite him to dine with you. What difference is there among the poor? Why can a poor man be with a faithful heart and another one no? What must our attitude be in this regard? Must we make a distinction among poor?

A. Our dear Tobi lives in exile in a difficult situation. Here the Jews were also persecuted, they were like slaves. So who is the poorest? Tobi thinks of a wise charity, and for him the most poor is his brother who is in misfortune, who has nothing to eat, has nothing to drink and has nothing to get dressed. You must always find the one who is the poorest. You find who is the poorest and you make your offer and your alms. You have to give your alms, you have to give your gift to the truly poor. You cannot serve the false poor; otherwise the one who is truly poor has nothing to live on. Tobi lives within the Old Testament and in the Old Testament the first neighbour was the blood brother, the flesh brother, and then came every other man. In the New Testament, we no longer have this law. In the tenth chapter of St. Luke Christ declared that the neighbour is anyone you meet on the street, and at that moment needs you. If you see someone in need you do not look if he is your brother or not, you just help him and that is it. Between the Old Testament and the New Testament there is a completion, a perfection of charity. In the Old Testament the fullness of grace is lacking. Without the fullness of grace you cannot live the fullness of charity. To give your life on the Cross the fullness of grace is needed otherwise you cannot make it.

Q. What is greed?

A. The glutton is one who is never satiated. Greed makes you do something that hurts also your very life. Avarice with greed reaches the summit of spiritual blindness. Think of the rich man. This man lives for food and dress and sees no one. He sees only himself and is never satiated. He goes from one banquet to another, passes from one dress to another and is never satiated. He does not even see that poor man who is at the door. This is what make him deserve eternal damnation, the fact of having closed his life in himself. He was not able to open up to his brother.

Q. Will you speak to us about providence? Is providence only of the people who do the will of God?

A. Providence is the plan that God has on your life. God always helps this plan so that you bring it to fruition. Providence is not just in the matter, but it is for every dimension of life. When the Lord created you, he did it because you reach a goal, a purpose, that he decided from all eternity. God always gives you whatever is necessary for you to reach the end. For you to be able to reach the end your good will is necessary. Then, the prayer for the Lord to intervene in your life and assist, protect, enlighten, support and guide you is necessary. This is essential for you to reach the end. God establishes, but does not determine without your will. He establishes without your will, because he is the Lord, but for you to be able to get to the end your will is important. You put yourself in the will of God and he every day paves the way for you. This is providence. For providence to be exercised your desire is crucial. In the sixth chapter of Matthew, when Jesus speaks of the providence of the Father he says: “Look at the lilies of the field they do not sow, they do not spin, they do not reap, they do nothing, they have no loom, yet never was Solomon arrayed like one of them… Look at the birds of the sky, not even they sow, reap, collect, gather, yet none of them are starving, because every day my Father clothes the lilies and feeds the birds… Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest will be added unto you.” We must have this faith in providence, believing that God does not abandon me. But when does God not abandon me? When I do not abandon Him. It is a reciprocity. God wants to do everything for you, but do you want Him to do everything for you? If you want it he helps you, if you do not want it, he cannot help you. Without your will God cannot come into your life. The will of man is necessary for God to come in, govern and manage. You give him your will and the Lord intervenes and governs. If we believed a little more in providence, our lives would be different. They would receive a new meaning, because I am not alone, God is with me, God protects me, God guides me, God feeds me and God sustains me. This does not mean that you must not do the will of God every day. You do it, and God puts the rest in addition.

Q. In Sirach it is made present that wealth is good if it is without sin and poverty is bad according to the wicked. In Mark’s Gospel we find: “One thing you lack, go sell everything you have and give the money to the poor, you will have a treasure in heaven; then, come and follow me… it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Does it seem that there is some kind of imposition in this?

A. There exist the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament wealth was considered a blessing from God. But the Old Testament says to be careful, that wealth is a blessing from God if it is without sin. It means, a wealth gained through your obedience to the commandments. You did not say perjury to acquire it, you did not steal to acquire it and you did not adulterate to acquire it. You can also take as a groom / bride someone that you know is a possessor to have a little bit of wealth, thus transgressing the commandment of God. You can also kill for wealth. You can dishonour your father and your mother for wealth. This is a wealth with sin, and it is not good before God. It is an evil wealth. But when is wealth without sin? When you observe the law of charity. If you read the Old Testament you realize that for each of us there is a duty of charity: toward the brother, toward the neighbour, toward the friend and toward the acquaintance. You have an obligation not to close your wealth in yourself, because otherwise this wealth is sinful. You will make of it a tool at your sole use and consumption. The Lord always does you good so that you also do good. If I close the wealth in myself, even the spiritual one, I commit sin. My wealth is not holy. In the acquisition and possession, wealth must be without sin. In the book of Tobit, at the fourth chapter, when Tobi gives the teaching to his son he tells him: “If you have a lot give a lot, if you have a little do not hesitate to give according to what little you have, because alms protects you from harm.” With regard to the acquisition of wealth in chapter twelve of the same book, Tobias returns from his journey laden with gifts and goods. He comes with his wife and comes with all the recovered sum. The father tells his son: “My son to this man who has accompanied you it is not right that we give only the wages agreed upon. Since he did you a great good it is right that at least half of what you have recovered we give it to him. It is right because he risked his life for you.” You give to the one who allowed you to acquire wealth, because he was an instrument of enrichment. However, then, we know that the Angel Raphael gave up the money, he revealed his identity and told Tobias that he did not need money because he was one of the seven angels always ready to enter into the presence of God. In the New Testament the first Bliss is poverty of spirit: “Blessed are those who are able to put their lives in God’s hands and give it to him.” In the Gospel of Mark, Christ asked this man: “Give me your life?”. He could also not have material goods, but he did not give him his life. He was afraid for the many goods that he possessed, and ended his life in wealth. Now, if I close my life in wealth, the Lord cannot save me. I have to put my life in God’s hands, with all the riches. Wealth is fleeting, the gift of God is eternal, holy and righteous instead. But we are in two different areas. In the New Testament we have the fullness of grace and truth that we have not yet in the Old Testament. Christ did make in the New Testament an extension of the Old Testament, but he brought something infinitely greater, infinitely superior. He brought himself. God comes among us in his flesh.

Q. What kind of charity does a person who claims to practice charity, almsgiving, parsimony and every other virtue, but does not live the perfect obedience to the gospel; actually carry out?

A. There is a start. The Christian life must begin somewhere. You can start from charity, you can start from hope. If you begin from charity, do not ask yourself whether you live well or live bad, but practice charity well. Jesus Christ seeing you are a woman of charity it is up to him to bring you into the fullness of the Christian life. Cornelius was a Gentile – we find him in Acts 10 – who did works of charity. He had this spirit of helping the poor. The Lord uses Peter to save him, to give the fullness of grace and truth to Cornelius. Also in Acts Peter, in a striking way, raises Tabitha because women wept before him the death of this beautiful soul. The women complained that without her no one would have sewed a dress, or would have made a cloak or a tunic for them anymore. Peter out of love for those women raises a “Gazelle”. From a virtue the Lord moves to give you another one. Who practiced almsgiving has never been without the grace of God. The Lord sees your heart and helps you achieve perfection. Charity is the soul of all the virtues. When a person is charitable, the Lord opens his heart and bestows the virtues that you are still missing. You help the poor, and he rescues you who are poor. Charity is not just the material it is also spiritual one. Many are not able to do the material charity, but tonight if we decided to do the spiritual charity, we would renew the world because what you cannot do the Lord can do. We can do so much good with prayer, or in giving a good advice to a person, or even in forgiving sinners. There are so many good works you can do. Let us do them.

Q. If a brother asks me for a loan but I know that he does not need this loan, or that he will use it badly. Is it just or not that I give this alms?

A. There is no law in charity. Charity has no law. Charity is moved by the Holy Spirit within you. You must pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten you to understand what charity you have to do at that precise moment, and the amount and forms of it. It is important that you live in intimate communion with the Spirit, and you have to pray to him well, because there is no law that prevents and orients you. In each case you have to evaluate what is appropriate, what is right, what is better, what is best and what is holy. You evaluate and the Lord in prayer will help you. St. Paul says that the Christian is the man of discernment: he listens, discerns and answers. In the Bible there is a man named called Nehemiah. He was a deported in Babylon and was the king’s cupbearer. One day he went to pour the wine into the glass of the king that saw him sad and asked him what was wrong. Nehemiah told him that he and his brothers were in a land of exile, and the king asked him what he wanted him to do for him. Then the scripture says that before answering, Nehemiah prayed. You listen, pray and answer. You must have this great wisdom to always pray, because prayer must be premised before all human actions.

Q. Accumulating money is not good, it is good to give charity. If I were a business manager who has a great wealth and a lot of money and decided to help people by giving them work. But the work that I give is always smaller compared to my actual earnings. I want to invest most of my earnings on my family, my children, to give them a bright future. I give a lot to my family and I give what is right to my workers. Although this limits a lot the work that could be given to many other people. Do not in this case I fall into avarice, because in any case I give charity?

A. We must distinguish what is justice and what is charity. It is justice all that I have to give you who work for me. I have to pay you according to justice, as it is justice on your part to work according to the salary that I give you. Justice is respect of the contract drawn up between employer and worker. What is solidarity? Not to close your life in yourself, or in what belongs to you. You can also wish a good or brilliant future for your son. However, this does not dispense you from doing charity, because charity frees you from death, frees you from eternal hell and opens you the gates of heaven. Only for charity one goes to heaven. The final judgment is clear in Matthew Chapter 25. But Luke also talks about it when he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. The initial question: “Teacher what good I must do to have eternal life?”, finds the answer in the parable itself, and that is: “Love your neighbour. Do the good.” How much space does my neighbor have in my wealth? I have to find it if you want to go to Paradise. We are all obliged to find this space, and if we do not find it we cannot go to heaven. The road is this. It is the way of the gift, because God is a gift and he wants his children to make themselves gifts. In scripture, the Lord gradually trains his children to become gifts for each other. In charity there is room for the other. If we create these spaces our life certainly goes to heaven. If we do not create these spaces our life becomes selfish. Poverty is making of one’s life a gift.

Directions for the preparation of the meeting given by Monsignor Costantino Di Bruno:

– Quotations from the Old and New Testament (PDF attached).

– Poverty in the New Testament according to the Sermon on the Mount (PDF attached).