May not bodily poverty also serve spiritual perfection?
Poverty has many causes and may even be self-inflicted (Prv 10:4; 13:18). Christians must make every effort to work and provide for their families: “if anyone does not provide for his own, especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1Ti 5:8; see the Study: God and Economics, on the dignity of labor; see Q551, Q562).
Yet, the Lord himself shows that many who seek work cannot find it: “About the eleventh hour, he went out and still found others standing idle. He asked them, ‘Why do you stand here all day, doing nothing?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us!’” (Mat 20:6–7).
While Christians do not wish to reward idleness, they are loath to judge, and are generous to the poor, being called to treat those in need as the Lord himself: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me… Amen, I tell you: as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mat 25:35–40; see Q462).
The poor are thus, for the eyes of faith, living icons of Christ, and almsgiving is an act of worship and even of holy ‘lending’: “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed” (Prv 19:17; cf. Tob 4:7–11; Sir 29:8–13).
Christians who are employers must never defraud their workers of the promised wage, endeavoring not to maximize personal profit but to be icons of God’s fatherly care: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl… Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (Jas 5:1–5; see the Study: God and Economics, and Basis of the Social Concept, VI; see Q055).
Many of the Lord’s disciples have freely chosen the path of voluntary poverty, through the sharing of their wealth or the monastic life, according to the word of Jesus Christ to the rich young man: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me” (Mat 19:21; see Q594).
1570. In apostolic times, knowing also that the city of Jerusalem was doomed to destruction (Mat 24:2; Luk 21:20; see Q234, Q235), many disciples showed this great generosity: “Grace was upon them all. No one among them lacked anything because those who owned lands or houses sold them. They brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the feet of the apostles. Then distribution was made to each, according to everyone’s need” (Act 4:34–35).
