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Nobody wants to be poor so why does Jesus praise poverty and (in the Gospels) spend so much time with those who are poor ?

Let’s unpack this.

The virtue of poverty is a comfortable awareness that whether or not we have material possessions we are needy for what is beyond our own ability to provide.

We need God.

The problem with the rich young man is not necessarily that he had a lot but that he was attached to having a lot, perhaps money, power, influence, success, control – the very things the secular mentality mistakenly extols as life’s goals

His attachment (ie his wealth) prevented his free living leading him to walk away from Jesus in sadness.

Some people who do have considerable wealth do live with a gospel poverty, a detachment from what they may possess, real generosity, and a profound awareness of their need for God.

Today’s Gospel account of Dives and Lazarus is a helpful Lenten focus:

“There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores.”

Note that the emphasis is not so much on the bank accounts of the two but on their behaviour, one flaunting wealth and the other helplessly suffering.

And the real problem seems to be the gulf between the two not only in life but also after death when their fortunes are reversed:

“Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.”

The real problem is poverty (which can be material, emotional, psychological, physical, intellectual…) without the resources, the power, the ability to change one’s circumstance. In this trap people can feel powerless to bridge the gulf.

And that’s where those of us who have enough and who desire Christ-centred poverty can bridge the gulf by imitating the outreached arms of the poor with our own extended hands, to hold, to embrace and to uplift.

In this gesture of openness and generosity we bridge every gulf and begin to live as sisters and brothers.

 

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Upcoming Cafe Gatherings:

Send a name, date, place and time and I’ll share your invitation. Just initiate a gathering, send me the info, and turn up to meet with anyone else who wants to take an hour to chat about their experience of God.

TODAY Thursday 5 March 2026 10.30am
The Cafe at Harrison’s Pekapeka Rd Waikanae
Catherine

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