- Feb 5, 2002
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In its own way, the call to poverty holds for the father as much as for the friar.
“Can you be a Christian and own a BMW?” This question came up more than once in the private Christian school where I started my teaching career. Many of the students came from wealthy families, so you can imagine the ire directed at one teacher in particular who would argue that it is not right for a Christian to own a luxury car. I think that anyone who argues in that way should be prepared to face serious backlash, but their conclusions about Christian asceticism are likely to be accompanied by similarly unpopular conclusions and expectations about persecution.
One such person is Thomas Dubay, the author of many books, but most pertinent to this article is his book Happy Are You Poor. In that book, he argues that there is a kind of poverty that all Christians should embrace. The call to gospel poverty is not optional for the Christian.
A real life model of poverty in my own experience is the Community of the Friars of the Renewal. I am an associate of the friars through Most Blessed Sacrament Friary in Newark, New Jersey, which serves as the house for the novices.
When I mentioned Dubay’s book to some of the friars, they immediately recognized it. The novice director, Father Francis Mary, uses it in lessons on poverty. Other friars have benefitted from time with the book as well. If the men who try to model their life after that of the “poor man of Assisi” think well of it, then I take it more seriously.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
“Can you be a Christian and own a BMW?” This question came up more than once in the private Christian school where I started my teaching career. Many of the students came from wealthy families, so you can imagine the ire directed at one teacher in particular who would argue that it is not right for a Christian to own a luxury car. I think that anyone who argues in that way should be prepared to face serious backlash, but their conclusions about Christian asceticism are likely to be accompanied by similarly unpopular conclusions and expectations about persecution.
One such person is Thomas Dubay, the author of many books, but most pertinent to this article is his book Happy Are You Poor. In that book, he argues that there is a kind of poverty that all Christians should embrace. The call to gospel poverty is not optional for the Christian.
A real life model of poverty in my own experience is the Community of the Friars of the Renewal. I am an associate of the friars through Most Blessed Sacrament Friary in Newark, New Jersey, which serves as the house for the novices.
When I mentioned Dubay’s book to some of the friars, they immediately recognized it. The novice director, Father Francis Mary, uses it in lessons on poverty. Other friars have benefitted from time with the book as well. If the men who try to model their life after that of the “poor man of Assisi” think well of it, then I take it more seriously.
Continued below.
There Is a Kind of Gospel Poverty That All Christians Must Embrace
In its own way, the call to poverty holds for the father as much as for the friar.
