Last week we looked at the two attitudes towards poverty found in the Old Testament. The first was that poverty was a negative consequence of idleness and lack of industry, whereas wealth was a blessing from God.  The second view was that one needed to see oneself as poor before God despite one’s situation in life, because it was from God that wealth came.  What does this really mean for this whole discussion of economic life?

We must first remember that we all belong to the Kingdom of God.  Everything we receive and achieve is as a result of some higher being.  Everything comes from God. God sent his son Jesus Christ, who through his spirit established the Kingdom of God.

Through this Spirit, we are made one with Christ and are therefore expected to continue the work he started. Therefore our human activities must promote justice, fellowship and sharing. We all have a moral obligation to help those persons who are distressed and we must seek to ensure that we create real ways for persons to come out of their poverty, by not promoting systems that disadvantage the poor or seek to prevent persons from obtaining material wealth. Further, we must not use our wealth to deliberately disadvantage others or to promote our advancement only. 

The Compendium tells us: “Jesus takes up the entire Old Testament tradition even with regard to economic goods, wealth and poverty, and he gives them great clarity and fullness (cf Mt 6:24, 13:22; Lk 6:20-24, 12:15-21; Rom 14:6-8; 1 Tim 4:4). Through the gift of his Spirit and the conversion of hearts, he comes to establish the “Kingdom of God”, so that a new manner of social life is made possible, in justice, brotherhood, solidarity and sharing.

The Kingdom inaugurated by Christ perfects the original goodness of the created order and of human activity, which were compromised by sin. Freed from evil and being placed once more in communion with God, man is able to continue the work of Jesus, with the help of his Spirit.

In this, man is called to render justice to the poor, releasing the oppressed, consoling the afflicted, actively seeking a new social order in which adequate solutions to material poverty are offered in which the forces thwarting the attempt of the weakest to free themselves from conditions of misery and slavery are more effectively controlled.  When this happens, the Kingdom of God is already present on this earth, although it is not of the earth. It is in this Kingdom that the promises of the Prophets find final fulfillment.”

This will be the premise for the discussions on economic life.

Interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church? Please contact the Catholic Commission for Social Justice, Archbishop’s House – 622-6680.