Now let's turn to Chapter XX " Poverty", pages 229 and 230.
Consider, first of all, certain evil effects of affluence or possession.
First, it causes attachment - binding the heart and will as with fetters to the things of the earth.
Next, it causes anxiety; occupying the mind, filling the heart with trouble, taking up time and attention.
Thirdly, it causes pride and vanity; the man who is owner or proprietor feels a security, a sense of power, a flattering superiority, which lifts him up in self-satisfaction.
Hence the hearts of the well-to-do are generally hard; whilst a man's thorough conversion often results from his losing everything he has.
Next, reflect upon some of the advantages of Poverty. First, it removes many temptations....such as dishonesty, sensuality, impurity. The poor man, if he love his poverty, is sheltered from the troubled atmosphere where the devil has his own way; the occasions of sin pass him by.
Bishop Headley then moves to say (obviously getting going now):
..it makes a holocaust of our bodies. With its accompanying hardships, its manifold sting, its searching humiliation, it is a continuous and lifelong mortification of the flesh.
I hope this short lesson helps. I may post more as the week progresses.
In the meantime I wish upon the bankers, politicians and economists, the last paragraph above, courtesy of John Cuthbert Headley, OSB.
