In the Gospel of Matthew it says “Blessed are the poor in spirit”; and according to our Fathers, that means the humble. And the scholars agree that this verse is a palliative rendering of the rather harsh verse in Luke 6: 20 “Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” And they say that what Matthew says is the original version that the Lord has uttered. Regardless of the interpretation, it is clear that the needy have a special place with Jesus of Nazareth since He says that the Good News will be preached to them in Matthew 11:5. As if the writer of those words wanted to say that the Gospel is for them, or that they are the ones who accept it since they are the ones who seek the Kingdom of Heaven. It is as if he also says that the rich have their possessions which they consider their “place of rest”. As such, money is the focus of their sentiments and they rely on it. So we find in the story of Lazarus and the rich man that the rich man is almost a synonym for luxury and pleasure and ease which sort of “contain” the rich man.
But what is poorness? Is not it having a low income status in a certain community? But what is the weak? There is a relatively new term being used and it is “at the threshold of poverty” whereby the person has an income that just barely keeps him from dying of hunger or makes him unable to support his family with the necessities like food, clothing, shelter and education.
That condition makes one belong to a social grouping that is looked down upon by those who are proud making them a marginal group and not one that participates with them in production and in the active political life. And as such, in their eyes, the world is classified into two classes, the rich and the poor.
Then Karl Marx comes with what he considered to be the balance of justice calling to abolish the social classes at a time the European continent has become a group of people in which one finds an outrageous distinction between social classes. He did not wish that people would have social and economical sameness, but he desired that there would be a reasonable mutual existence void of humiliation due to the outrageous difference in the standards of living.
It does not seem that Marxism was successfully realized with Lenin. And after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it is clear that there is no “romantic sense for communism” among the millions that benefited from it whether they are of the proletariat or the highly cultured among them. But the longing for a reasonable justice is still in the heart of many.
It is clear to those interested that Christianity is not based on an economical system and does not call for one. Jesus did not place Himself in the framework of a social organization as communism did in its denunciation of individual property in production and trade and its rejection of social inequality. Christianity is a call for the sake of the needy and the poor or one may say that in Christianity there is such a call. But Christianity is neither a system that is realized through a revolution nor a non-revolutionary social system like we have in the Scandinavian countries.
The obsession with a revolution or a coup is foreign to Christianity which is a call. That is what Jesus of Nazareth, who never wanted to coerce anyone or to impose a system by force even by just calling for it, desired. That is what makes us understand that Apostolic Christianity did not associate itself with the state or separate itself from it. At its primordial appearance, Christainity had its followers as Romans and it never sought to establish itself as a state outside that of the Roman Empire because the Man from Nazareth was content to reveal that His reign is that of the Kingdom of God and that it is in people’s hearts.
He did conquer countries neither by force nor by peace. During His days that was the business of the Roman Empire. And after His death, during the times of the Church, the spread of His Kingdom was, in principle, not associated with politics. He wanted to work through His Spirit and His Gospel; and the kingdoms of this world are left to the different approaches of the different periods of time. And we who follow Him are not of that system though we are in the world; Christ is King in people’s hearts.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not present the rich as being without a heart but it teaches that wealth is a danger on Man. The Nazarene warns of the spiritual dangers whatever they are, of enslaving yourself to any creature or man-made thing; and thus He says “you cannot worship both God and money” (Matthew 6: 24). We have the worship of the only and unique God. And as a worshipper God considers you not a slave but His son. But according to the understanding of one of our great theologians, you make yourself God’s slave through love.
If you become through love a slave to God, you cannot make for yourself another lord.
No doubt that money and all your possessions capture you strongly. If this is so, then you are not left free to worship God. You have to surrender yourself to Him alone. That is the condition of love; as such there is no love other than God. So we see that there is no place for money in one’s heart and there is no enslavement to any human being. To love others like the Nazarene said “love your neighbor as yourself” is not an enslavement but it is giving till the end that is till death. That is in conflict with the love of money and possessions.
Are the rich a group of people whom Christ denounced? In fact Jesus spoke about those rich who are in love with their money and are attached to it not considering the presence of those who are poor and severing themselves from them. The concern of Jesus of Nazareth is that we be socially one with all people without being separated by social standards and as such we see ourselves as people who are entrusted with what belongs to God (our money and possessions).
Our money is not ours. We manage it for our own benefit and the benefit of others. Christianity does not have rulings concerning the possession of money or giving it away. It says to every human being that the other human being is your brother and so treat him as a brother.
So if you behave accordingly there remains no separation between you and the other; and you would not run your life with pomp and affluence but with compassion not allowing your neighbor to get close to death due to hunger or due to any other need because your neighbor is of your flesh and of your bones. So what has come to you through an inheritance or what you have earned through work would be spent by those who are in need of it and you look after their need and serve them as if they are Christ.
Christianity dictates on you to give those around you a portion of your wealth. Christianity makes your heart feel that you have nothing on this earth. And with that you get to a point where you stop believing in keeping things as private belongings but as things to share with others (communion).
Communion means that you do not consider the “I” alone but you say “you” and “I”; in fact you say “we”. Translating that to our living reality means to love the community which you are part of and is part of you.
Some differences will remain. “The poor are with you always but I am not with you always”. Saying that to Judas, Jesus does not mean to say that He accepts that others should be in need. He wants us to bring justice into the society we are part of and above justice love. Jesus was not metaphysical that is putting off what is good. “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Love is the Kingdom of God.
Translated by Riad Moufarrij
Original Text: “الفقراء” – An Nahar – 05.01.2013
