Abridged Worship – May 4, 2025

Poverty is not something the everyone experiences in life. It is not something you can explain; it seems like you could explain it, but a life of depletion and desperation isn’t something you can truly understand until you experience it.  

When I was young, I was raised somewhere between lower-middle class and upper lower class. Money was tight, but we always had food, shelter, a car, and some minor entertainment – but not much else. All the kids in my school claimed we all lived in the ghetto, maybe we did but I didn’t notice (but I also wasn’t the one paying the bills). 

When I got to college, and was paying for rent, food, bills, and school, suddenly I felt a pinch of desperation. There were many nights I went without food because I could not afford it, or I had to break my pride and seek help from my wealthy classmates. I think I ate more food from my girlfriend’s cafeteria food card than she did. But really that was just a short season of my life.  

So, I do not speak on poverty and the poor this day with much personal knowledge, all I can do I fall on the wisdom of others.  

When I seek to understand the poor, one of my favorite people to consider is Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis was not born into poverty, rather the opposite. Francis was born into a wealthy family in the 12^th century in Italy. To make a long story short, after his profound conversion, Francis rejected his entire inheritance, took a vow of poverty and lived a simple life serving the poor. It is said that Francis joyfully embraced poverty and from his embracing of poverty, inspired the Church and its people toward the Gospel of Jesus.  

This is such a challenging thing for us in the West. We often love to hear the opposite story, don’t we. When someone in poverty does something, learns something, builds something, and as a result catapults themselves out of poverty. Rags to riches is something we not only celebrate, we market it. Some many companies try to sell their products by saying: if you use what we have to offer think about how rich, how successful you will become. We love to think rags to riches, but we do not seem to rejoice over riches to rags.  

This is an area of a faith in Jesus that I feel that Catholics do better. There are many saints in Catholic Church history who adopted willingly a life of poverty. But I have to admit, there is a part of me that gets a bit frustrated at some of these stories.  

Here is an example of why I get frustrated: the story of St. Gemma Galgani, the Patron Saint of the Poor and Unemployed. From what I understand, her father was a pharmacist and a very generous man; so generous that he would give out more than he could afford. Eventually collectors would come and take away everything the Galgani family had but they, being so charitable, continued to serve the poor. After her father’s death, Gemma continued this love for people and gave and gave more than she had.  

The reason this frustrates me is that my brain can’t help but say: if her father would have scaled back, if he had charged enough to keep his business open, they might had enough to keep their lives going. If he charged the richer clients more, he could have served the poor more and maybe generated a long-time solution. Maybe he could have established a charity to try to get others to do more. I’m starting to sound like a politician. I actually sound like Judas – remember when Mary pours out the expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet, and Judas says hey what is she doing, that’s not practical, we could have sold that and gave the money to the poor. Do you remember what Jesus said to him? You will always have the poor, but you will not always have me. There is always something you can do for the poor, and you should do it, but take the opportunity when you can do something for Jesus.  

We learn from the Gospel of John that one of the reasons Judas was upset about the perfume was not just because they could give the money to the poor, but because Judas stole from the purse and he could have used some of that money himself.  

I think the real reason I want these saints of the Catholic tradition to find more pragmatic ways to serve the poor is because the pragmatic ways let the Christian serve themselves in the process. We want to keep charity, grace, love, and hospitality pragmatic so we don’t have to give up the worldly things we love. There is a reason why, when the rich young man came to Jesus looking to find out what he had to do to be perfect, Jesus said sell everything you have, give it to the poor and follow me. That last part, following Jesus, is the pinnacle of that statement. Yes, we give it all up to serve but more so to draw us closer to Jesus.  

St. Francis of Assisi and St. Gemma Galgani did what the rich young man could not do, they gave it all up, joyfully went into poverty, and served so that their serving would bring glory to God.  

Ask yourself, whether you have experienced poverty or not, would you be willing to let it all go, stop thinking of the pragmatic, trust in God, work to serve the poor, the sick, and lost, and give your life as an offering to the Lord? Would you step down from easement, comfort, luxury, into the simple struggle of holy poverty for love for God and those who bear his image? 

Think about who Jesus is: the Word of God, who sits at the right hand of the Father. The divine Son who steps down from the highest of heights in majesty and glory, into poverty, into desperation, and embraces the life of the meek and sorrowful, all to serve and teach us to serve; and in that life of poverty, he invites us to his feet, invites us to his table, invites us into his kingdom, into his father house, and feeds us from his very body.  

Jesus calls us to live a life that reflects his own, that becomes a living embodiment of who Jesus is, one who gives it all up, and feeds everyone he can, by the Spirit.  

Let our church become a church that brings in the poor, where people who call this place their house of worship embrace the humility of being poor, as none of us are greater than our Master, Jesus Christ.  

Let us pray…

Lord, we seek to reconcile our hearts with You and Your will. Let our lives be a sign of our trust in Your wisdom and grace. May our ministry here become a light to the world; that upholds Your mission of reconciliation. Amen.

Homework: