620. December 6, St Nicholas of Bari (II)

Meditations no. 547 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Following Christ’s example, we want to be detached from material possessions.

The feast of St Nicholas Bari is a good occasion to meditate on the Christian virtue of detachment from material possessions. In order to keep our heart filled with God, our Lord taught us to be detached from earthly goods. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Jesus’ entire life bears the mark of an effective detachment. He is born in a manger and lives for many years in a small village, working to support himself. When setting out to preach, as he himself states, he does not even have the shelter nature provides for the birds of the air and the foxes. He even lacks things that are absolutely necessary. He has nowhere to lay his head, and sometimes has to eat whatever is at hand, such as grains of wheat or wild figs, and not even that when the tree is barren. Jesus seems to want to make us understand that a lack of human means is no obstacle to serving God, who is Lord of all creation. Christ’s poverty forms part of the economy of redemption; it is a consequence of and a condition for love.

Our Lord’s teaching gives great importance to this interior attitude. When the rich young man asks Jesus what he must do to attain eternal life, Christ says: go, sell whatever you have, and give it to. the poor. Our Father asks, Do you see how important detachment is? You and I did not behave like that poor fellow. Hic ille auditis contristatus est, quia dives erat valde (Mk 10: 22). Hearing those things he went away sad, for he had great possessions. We have left everything, and left it willingly, to freely follow our Lord. It doesn’t matter whether it was much or little, since we left it all with the same determination: what we already had and everything that a marvellous young person like yourself could expect to obtain in the future. And we have done so joyfully, my children, because we do not want to have anything for ourselves. We should each tell the Lord, ‘My God, for the sake of your love, I give you everything. I don’t want anything to be mine. Everything is yours.’

Let us look at a scene in St Matthew that will move all of us, since we are determined to live detachment Our Lord tells the disciples sent by St John the Baptist, Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them (Mt11: 4-5). Do you see? Among so many great miracles that reveal Christ’s true nature, he himself points to this one: pauperes evangelizantur (Mt 11: 5), the poor have the good news preached to them. So are you and I going to fail to understand poverty? Are we going to fail to be truly detached in our own lives? Are we going to fail to protect the instruments the Work needs for serving the Church and working for souls?

My children, you have heard our Lord’s words. I myself find them deeply moving. So let us love detachment. Let us love it with a special love. For when the spirit of poverty begins to weaken, one’s whole interior life is going badly.

The spirit of poverty consists in being detached from things.

All Christians have an obligation to live detachment from material possessions in accord with their personal circumstances and vocation. Our Lord has looked on us, as he did on the rich young man, with immense love, and invited us to follow him and to renounce all things. That is why the faithful of Opus Dei are expected to foster a spirit of detachment, sobriety and temperance because, like all Christians, they should imitate and love the life of Jesus Christ who, “though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor.” In doing so, freed from earthly attachments, they can more easily attain intimacy with God and give witness to detachment in the midst of the affairs of this world.

Detachment is above all a vivid proof of love for God. Living detachment from material things is a way of adoring God, acknowledging his power and dominion over all creatures. By inwardly renouncing earthly things, we adhere, opere et veritate, in truth and in deed, to the teaching, example and life of Christ, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Aside from any human motives, an act of this virtue is in itself an offering pleasing to God, and in union with Jesus Christ, it acquires a co-redeeming power.

We must each try to respond to this divine requirement by growing in our own understanding of the supernatural meaning of poverty and striving to live it in accord with the spirit God has given us. For we are ordinary men and women who have to sanctify themselves through their daily work. The members of Opus Dei maintain themselves through what they earn, at the same time as they also help to support the apostolates.

The detachment lived in Opus Dei should not call attention to itself, although it entails many practical consequences that we should lovingly accept. It is a matter of being poor and yet smiling, both in sickness and in health, never making a show of our poverty.

All this demands an inner attitude filled with supernatural outlook. We live in this world with a sense of realism, and as pilgrims journeying towards their eternal homeland. We read in the Catechism that the members of Opus Dei should be completely detached from the items they use, and they should work with a right intention and without a disordered desire for gain. They love, as coming from God’s hands, the inconveniences, shortcomings and privations they encounter; moved by justice and charity, they try to contribute personally, through their work, to remedy the material and spiritual needs of others, and they abandon all their cares in the Lord.

Signs of authentic detachment.

Our Father has given us very specific criteria for discerning what the spirit of the Work requires in each question related to living the spirit of poverty. Since detachment has an eminently supernatural meaning, it cannot be measured by merely financial standards, nor by the expense involved, nor simply in terms of what is most opportune. If you find yourself hesitating and have no one to consult regarding a question of poverty, don’t forget the clear criterion that I have given you. We are the parents of a large and poor family. Then you will never go wrong.

Therefore we will continue to personally carry out small repairs in our homes. We will be frugal in acquiring things for personal use. Yet, with a father’s and a mother’s heart, we will not hesitate to spend money when taking care of someone who is sick, or when striving to give the best possible spiritual formation to our brothers, or when seeking what is needed in order to live in a clean and pleasant Christian home.

My children, we must get down to details. On other occasions I have told you that we have to learn how to live the virtue of poverty. Some words that I wrote down a long time ago may help us.

Many years ago I wrote, ‘Signs of true detachment. First, not to consider anything as our own.’ I recall knowing a certain person who liked to dress well. He spent huge sums of money on his suits. But when he got home he would throw his clothes all over the place. He told me, ‘I don’t exist for my clothes; my clothes exist for me.’ Something similar may happen to you, my son. Of course things have to be used. But we cannot mistreat them; we have to make them last, since they don’t belong to us. They are a means for our personal sanctity and for the apostolate.

I also had written down, Second, not to have anything superfluous.

Finally, there was the third sign, Not complaining when we lack what we need. What do we do when this happens? Do we cry? Of course not. Do we laugh? Probably not. But we are joyful, inwardly very joyful. It is more unlikely, now, that we ever lack what is necessary. Before we used to lack absolutely necessary things for years. But if this should ever happen again, then you should be happy, my children, certain that if you abandon yourselves in God’s hands, all the apostolic works will go forward, as well as the sanctity of your brothers and sisters and your own sanctity.

We must try to respond to our Father’s watchful concern by truly striving to improve the way each of us lives this virtue. If this time of prayer leads you to the conclusion that poverty is a central virtue for being saints in Opus Dei, for being happy here on earth, and for receiving an immense reward in heaven, then you will have prayed well. Go to the blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lady will place in your heart a great love for the detachment God wants us to have.