Poverty

I often wonder about evil, its existence and the effect it has upon so many people.  If we think about evil and attempt to categorize the many different threads that are connected to this one abstract, yet real obtrusiveness in human history, we could absolutely go berserk in trying to list them.  To my way of thinking, there is one parent of all aspects of evil that spawns all unwanted, unnecessary, and unneeded events in life’s miseries, addictions, crimes, and especially Godless events that plague human life. 

Enter that reality known as poverty.  However, there is a good side and a down side to poverty.  The first is one that is chosen by some people, especially many saints and others who seek an austere type of living and are perfectly happy within their choice.  I would say they are very blessed and God’s Grace is with them as they portray an opportunity to find the more perfect road on their spiritual journey to God and satisfaction without the piles of treasures so many others seek.  

It is the other side of a two-edged sword that a darker type of poverty plagues our society today.  To some this might just represent another abjection of the thoughts of the wealthy that there are those who live outside the center of society’s inner circle, those who exist on the fringes of acceptable behavior, the many who are the disenfranchised with no one caring about their outcome.  But, those who reflect the above scenarios are real living persons, God’s children, and would you believe our charges that need someone who cares.

The greatest evil in our world today,                                                              To You O’Lord I give my all,

Is not found in pounds of flesh so free,                                                          For freedom from want, I seek your presence,

No one can choose to be forlorn,                                                                   My quest in life to find your treasure,

It comes out of the dark like a flash in the night.                                            A gift from needing the emptiness of wealth. 

From this time of grief comes great despair,                                                   We become impoverished in prayer alone, 

It sours our souls and screams in fear,                                                           The theme of saints and mystics all,

Murder, hatred, mistrust and doubt,                                                               To You we thank to be blessed without,

Are just the beginning of life without hope.                                                     This poverty of knowing we welcome aloft.

What can come out of the realms of poverty,                                                  How much O’Lord can we give back,

To whom is it directed in ways of hope,                                                          The wealth of life, the fragrance of peace,

It is despair with pain directed,                                                                      See in us your grace now unfolding, 

To those with empty schemes of fear.                                                             From the realm of heaven it blossoms forth.

We see so many reaching out for some,                                                         To some is poverty given from prayer,

The empty soul who seeks to be found,                                                         And for others it is found beyond compare,

Without God there will be not a path of light,                                                 Give to us a heart renewed,

To which those in darkness will stumble and fall.                                            Empty our wants and fill it with you.

In all humanity none so great we find,                                                          Yes, O’Lord, it is where we find,

A woman a man without direction so pure,                                                    Your Spirit so pure in filling our souls,

To them is our mission of perfect guidance,                                                   With pure refreshment satisfy our needs,

To Christ who came for these very ones.                                                       And welcome our emptiness evermore.

                                                                                                                 8/12/16

Do not look for the flesh-ridden rotting ways,

Nor find the dirty drunken addictions,

But search the alleys, the brothels and such,

For humanity that lives alone and hurt.

This is our task to find our brethren,

The ones that God has sent to us,

Show them He cares and loves them truly,

By the way we reach to them in love.

2/23/15