Priest: Christians must practice poverty

Modern tendencies toward consumption are driving society to destitution, believes Rev. Donald Maldari, SJ, associate professor of religion at LeMoyne College in Syracuse.

"That's why every Christian needs to commit to practicing some form of poverty," he said.

He will present a free talk on that topic at the Chapel & Cultural Center at RPI in Troy on March 14. The 7 p.m. talk will be preceded by Mass and a meatless potluck supper. The presentation is part of the chapel's Lenten series.

Choosing poverty

Reflecting on the vow of poverty he took when he became a Jesuit, Father Maldari said, "it is not only intended for people in religious orders."

Referring to the people who come to his talk, he added, "I'd like to challenge their understanding of what makes us human beings happy and whole and holy, and to think about ways they could become dependent on a God who desires nothing more than to fill us with goodness and love and life and grace and strength."

He believes that choosing poverty is a "tremendous antidote to our society's mania for consumption."

Art's lesson

To illuminate his topic, Father Maldari will discuss three paintings by the Renaissance artist Caravaggio of St. Matthew's call, inspiration and martyrdom:

* In the first painting, explained Father Maldari, tax-collector Matthew thinks he is happy. Surrounded by a consumer society living in wealth, he is painted at the moment he "realizes that, in fact, he's a very poor man."

Jesus and Peter burst in to call him to service, and Matthew realizes that "he's filling himself with junk, and that it is Christ who offers him real happiness if he empties himself of anything that would prevent him from following Jesus."

The modern equivalent would be today's consumerist society, which "tells us that 'things' are going to make us happy," he said.

* In the second painting, Matthew is "shoeless, poor, precarious," wearing first-century garb and receiving "inspiration from an angel to write his Gospel."

He has been emptied of all of the "junk" he filled himself with in the first painting, Father Maldari said.

* The third panel depicts Matthew's martyrdom. "A very powerful and angry figure comes in and is about to kill him -- and yet, leaning down is an angel about to give him the palm of victory," the priest explained. "It is Matthew who is the victor, not the person about to kill him."

Consumerism

The depictions of Matthew are very much like modern consumerism, Father Maldari said, and speak to the opposite call of Christians to accept the counter-cultural, counter-consumption call of Christ during Lent.

"We all have emptiness," he explained. "We fill it with goods. We want to be independent of God."

But, as a teacher in Haiti, Father Maldari learned that poverty can "make us rich and encourage us to give without asking anything in return."

Form of poverty

A Catholic has to find a form of poverty that is "appropriate for himself or herself," advises Father Maldari.

For a Jesuit, he explained, it's pooling everything that he has and making an attempt to live simply; for laypeople, it could be refusing expensive cars and clothes, or not eating so much at fancy restaurants.

Whatever it is, he said, it should help them "come to terms with need and recognize that only God can fill" the emptiness people feel.

Giving up

Father Maldari believes such things can start during Lent, when Catholics voluntarily experience need by "giving up" things that matter to them.

"It's like junk food when you're hungry," he explained. "I love M&Ms my first instinct is to eat a handful. But that's bad for me. It's better to fill the hunger with good food."

(Father Maldari, director of LeMoyne's Sanzone Center of Catholic Studies and Theological Reflection, has served in Haiti and Dominica. He also spent five months living like a prisoner on Las Islas Marias, a Mexican penal colony.)

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