JESUS LIVING IN MARY:
HANDBOOK OF THE SPIRITUALITY OF ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
POVERTY
Summary
Introduction.
I. Two Preliminary Observations:
1. Our social awareness;
2. The problem of impartial objectivity.
II. Aspects of Real Practical Living:
1. Who are the poor?
2. The poor in Montfort’s time;
3. The poor in Montfort’s view:
a. The religious concept;
b. A realistic view;
c. Good and bad poor people;
d. Dignity of the poor;
e. Justice and charity;
f. Alms;
g. Sharing one’s table;
4. Evangelizing the poor;
5. Montfort’s poverty.
III. Doctrinal Aspects of Poverty:
1. Poverty and wealth:
a. Wealth/poverty;
b. Idolatrous wealth;
c. An outrage to one’s neighbor.
2. A question of wisdom;
3. The poverty of Jesus Christ;
4. Slavery of love and poverty;
5. Voluntary poverty;
6. In the steps of the poor apostles.
IV. Conclusion.
INTRODUCTION
Father de Montfort interpreted, understood, and incarnated the ideal of
evangelical poverty. He did so, though, in a social, economic, cultural,
and religious context radically different from today. To imitate
Montfort’s poverty in every aspect would be anachronistic and
practically impossible. However, to imitate does not mean to copy
exactly. To imitate implies first of all to contemplate and to admire.
This leads one to discover and to assimilate the truest and purest
motivations of one’s model. In this way one can discern what is common
to and different from one’s own spiritual journey. We must accomplish
everything within the context of our own unique lives. We must recognize
the reality of the new forms and new situations of poverty that are
characteristic of our modern world. For example, we cannot be oblivious
to our contemporary capacity for mass producing goods, which has become
integral to our way of life. It has increased immensely the wealth of
those who control these means of production, and has intensified the
problem of the lack of an equitable sharing of the world’s resources.
The Word of God, the Gospel, is always there to clarify the ultimate
meaning of wealth and poverty. Montfort taught and gave witness in his
life to the value of authentic poverty. Other spiritual authors also
enlighten our understanding, encouraging us to live the Gospel’s
attitude to the poor and suffering. The Gospel message is a universal
one, which calls us to make the best possible use of the goods that we
possess or control today.
I. TWO PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS
1. Our Social Awareness
It is difficult to speak of poverty or suffering without personal
experience, or without at least having been close to the poor and their
suffering in the style of the good Samaritan of the Gospel (Lk 10:29–
37).
Montfort did not produce any treatises on poverty. Apart from two
hymns (H 20, 108), which treat of the "treasures of poverty" and are
illuminating but brief instructions on the subject, no sustained
discourse on poverty can be found. However there are enough solid
indications, precise allusions, ardent exhortations (for example in
LCM), and even realistic descriptions to warrant the conclusion that the
theme of poverty is uppermost in his thought and is definitely an
essential aspect of his spirituality. It is, in a sense, the door
opening up to the fuller meaning of total Consecration, Mission,
Providence, Incarnation, the Cross, Charity, Alms, Humility, etc. In
reading his biographies,1 it is apparent that for Montfort poverty was a
real spiritual experience, strong, original, and deep, which left its
mark on his entire existence and governed his life. From his youth he
always deliberately wanted to draw near to and be close to the poor with
respect, tenderness, piety, and veneration. This speaks volumes on the
love he felt for the poor in the purest evangelical spirit. As with many
saints (e.g. Francis of Assisi, Benedict Joseph Labré), it could be said
that he rediscovered and reappraise evangelical poverty by
identification with the poor.
2. The Problem of Impartial Objectivity
There is a serious difficulty, almost an impossibility, of treating
themes on poverty with absolute and unruffled objectivity. Complex,
confrontational, and even contradictory feelings and thoughts arise
within and around us, ranging from rejection and contempt to welcome and
commiseration, from ignorance and indifference to involvement and
effective solidarity with the poor, from passive and fatalistic
acceptance to revolt and rejection of imposed conditions. Our reactions
reveal the measure of human and spiritual as well as personal and social
maturity or immaturity. No doubt Father de Montfort, opting for the
evangelical preference for the poor and poverty, got himself into an
uncomfortable and even conflicting situation with his family, his
friends, and certain social and ecclesiastical groups. Finally he
received frank approval only from the poor themselves2 and from his most
fervent and loyal disciples such as Marie Louise Trichet and the first
Daughters of Wisdom.
II. ASPECTS OF REAL PRACTICAL LIVING
1. Who Are the Poor?
Given that community living is a struggle, it could be said that the
poor are those who do not manage ‘honorably’ to survive the struggle for
life. They could be individuals, families, groups, or even entire
populations. They are poor simply because they are deprived, prejudiced
against, stripped of elementary needs of life. Other adverse factors
also confront them. Despite themselves they are disadvantaged in the
struggle for life.
At the source of poverty there could be "natural" causes such as
climatic, geographic, historical, and cultural factors. These, normally,
would not explain the poverty of masses of people in one sphere nor
poverty on an international scale. Poverty reveals itself swiftly and
smoothly, not only as a social phenomenon, but more so as a social evil,
a physical and moral evil. It is spawned by a malignant and malicious
society quite incapable of producing the fruits of justice and humanity
one might expect. Thus the poverty of those who are poor seems to be the
exact opposite of wealth, and the result of the selfish indifference and
injustice of the well-to-do.
The consequences for the poor are a life of privation and abasement,
extreme limitation of their freedom and power of action, an outlook of
dependence and frustration, effective marginalising which puts them at
the bottom of the social ladder and makes them rebels, outcasts of
society, excluded from and denied everything valuable, and led by way of
poverty to premature and undeserved death. Thus the great resource of
the poor person, and to some degree his salvation, resides within his
own being and in what remains of his humanity, his driving force and
ingenuity, his qualities of heart and soul and his sense of solidarity—
provided that these have not been ravished, enslaved to those dark and
lying powers that feed on his poverty.
From all this, it seems that there is little margin between poverty
and Gospel. "The poor are evangelized" can mean two things. The first is
that to be truly evangelized one must be poor in one way or another. The
second is that the Gospel truly is good news, first of all for the poor,
since the promise of freedom, salvation, and life is for them.
2. The Poor in Montfort’s Time
To have full insight into the social situation in France in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one must refer to specialized
treatises on the subject.3 Clearly Montfort—like any contemporary saint,
and like his biographers—had no intention of analyzing or issuing
conclusive descriptions of the society of his epoch in his writings.
However those holy people were not lacking in delicate insight and
observation. Anyone immersing himself in their writings easily discovers
the atmosphere, the stamp of life, the social levels within which facts
unfolded and points were made. Examples such as those of the peasant and
his apple (TD 147), the miller, the sculptor (TD 220–22), and allusions
to clothing and fashion, worldly gatherings, and such, allow us to
recast in imagination the complex and variegated society of the mainly
rural France of the ancien régime, in which the middle-class were set to
carve a decisive role for themselves between the nobility and the
proletariat.
With broad strokes Montfort divides this society into rich and poor,4
and the social and geographic landscape into town and country (RM 7). In
the towns live the people of status, the robed and the sword-bearing,
and there also are found the merchants and the jacks-of-all-trades. But
if we follow Montfort into the slums of Poitiers, the suburbs of St.
Donatien and St. Similien at Nantes, or the Loges de Fontenay and
Villeneuve at La Rochelle, we find ourselves in the midst of poor,
humble folk and squalid bands of deprived, untutored children. We also
know that Montfort visited and frequented general hospitals, which in
most towns welcomed and housed hundreds or even thousands of poor and
sick people (the "cloistered poor").
But if Montfort required his future missionaries to prefer country
over town (RM 17), that was because the vast majority of the population
lived in the country, poor and neglected. Large landowners were few
compared with the tenant farmers, servants, and day laborers who
seasonally and down the years became beggars and tramps. All these
little folk were held in preference by Montfort. M. Blain, friend and
colleague of Louis Marie, noted very early on his extreme love of
poverty and the poor and his apostolic abandonment to Providence.5
3. The Poor in Montfort’s View
a. The religious concept.
Montfort saw everything, especially the reality of the poor, from the
standpoint of faith. Precisely in them he saw and served Jesus Christ
himself. His formation, which above all was theological and spiritual,
and the special grace which inspired him, spontaneously raised his
vision to that level. He considered and saw all things in their
relationship to God, the Creator and Savior. To the question, "What is a
poor person?" he himself replied: "It is written / he is the living
image, / the lieutenant of Jesus Christ, / his finest heritage. / But to
put it better, / he is Jesus Christ himself" (H 17:14); or: "They are
true likenesses / of Jesus Christ, poor for us. / They are his brothers
just like him, / worthy of being honored by all" (H 20:17). "The poor
person is a great mystery which must be grasped. Beatus qui intelligit
super egenum et pauperem."6
Thus, in the eyes of Montfort, the poor are the intimate friends of
Jesus Christ—his chosen portion, his lieutenants, his elders, that is to
say those from whom the heritage is derived; even more, they are Jesus
Christ himself. Of this last definition he gave a striking example when
he hailed the doorkeeper of the house at Dinan where he was lodging when
he returned one evening carrying a leper on his back: "Open up to Jesus
Christ!" "He entered bearing his precious burden, settled the poor man
on his own bed, warmed him as best he could, then passed the rest of the
night in prayer."7 Here one must see and read in outline the chapter on
judgment of Matthew 25 (cf. H 17).
b. A realistic view.
An evangelical view of the poor and poverty does not preclude realism in
a view of things or in action. When a man like Montfort suffers
deprivation, abandonment, or rebuff in an unjust and humiliating manner,
it is very difficult for him not to ask, "Why?" as Job did. On many
occasions Montfort preferred to suffer in silence, peace, and joy,
plumbing the depths of the mystery. Such complaints as sprang from his
sensitive heart were very few, but they gushed out with rare vigour as
cries of grief and cries to arouse dormant consciences. It is in that
sense that one must understand Hymn 18, "The Cries of the Poor," and
hearken to the reply of God, Who in His Goodness and Justice shows
Himself as the God of the poor: "O dear poor at heart, / I hear your
just complaints; / I feel your grief; / I receive the same blows. . . /
All the evil done to you, / is done to me. / Anyone who alleviates your
suffering / shows his love for me" (H 18:7–8).
c. Good and bad poor people.
Montfort is not so naïve as to be unable to distinguish between good and
bad poor people. About the latter he presents a list describing their
failings and vices, such as impatience, avarice, idleness, and impiety
(H 20:43–46). But when it comes to alms, moral judgments take second
place: "Simply see God alone / in all the wretched. / Give to them, only
for him, / your charitable help. / Be they good or wicked, / You give to
Jesus. / Enough that he is to be found in them / in his own person" (H
17:42; cf. RW 128).
d. Dignity of the poor.
What matters is to give back to the poor an awareness of dignity and
stature, of true wealth and happiness. "For the kingdom of my glory /
belongs to their poverty. / Believe me, the poor man is master / of all
my joy" (H 20:8). These words of Jesus to the poor are a repetition in
popular language of the first Beatitude, as are: "I will make you, poor
little ones, / great lords in paradise / and true kings," (H 108:12)
and: "A truly virtuous man, / were he the poorest of beggars, / is far
more respectable / than all kings and doctors, / if they have no virtue
in their hearts" (H 4:13). Similarly: "He has made you his kings and
priests by the Christian faith and the priestly ordination he has
conferred on you, and your voluntary poverty gives you an additional
right to be called kings" (LCM 5).
e. Justice and charity.
One had to wait for the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century
for the theme of social justice to penetrate consciences and public
debate. Montfort is not a precursor in this sphere of ideas. He did not
feel the "social question" to be a matter of urgency. However, taught by
Scripture and the holy Fathers, Montfort did not fail to promote the
rights of the poor and the duties of the rich. "Do not deprive the poor
man of his due, / says Holy Scripture. . . / Know that any possession
you hold onto, / even when useless to you, / belongs to the poor; it is
his, / as the Gospel says" (H 17:16–17).
In the sphere of charity Montfort was not content with transient
deeds. He knew that no enterprise would bear lasting fruit unless
established subject to precise rules carefully drawn up. He attempted in
the General Hospital at Poitiers a reform of customs and rules for the
benefit of the "cloistered poor." But it was at La Rochelle that he
successfully devoted his energy, in concert with Bishop de Champflour,
to the founding of charitable schools for the instruction of poor
children of the town. The Daughters of Wisdom were founded in response
to this double need: to teach children and to care for the poor.8
It is interesting to note that his short admonitions on the duties of
justice are found in the hymn "The value of alms." We know that for a
Christian it is difficult to separate the virtues of justice and charity
even when putting conscious emphasis on one or the other. Certainly,
Montfort during his life and in his preaching put the emphasis on
charity, that quite divine virtue exercised by alms in many forms.
f. Alms.
Montfort practiced almsgiving as a matter of course. "I could rightly
call him the begging brother for the poor, for he made that his life’s
task. Nothing of his own, nothing which did not belong to the needy.
Money, clothes, as a matter of course, stayed in his hands no longer
than necessary before passing to the needy."9 "Counting, if possible,
all the poor whom this worthy priest, so poor himself, nourished during
the entire course of his missions, it will be seen that he has perhaps
sustained, single-handedly, more than all those clergy who had a better
idea of how to put the goods and wealth of the Church to use."10
g. Sharing one’s table.
Where Montfort excelled was in his sense of sharing with the poor. Just
as he wanted to share their way of life to the limit, so also he
contrived to gather the poor to his table as being his best and greatest
friends. For him the table was always for sharing with the poor,
welcomed with joy and honored. The lesson was repeated at every turn of
his life, each time he was somewhat in command of the situation: at
Poitiers, Rennes, Montfort, Pontchâteau—to the point where it became the
norm in the mission he gave in Lower Poitou. He made it a rule for his
missionaries in the course of a mission (RM 5, 16, 48, 89), and for the
Daughters of Wisdom, "who, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, will give
food to a poor person every day" (RS 139). "All my entourage and my
glory / are these poor beggars. / If I have to eat and drink, / I share
with them" (H 144:20).11
4. Evangelizing the Poor
Like many other missionaries, Montfort took as his motto (RM 7) the
evangelical text (Lk 4:18) adopted by Jesus from the prophet Isaiah
(61:1). Indeed, amidst all the services, all the honors he could bestow
on the poor, above all his works of charity, he could not overlook the
most important: announcing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like St. Paul he
made it a duty. In the first years of his priesthood (1700–1706)
Montfort sought his missionary path amid numerous difficulties. Finding
it was what troubled him most, and he mentions it in all his letters to
his spiritual director, Father Leschassier (L 5, 6, 9, 10, 11). Torn
between the service of the poor in difficult conditions, and the needs
of the mission, he came to define his missionary project in these terms:
"I feel a tremendous urge to make our Lord and his holy Mother loved, to
go in a humble and simple way to teach catechism to the poor in country
places and to arouse in sinners a devotion to our Blessed Lady" (L 5).
"When I am teaching catechism to the poor in town and country, I am in
my element" (L 9). At that time, therefore, his vision of his missionary
work was restricted to catechizing. He aimed at a somewhat reduced
audience, viz. the poor, meaning by that the poorest, such as beggars,
tramps, and those poor closeted in hospitals.
Later, especially after his visit to Pope Clement XI (1706), the
objective of his mission broadened; it became "to renew the spirit of
Christianity" (MR 56) by means of parish missions. The audience extended
to the bulk of the people and thereby to folk of every condition.
However, even then Montfort did not abandon his preference for the poor,
having "a greater obligation to the poor than to the rich" (MR 89).
Every day of the mission, after catechetical instruction, soup was
prepared, uniting the participants around the same table unless they
were received at the table of the more generous families (RM 47, 48).
There is no doubt that this emphasis on the poor gave the mission an
unprecedented evangelical quality. It could be a sign of authentic
conversion and of effectiveness in the mission. Montfort sharply rebukes
the recalcitrant worldling: "You have nothing for your neighbor / but a
pitiless heart. / You have nothing but contempt / for the wretched poor"
(H 107:6; cf. H 29:80). On the other hand, the converted worldling never
ceases praising poverty and charity: "Poverty and deepest humility, /
poverty at its worst, / most fruitful charity: / These are all your
assets in this world, / Poverty" (H 143:24).
What are the most pressing motives, the deepest reasons, for these
preferences and missionary tactics in favor of the poor? Quite simply,
to "share in the most tender inclinations of the heart of Jesus, (our)
model" (RM 7). These are the choices and practices of Jesus, the poor
one.
5. Montfort’s Poverty
There is no preferential love of the poor without some personal
involvement in poverty. Not content with loving the poor, serving them,
sharing his board, handing out to them all he had, and catechizing them,
Montfort also wished to be poor like them, in close touch with them.
Never was he happier than when treated as a poor person, as we see each
time he arrived at a town or place where he was unknown. In a letter to
Father Leschassier he describes the first reception accorded him by the
poor of Poitiers, who, he said, "all agreed to take up a collection for
me." In conclusion: "I blessed God that I had been taken for a poor man
wearing the glorious livery of the poor and I thanked my brothers and
sisters for their kindness" (L 6).
Certainly he was not just playing the poor man, but truly being one.
He was really poor because he lived his poverty in the presence of God,
finding in Him all the unfailing richness of Providence. He was really
poor because he consented to suffer all the upsets and all the trials
which are the normal lot of the poor. Montfort fully appreciated the
intimate bond created by the poverty of Jesus Christ and his own
personal poverty, no less voluntary than that of Jesus. He also valued
the bond created by the poverty of the poor—his friends and brothers,
with whom he associated in the name of Jesus Christ—and his own poverty,
which was as real and effective as theirs. Only saints, by the
simplicity of their outlook on faith and the interior coherence that
moved them, are capable of this kind of powerful and flawless
theological synthesis. This is illustrated by the testimony of J.
Grandet, his first biographer: "Father de Montfort, supported by these
great truths of Faith (the poverty of Jesus Christ and the apostles),
made himself poor, renounced his patrimony and all kinds of benefices,
took a vow of poverty and persuaded all the workers who followed him in
his mission to do likewise."12
It cannot be overlooked that at times poverty and deprivation reached
extreme limits in his life, especially when the Church through some
bishops stole from him such rightful goods as good reputation, open
friendship, the faculties needed to exercise his ministry, acceptance,
and understanding. It is reported that only once did a complaint pass
his lips: "Is it possible that a priest could be so treated in the
seminary?"13 In 1703 he wrote to Marie Louise Trichet: "I am infinitely
more impoverished, crucified and humiliated than ever." Montfort knew
from experience that poverty never came alone; it came with "sufferings,
humiliations and other crosses which his servants must carry all the
days of their life" (FC 7): "They form the accouterments and retinue of
divine Wisdom which he brings into the lives of those in whom he dwells"
(L 16).
III. DOCTRINAL ASPECTS
1. Poverty and wealth
a. Wealth/poverty.
In Montfort’s words and spirit these two words are intentionally and
closely connected, as if to invite us to grasp an entrenched, enigmatic
truth. One cannot speak of poverty, implying lack, privation, denial,
without at the same time speaking of the opposite, wealth which connotes
ideas of plenitude, abundance, life and happiness. All aspire to such
plenitude of life and happiness, and exert all their efforts to obtain
it. After all, this aspiration is rooted in a fundamental, inalienable
right. By contrast, poverty, especially extreme poverty—"wretchedness"—
is an evil to flee from or to fight. Who fails to see that the poverty
that results in stunting our being and diminishing life in every aspect
is to be rejected and condemned? Our deep human calling is to life, with
the inalienable right to a sufficient share of the goods necessary for
its maintenance and conservation and for developing and procreating.
Among these necessary goods are a degree of status and a degree of
familial or social ownership of possessions. The social doctrine of the
Church caps this by corroborating, explaining, applying to circumstances
of time and place this universal maxim, which is also that of Scripture
and Christian Tradition.14 Montfort is not unaware of this truth (e.g.
TD 207), but spiritual man that he is, this is not what he directly
expounds and develops.
The truth he prefers is different. It relates to the difficulty or
danger posed by a certain kind of wealth to the Christian. Speaking of
the "rich at heart," Montfort says, "It [wealth] is full of idolatry /
against his [the Christian’s] sovereign God. / It is full of barbarity /
towards the poor and one’s neighbor" (H 20:36).
b. Idolatrous wealth.
The difficulty experienced by the budding Christian as to possession and
use of this world’s goods arises from considering two orders of things.
In the first, thanks to the Gospel, we learn to see God as the Supreme,
Absolute Good, Infinite, alone able to fulfill us now and for eternity.
Consequently, every other good has worth that can only be relative,
symbolic, supplementary, or instrumental (Montfort speaks of "material,
temporal and perishable things" [TD 137]). On this score no good in this
world can bear comparison with God, the Supreme and Infinite Good.
According to the Gospel, the Kingdom of Heaven is the greatest treasure
to be found, and one should be prepared to leave and sacrifice
everything in order to gain it (Mt 13:44–46; Mk 10:21; Lk 12:33–34;
14:33). Even though this world’s goods are necessary, we refuse to give
them absolute primacy, or to bow to them as to another god. However, we
know the danger is there and plagues us always. The human heart has an
infinite yearning, yet is inherently limited: it attaches itself to the
goods of this world and pursues them as alone true and final, and thus
becomes insatiable.
On this point the teaching of the Gospel is perfectly clear and
explicit. Father de Montfort takes this Gospel teaching into account and
incorporates it into his thought and life, so that what might at first
sight appear to be a problem for him can be seen as a sign of his
maturity and complete freedom of spirit. One who is stripped of
everything, after the spirit of the Gospel, becomes entirely free to
love and serve God and "to save his poor neighbor" (cf. H 22:1). The
person dedicated to God can experience the goods of the Kingdom—such as
pardon, grace, insight, wisdom, virtues, spiritual gifts (cf. 1 Cor
1:5), and even apostolic mission—as true goods, since they affect us and
enrich us not in what we have but in what we are, not by their quantity
but their quality. We are thereby reminded that "having" is an illusion
of being, and that no wealth of having can compensate for or replace the
wealth of being and living in God. The former without the latter
represents failure and true human and spiritual poverty. Poverty by
contrast is the condition sine qua non that allows us to be "rich in
God": "Provided I stay / very poor and rich in God" (H 91:16; 137:16).
"I hail you Mary / in your rich poverty" (H 90:55).
c. An outrage to our neighbor.
The second difficulty with regard to worldly possessions experienced by
even a fervent Christian arises from the rooted and sordid selfishness
to which he, as all mankind, is born, molded, educated, sustained, and
almost enveloped (by reason of a gamut of cultural, judicial,
philosophical, and ideological concepts that aim rather to protect the
individual than to encourage growth of personality). This selfishness,
often mixed with fear, is called cupidity or avarice, and is clearly the
greatest obstacle to the spirit of communion and to the formation of
truly human and Christian communities.
On the one hand, we know from all our catechetical instruction that
the human being is called by God to giving, to sharing, to communication
and solidarity with his brothers and sisters, in the image of his
Creator Who is Love. On the other hand, the hard reality of daily life
in a complex world pushes the Christian, only human, to look upon the
next human being, not as a brother or sister, but as a rival, if not an
enemy. Thus the civilizing action of love and universal brotherhood is
constantly blocked by the cult of gain, which is at once a cult of
inequality, injustice, conflict and violence.
Father de Montfort could have no idea, even by presentiment, of the
wars and revolutions that would batter the world and tear Christianity
apart in the following centuries. However, in unmasking and denouncing
the false wisdom propounded by the world in opposition to the divine
Plan, in guiding the faithful to surrender themselves by absolute
consecration to Jesus through Mary, by shifting the core of the struggle
towards each one’s heart, by practice of evangelical poverty in a spirit
of sharing and service, and by appealing to and rallying good Christian
folk, he strove in the best way possible for the Kingdom of God, always
a kingdom of truth, life, justice, grace, holiness, peace and love.
"This attachment to earth, / this cupidity, / sparks war everywhere, /
causes all evil. / How fatal is its revenge! / It hardens the heart. /
It emaciates the soul, / and plunges it into total gloom" (H 28:26).
2. A Question of Wisdom
"Goodness, how wisdom is needed / to unmask that treacherous value /
which compels even the wise / to pursue it to destruction!" (H 20:28).
Problems concerning poverty and wealth and their connection are
themselves problems concerning wisdom. Wisdom may derive from a purely
human and worldly viewpoint, or from a viewpoint of faith helping us to
see things according to God’s vision in the light of revelation. At a
personal or community level conclusions will vary. Divine Wisdom alone
can instruct us, guide us, enrich us. "How unfortunate are the rich and
powerful if they do not love. . . Wisdom!" (LEW 6). On the other hand,
"Wisdom is so rich and generous; how can anyone who possesses him be
poor?" (LEW 59). "When divine Wisdom enters a soul, he brings all kinds
of good things with him and bestows vast riches upon that soul. ‘All
good things came to me along with him’" (LEW 90).
Thanks to this Wisdom we know how to place supreme and utter worth on
the blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ. We know also that these
endowments are eminently communicable, bonds of brotherly and sisterly
communion, since they are given entirely and freely and destined for all
men and women. In this line of thought we are invited and called upon to
recover the true significance of earthly goods, be they material,
cultural, or technical. It would, first, consist of a sense of
submission to the supreme Good, God and his Kingdom. Then in a sense of
communication and service to all, beginning with the poorest, in such a
way that material goods become again instruments of communion and
salvation, no longer roots of division, oppression, hate and death.
The standard for this struggle is the Cross of Christ which, material,
vile, and abject as it is, received the signal honor of being the
instrument of our redemption. "It is our natural and supernatural
philosophy, our divine and mystic theology, our philosopher’s stone,
which by patience transforms the basest metals into precious ones, the
bitterest pains into delight, poverty into riches, the most profound
humiliations into glory" (FC 26).
3. The Poverty of Jesus Christ
In the life and thought of saints everything springs from contemplation
and imitation of Jesus Christ. So it is with Montfort, struck by the
poverty of Jesus: "A God defenseless / before the beauty of poverty, /
loving it to the point of / assuming the poverty of our humanity" (H
20:4). Montfort has Jesus declare: "In poverty I find / such splendor
and majesty / that I espouse it" (H 108:4).
Montfort closely observes the pattern of Eternal Wisdom: "in order to
draw closer to men and give them a more convincing proof of his love,
eternal Wisdom went so far as to become man, even to become a little
child, to embrace poverty and to die upon a cross for them" (LEW 70, cf.
Ph 2:8 ff). He was struck by the infinite disparity between the wealth,
splendor, and glory of the Word, Wisdom of God, and the poor, lonely,
suffering life of the Savior. Such is the mystery of Divine Wisdom: "To
smother us in wealth, / his Majesty became impoverished; / to cradle us,
/ this great Lord became poor and lowly" (H 64:4; cf. 2 Cor 8:9). In
"The Treasures of the Cross," Jesus says: "In my wisdom I find /
treasures in poverty, / splendor in humility, / greatness in lowliness"
(H 123:3)
The conclusion is that Jesus became poor by free choice: "I chose
poverty / to make it respectable. / I chose poverty / to enrich it with
holiness" (H 58:7). By dint of resemblance, Jesus is also the friend of
the poor: "I cherish and make much of / those who here below / are
considered wretched. / Those who seem to be last / for me are first. /
Those poor little beggars / are my best friends / for they are my
counterparts" (H 108:3). In return the poor look upon Jesus as their
friend: "The poor, on seeing him poorly dressed and simple in his ways.
. . felt at ease with him" (LEW 124). To them was addressed "the first
beatitude, / the greatest utterance ever made, / needing long study: /
Blessed are the poor in spirit" (H 20:7).
Finally, if Jesus is poor in this world, that is merely to demonstrate
his richness in God: "In the midst of poverty, / Jesus is rich in truth,
/ in all abundance, / since he is replete, clothed / in all the great
treasures of virtue" (H 4:4).
4. Slavery of Love and Poverty
"Mary is my great wealth, / my all next to Jesus, / my honor, my
tenderness, / the treasure of my virtue" (H 77:4).
Perfect consecration to Jesus through Mary is the complete offering we
make to them of all that we are and all that we have. After the gift of
ourselves, we give all that we have and yield even the right to dispose
of ourselves and everything belonging to us, without exception. In the
TD Montfort explains the scale and depth of this offering (TD 121ff). He
insists more on interior than exterior goods or fortune, undoubtedly
with the intention of attacking the precise point at the core of our
being where our aspirations and desires are born and become embroiled.
Left to ourselves, we will be betrayed by our desires (cf. RW, MRL). True
devotion to Mary, therefore, is in a way the education of desire.15
In particular our desire to possess is so strong and tenacious that it
is found within the coils of our souls and is hidden in every aspect of
our spiritual life. Within us there are totally reserved and protected
areas, such as our desires, our rights, our liberty, etc. Strictly
speaking these areas cannot be called the "evil that is rooted in us,"
but they are our most sensitive areas—most fragile, most exposed, most
touchy; easily and quickly they risk being clouded and led astray in the
absence of light and divine grace. The practice of our Marian
consecration therefore becomes therapeutic: it reeducates and redirects
us towards God and our neighbor in a way that is sacrificial and God-
centered, and frees us from bondage and selfishness. In a school of
radical poverty we learn to live without regard "for selfish gain" (TD
110) and "to rid ourselves so easily of the possessiveness which slips
unnoticed even into our best actions" (TD 137). We can develop within
ourselves a sense of free service, generosity, magnanimity and welcome,
person to person, "one poor person to another."
At this point of our spiritual experience and encounter with God,
poverty becomes synonymous with humility. Normally, at any rate, poverty
should lead to humility. Montfort imbues the words "lowly" and "poor"
with the significance of the humility of those who mutually recognize
themselves, by some experience or other, as limited, deprived,
conditioned, and needy. He associates the words "poor" and "sinful" to
imply that we are poor in the sight of God and in need of His gracious
mercy by reason of our sinfulness. The well-known formula "poor sinner,"
consecrated by use and much employed by Montfort, far from losing
impact, as in such expressions as "poor folk," "poor peasant," etc.,
here retains its fuller sense. We are poor, even wretched, before God
when we are alienated or cut off from Him by sin. Thereupon we
understand better that God alone can endow us anew by the grace of Jesus
Christ. "How loving and gentle he [Jesus, Incarnate Wisdom] is with men,
and especially with poor sinners whom he came upon earth to seek out in
a visible manner, and whom he still seeks in an invisible manner every
day" (LEW 126). With Montfort we can also sing of the Virgin Mary: "She
is my Ark of the Covenant / where I find holiness. / She is my robe of
innocence / with which I clothe my poverty" (H 77:5).
5. Voluntary Poverty
"True happiness on earth consists in voluntary poverty and imitation of
me" (MLW 1).
In the catalogue of all forms of human poverty, real or imagined,
often tainted with as much vice as virtue, there is one kind calling for
special attention: voluntary poverty, or poverty of heart and spirit.
For "only the voluntary poor / are the predestined poor" (H 20:43). This
poverty is not come to under protest and with detestation, but is chosen
with love, accepted with a full, patient heart, and assumed with "great
zeal." "It is a virtue for the courageous, / not for the faint-hearted"
(H 20:22).
This poverty is voluntary, a free choice of the will (LFC 7, 14–16,
54, 57). It is a considered response to the Master’s call: "If anyone,
therefore, wants to follow me thus abased and crucified, he must glory,
as I did, only in the poverty, humiliations and sufferings of my Cross"
(LFC 17). This poverty is entirely inspired by the Gospel (see the main
oracles of the Eternal Wisdom in LEW 133 ff), and in particular by the
eight Beatitudes. If it is spiritual, it is no less real and effective:
"Try to put into practice / this holy spirit of poverty; / otherwise it
is fanciful / and full of pride" (H 20:49). This spirit of poverty is
also the open door to "faith . . . your secret fund of divine Wisdom"
(TD 214), and a sign of authentic conversion. "The poor in spirit are
rich in faith and the other virtues" (LCM 7; H 108:2). Voluntary poverty
is a source of joy and happiness: "Holy poverty of heart / is the true
happiness / of the children of Light" (H 108:7). The one who is poor in
spirit is "rich in divine consolations" (LCM 7). "He even counts
heavenly glory as part of his wealth," for "The man who is truly poor in
spirit possesses God himself in his heart" (LCM 7–8).
One chooses to live poverty by contemplation of Jesus Christ who
willed to be poor and identified himself with the poor. "Poor Jesus, I
want to follow you, / poor as the poor, until death" (H 20:59). Jesus
chose poverty in solidarity with the poor who, lacking possessions and
human support, put all their trust in the Lord. These are the poor of
YHWH in the Old Testament and "the poor filled with faith" in the New
Testament, those of the Church and the whole world (for whom Mary,
"lowly, humble handmaid of God" [TD 52], is the unique example and the
compassionate Mother [H 159:4–6; H 151:5–7]).
At every opportunity Montfort sought to involve as many as possible,
friends, relatives, spiritual directors, fellow missionaries, to follow
him in the path of voluntary poverty (L 7 and L 12 to his sister, Jeanne
Guyonne; L 20 to his mother; L 30 to Anne Régnier). To a community of
lay-people he proposed the Rules of Voluntary Poverty of the Early
Church (GA 549-551), the first part of which (nos. 1–9) is a plan of the
"fundamental truths of this poverty of spirit." Montfort does not
hesitate to give to his Company the name of "company of the voluntary
poor" (RM 18).
In RW, out of a total of thirty-nine allusions to the poor and
poverty, there are nine references to the work of the sisters regarding
the poor (organization, service, care, etc.), nine references to their
customs and community life (habit, meals, room, personal relationships,
etc.), and finally ten references to their spirit or virtue of poverty
and to the poverty of Jesus Christ. Of these, the most important would
be those referring to the spirit of poverty, "preferring to lose their
gown and cloak rather than hold on to one or the other and lose peace of
heart and poverty of spirit" (RP 10). In the hymn "To the Daughters of
Wisdom" we find the same insistence on the spirit of poverty: "O
Daughters of Wisdom, / help the poor who are shunned, / those bowed down
by grief, / the ostracized, the rejected. / Those whom the world spurns
/ should appeal to you most" (H 149).
6. "In the steps of the poor Apostles" (RM 2)
If evangelical poverty must be enjoined on all Christ’s disciples to
some degree, it specifically concerns those dedicated to apostolic
mission. Evangelical poverty then becomes apostolic poverty, for it has
to do with the apostles in the exercise of their mission (Mt 10:9–16).
It is rooted in the example of the apostles themselves: the example of
St. Peter, "who entered the great city of Rome without entourage,
penniless, friendless, with only a stick in his hand and as dowry the
poverty of a crucified God";16 that of the great St. Paul, who "made so
many journeys,"17 with destitution, persecution and adversity of every
kind (2 Cor 4:7–18, 6:1–10); and that of all those apostolic men who
followed and emulated them. More profoundly, it is rooted in the example
and teaching of Jesus, the Incarnate Wisdom and the envoy par excellence
of the Father to such poor sinners as we are.
If an apostle has to be poor, stripped of everything and attached to
nothing, "free from every other occupation and unimpeded by the
administration of any temporal possessions which might hold them back"
(RM 6), that is so that he may respond to the needs of the mission
without ambiguity, in the greatest freedom and with perfect docility to
the Holy Spirit. His abandonment to Providence also shows clearly that
the work to which he is dedicated is strictly God’s work and not his
own, and that it is supported chiefly by the charity and solidarity of
Christian communities.
Montfort observes with sadness and nostalgia that for lack of this
detachment not enough good is achieved in the Church. "How many useless
priests, / with great talents, sterile / for want of detachment" (H
22:24). "We do not see in our midst / such true apostles as those / who
shone in days gone by. / There are no longer any voluntarily poor ones;
/ a secure position is required; / even though obliquely, / money is
wanted for their own concerns" (H 22:25). "Priests, let us follow in the
steps / of a God poor and crucified; / since He begs us, / let us
hearken to his voice, / think only of his concerns, / march under his
flag, / be voluntarily poor; / that is the better part" (H 28:42–43).
Montfort required apostolic poverty of his collaborators and
missionaries (RM 10–19), and he strove to inculcate it by means of
precise rules concerning house, way of life, alms from the faithful,
Mass offerings, etc. Every material preoccupation was to be eliminated
through the effect of abandonment to Providence. It must however be
noted that Montfort was not ignorant of the real needs that a community
of missionaries could face both for living and the work of the mission.
Proof of that lies in his RM (RM 12, 15–18), and in particular in his
will,18 which is a real deed of management and administration, drawn up
and signed in due form, in which Montfort indicates that goods from
different sources are destined for different institutions, works, and
persons.
IV. CONCLUSION
One could sum up Montfort’s spiritual doctrine on poverty—seeing it as a
triangular form which depicts the relationships between Jesus Christ,
the poor, and Christ’s apostles. Side one shows the connection between
Jesus Christ and the poor: Jesus Christ loves the poor and prefers to
identify himself with them and proclaims a Gospel of liberation; the
poor accept Jesus as their Savior and go to him and the Heavenly Father,
moved by the Holy Spirit, by faith, hope, and charity. Side two shows
the connection between Jesus and an apostle. Jesus Christ is the
Incarnate Wisdom, Master of Wisdom, instructing and commissioning; the
apostle, at once disciple and friend of Wisdom, knows that he can
achieve nothing unless united with and dependent on his Master; with
Jesus he learns to do the will of the Father, abandoning himself to
Providence. Side three shows the relationship between the poor and the
apostle, a mutual friendship established and strengthened by fraternal
sharing and evangelical interchange, dignifying the poor and building
the Kingdom conforming to the Beatitude: "Happy the poor in spirit;
theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt 5:3).
There can be no doubt that poverty is an essential element of Montfort
spirituality. Montfort poverty of spirit yearns to share the wealth of
Jesus and Mary; however, to enjoy authenticity, it must express itself
in simplicity of life and in sharing with the poor. Identification with
the poor entails being the voice of justice and mercy for the
disenfranchised, the new immigrants who experience prejudice, the single
parent, the handicapped, the homeless vagrant, the hungry. The Montfort
spirit of poverty cannot remain speechless when a wealthy country
manipulates a poorer one for its own profit. But above all, Montfort
poverty must be firmly rooted in the total lived out surrender of the
self to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom through Mary.
Notes:
(1) The first and oldest biographers (Grandet, Besnard, and
Blain) seem to have best seen the importance of various aspects of
poverty in St. Louis Marie de Montfort. (2) See the letter from the poor
of Poitiers: "We, four hundred poor people. . ." in Le Crom, Un Apotre
Marial: Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (A Marian Apostle: Saint
Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort), Librairie Mariale, Pontchateau 1942,
128. (3) See L. Pérouas, Grignion de Montfort, les pauvres et les
missions (Grignion de Montfort, the poor and the missions), Cerf 1966,
74–87; 161–70; Grignion de Montfort, un aventurier de l’Évangile
(Grignion de Montfort, An Adventurer of the Gospel), Paris 1960, esp.
ch. 1. (4) "They will bring to the poor and lowly everywhere the sweet
fragrance of Jesus, but they will bring the odour of death to the great,
the rich and the proud of this world" (TD 56). (5) Blain, 18. (6) "Not
only had he [Fr. de Montfort] an exceptional predilection for poverty,
but I make bold to say that his tenderness towards the poor went to
excess! He looked upon them as sacramental, holding Jesus Christ in
their repellant exterior. ‘A poor man,’ he said, ‘is a great mystery to
be unravelled’; ‘Beatus qui intelligit super egenum et pauperem’. By
such principles M. Grignion not only cherished and embraced the poor as
children and brethren; he honoured and respected them as lords and
masters. When he came across some in the street he hailed them, spoke to
them cap in hand, kissed them, washed their feet, set them at his right
hand at table, served them first of all with the choicest morsels, drank
from their glasses and ate their left-overs. He embraced the ugliest,
full of ulcers. He left the table only when no poor person remained,
saying: ‘I’m off to find the good Jesus.’ Every day during missions he
had soup served to any poor people who turned up; he even supplied
clothing made up by pious persons in the course of the mission, and
finally established ‘ladies of charity’ in the parishes and from them
sallied forth to visit the poor and the sick and help with their needs.
That was one of his chief objectives in the institution of the Daughters
of Wisdom. He had the poor walking two abreast in all processions. With
Cross raised at their head and Rosary in hand, he instructed and taught
them to love God with all their heart, and to serve him faithfully, thus
setting poverty to holy use" (Grandet, 354–57). (7) Besnard II, 114. (8)
L 29:4; RS 1. (9) Blain, 23. (10) Besnard II, 217. (11) See L. Pérouas,
Grignion de Montfort, 140, 163n. 20. (12) Grandet, 347-348. (13) Blain,
179. (14) On this topic cf. Gaudium et Spes, 11–33; Paul VI, Populorum
Progressio, (1967), 6, 14–22; Jean Paul II, Centesimus Annus (1991), 33–
34; and the documents of the Latin American Bishops from Medellin and
Puebla. (15) Montfort’s thought is shot through with references,
implicit and explicit, to the threefold concupiscence. The desire to
have or to possess is the first of these, and poverty of heart is the
remedy for this. There is an up-to-date presentation of this traditional
doctrine of the Church in J. Morinay, Marie et la faiblesse de Dieu
(Mary and the Weakness of God), Nouvelle Cité, Paris 1988, ch. 1. (16)
Grandet, 98. (17) Blain, 185–90, provides the whole of the conversation
between Louis Marie de Montfort and Jean Baptiste Blain. (18) Cf. P.
Eijckeler, Le testament d’un Saint, étude historique (The Testament of a
Saint, Historical Study), Maastricht 1953.
Taken from: Jesus Living in Mary: Handbook of the Spirituality of St.
Louis de Montfort (Litchfield, CT: Montfort Publications, 1994).
Provided courtesy of the Montfort Fathers © All Rights Reserved.
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