Poverty in the 21st Century with Rev. Dr. Amy Slaughter Myers

St. Francis Spiritual Sustenance : August 10, 2022

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Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom. (Luke 12: 32-34)

Your heart will always be where your riches are. (Luke 12:34 GNT)

This is the second reflection of two on the lessons appointed for use on the Feast of Clare of Assisi on August 11.

Clare and Francis both chose a life of voluntary poverty as the way to follow Jesus renouncing their wealth and privilege. Even in their own time, this choice seemed extreme, even to those who joined with Clare and Francis in religious community.

Clare is remembered by the Church as the first woman to write a Rule of Life for the religious community of women which she founded, and her insistence on the "privilege of poverty" for her community brought her into conflict with papal authorities of her day. They thought her Rule of Life was too hard, too extreme, while she maintained that it was only through radical poverty that she encountered the riches of life with Christ.

It's hard to imagine what life was like for Clare making this choice in medieval Europe. It seems like life must have been pretty hard for everybody back then; how much harder could it be?

In contrast, life in 21st century America while in no means equitable in its access to resources, one can find public services - even its "just" a free water fountain with clean water in a public building, public toilets, vast expanses of land in which there is no war.

What does voluntary poverty look like to you in 21st century America? Can you imagine it?