DarinHamel:
I think what were are seeing in the postings here are the classic differences in opinions between actives and contemplatives. Active think that contemplatives are wasting their time being monks. The Martha and Mary story.
I think in every age that is dangerous like ours saints arise like Benedict and Francis. (I am still waiting for the saint to come in this age.)
The reason for homelessness determines how helpful it is. The homeless guy going from shelter to shelter because he doesn’t want to work or the heroin addicts are different than the mendicant who is trying to set an example of holiness by serving the poor by living among them.
First of all, I need to take issue with the non-issue between Actives and Contemplatives. I am currently discerning a call to religious life and I have not seen that attitude from any orthodox consecrated religious. I have found many orders that blend the Contemplative lifestyle with active apostolates.
Saints of this age? Hello? Mother Therese? The children from Fatima? Pope John Paul II? I know there are others, but Mother Theresa stands out the most in relation to St. Francis and St. Clare.
Thirdly, giving away everything and becoming homeles…hmm…let’s see. OK< fine, live among the poor. There’s no problem with that. But then who supports you? Who pays for your own meals and in what way will you contribute to society? There aren’t enough beds as it is for the homeless…and so you’re going to take a good life and give it up?
God has provided for all of us here on this thread, I imagine. If we have access to computers, then we are in the top percentage, financially, in the world. How sad that is.
Yes, we can do away with a lot, but it would be better for us to maintain our homes and spend our free time with the poor and work to start programs and provide shelters and food for the destitute. We can do this without putting additional burden on the taxpayers.
I actually had a customer who decided to give everything away. He literally opened his home to the street people, and was free with his possessions. Do you know what happened? He called himself a “street corner preacher”, gave his car to a drug dealer who never returned it and instead put it in a river, and had his home invaded by the same riffraff. Now, these were not the destitute…they were drug dealers and they were making money out of his house. As soon as they had his roof they focused on cleaning him out while making drug money. They threatened his life.
He was not a part of an order or a church…he did this on his own.
So the Chruch calls us to be a community. Fine to give away your things and take a vow of poverty…but do so intelligently. Don’t add to society’s burdens. Different orders are supported by the Church, by parishoners, and through their apostolates, and they do not live “well” by our standards. In exchange for organization, they provide for themselves AND others and live out the lives of the saints who went before them.
There is a reason we are first called to discernment before we are called to the radical leap to give it all away. Even God needs time to set us up to follow his call.