Selling Off Possessions

  • Thread starter Thread starter zgraf
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Z

zgraf

Guest
Saw this question elsewhere, and didn’t know how to answer. Thoughts?

Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’

What does it mean for us today: “Go, sell all you possess and give it to the poor?” Is it possible to do this concretely? Do you know anybody who has succeeded in doing this for the Kingdom?
 
Most of us have way too many possessions and electronic toys. Do we actually need them? A TV in every room? The best and latest version of cell phones or Ipads? Every single gadget sold on TV commercials? Do an inventory and think of what you actually need as Opposed the what you have. That would be the first step toward living according to what Jesus said. Can it be done? Yes. Monks, brothers and Cloisterd nuns do it. No one expects us to live as they do these days, but we can pare it down from what I have to what I need. Live poor, die rich.
 
Those who are called to a specific vocation can (monk, enclosed nun) give away or sell their possessions.

A father of a family will not want to give away the essentials that a family needs to survive on. It is not wrong to have a washer and dryer and refrigerator, but it is questionable, to me, to have a great amount of state of the art entertainment type of electronics.

Even in a modest home, detachment from things helps a lot to keep things in perspective. If Grandma’s heirloom teapot that she gifted the family with breaks, there shouldn’t be a need to fuss about it.
 
I like all the previous answers! good job folks!

I think it is possible to do so, but not necessary, unless Jesus calls you to it. This story was about a very specific and personal calling for this individual. You see, the story starts out with the man asking Jesus what rules he had to obey to get to heaven, and then Jesus says,

“You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.”

And the man was obedient in those things, but Jesus needed to test his heart. Would he be obedient when it hurts? That is why he asked him to give away his possessions. So the possessions for us don’t need to be physical things, but it is whatever keeps us from God. Are we willing to give up what we love the most to be with Jesus?
 
For those seeking perfection, yes these are the ones being called to the religious life.

As for the rest of us…I am really working on getting rid of things i don’t need as I feel responsible to take care of my things…they came from God…but it is excess and a burden and I don’t need them…so I am working right now to be rid of things I don’t need.

And for us in the married state, it is always juggling…trying to live out perfection as much as we can, but also being concerned about the welfare of our families and keeping our work.
 
My parents and all my grandparents didn’t live their lives trying to keeping up with the ‘Jones’s’ so my sisters and I were raised . When you walked in to their homes it was like you stepped back in time to the 1960’s. My husband and I don’t have to have the newest and latest electronics on the market either. It is so expensive anymore… seems like the price of the newest cell phones is like a mortgage payment. We have basic phones and they’re good enough for us without the bells and whistles.
 
This is about letting go of everything you own to follow God. My husband believes keeping only things if you’re using them. We just donated an antique twin bed set [my sisters and I used the bed set in our youth] to our church retreat center. I felt very good about that!🙂
 
I think the focus is more on what we are doing in life to keep God directly in our sight in front of us.

If we clear out ‘stuff’ from our lives, it seems logical that we might more easily focus on God and then build that relationship.
 
Please have a look at this piece of advice by St. Ignatius Loyola:
Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
Click to expand...
And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.
Click to expand...
From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.
Click to expand...
For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.
Click to expand...
God bless you, V.
 
KathleenGee said:
For those seeking perfection, yes these are the ones being called to the religious life.

As for the rest of us…I am really working on getting rid of things i don’t need as I feel responsible to take care of my things…they came from God…but it is excess and a burden and I don’t need them…so I am working right now to be rid of things I don’t need.

And for us in the married state, it is always juggling…trying to live out perfection as much as we can, but also being concerned about the welfare of our families and keeping our work.
Click to expand...
We’re all supposed to be seeking perfection. Not just monks and nuns.
 
This is an area of struggle for me: not that I struggle with materialism so much as that I desperately desire to get rid of the many things in my house but I have been unable to do so. I am overwhelmed with stuff. We have old model phones, 15 & 20 year old cars, only one modest size TV in the whole house, and we don’t have many “toys”. But with two children (8 & 11) there are things everywhere. My contribution is the piles of books I have all over (I’m a voracious reader!) and a lot of art supplies (I am an artist). I have a strong desire to declutter and simplify but I’ve had brain and spinal cord tumors and most recently have had pancreatic cancer. I am sick and in pain nearly constantly and can barely do anything let alone take on a major decluttering project. Sorry to be complaining; this issue of having too many possessions is a burden I want alleviated but I am unable to do it alone. My husband works so hard at work and comes home and works hard here at home. He is so amazing but he is overwhelmed also. We have no family to help. My best friend wants to help me more but she has three kids and a full time job and her own life. Okay, I’ll stop whining. I would covet your prayers in this area. I really don’t know how to get beyond the possessions and simplify.
 
A good book to help understand what poverty of spirit means, get this;

“Happy Are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom,” by Fr Thomas Dubay.

amazon.com/Happy-Are-You-Poor-Spiritual/dp/0898709210

Being poor in spirit doesn’t mean selling what we have or putting ourselves into a state of destitution.

It means, accepting what God gives you with gratitude and not being attached to it for its own sake.

Anyway, read the book

Jim
 
I read this today, It’s from St John of the Cross. I’ve actually been doing this for a few months. I have next to nothing left. Gave it away, gave it to my kids, gave it to my x or sold it off.

For this reason one must greatly lament the ignorance of certain men, who burden themselves with extraordinary penances and with many other voluntary practices, and think that this practice or that will suffice to bring them to the union of Divine Wisdom; but such will not be the case if they endeavour not diligently to mortify their desires. If they were careful to bestow half of that labour on this, they would profit more in a month than they profit by all the other practices in many years. For, just as it is necessary to till the earth if it is to bear fruit, and unless it be tilled it bears naught but weeds, just so is mortification of the desires necessary if the soul is to profit. Without this mortification, I make bold to say, the soul no more achieves progress on the road to perfection and to the knowledge of God of itself, however many efforts it may make, than the seed grows when it is cast upon untilled ground. Wherefore the darkness and rudeness of the soul will not be taken from it until the desires be quenched. For these desires are like cataracts, or like motes in the eye, which obstruct the sight until they be taken away.

I believe I just went through the Dark Night of the Senses. It was a powerful experience.
 
lifeandhope said:
This is an area of struggle for me: not that I struggle with materialism so much as that I desperately desire to get rid of the many things in my house but I have been unable to do so. I am overwhelmed with stuff. We have old model phones, 15 & 20 year old cars, only one modest size TV in the whole house, and we don’t have many “toys”. But with two children (8 & 11) there are things everywhere. My contribution is the piles of books I have all over (I’m a voracious reader!) and a lot of art supplies (I am an artist). I have a strong desire to declutter and simplify but I’ve had brain and spinal cord tumors and most recently have had pancreatic cancer. I am sick and in pain nearly constantly and can barely do anything let alone take on a major decluttering project. Sorry to be complaining; this issue of having too many possessions is a burden I want alleviated but I am unable to do it alone. My husband works so hard at work and comes home and works hard here at home. He is so amazing but he is overwhelmed also. We have no family to help. My best friend wants to help me more but she has three kids and a full time job and her own life. Okay, I’ll stop whining. I would covet your prayers in this area. I really don’t know how to get beyond the possessions and simplify.
Click to expand...
I pray the Lord heals you of the pain you are going through! Meanwhile, please offer it up for this upside down world of ours. You certainly do not have to be concerned about downsizing in your house with what you are going through.

I, too, am a voracious reader and an artist as well. (Mosaics). Both you and your husband are amazing! For now just focus on your priorities.

May the Lord bless you and your husband and children, and be with you on your journey to Him.

Peace and Prayers,

Dorothy
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top