África Austral / Southern Africa – Newsletter / Bolletim Informativo

From the Provincial’s Desk …

Dear Brothers,

I believe that two words that truly sum up religious life and ring true for authentic Marist living when it comes to the evangelical use of goods: generosity and detachment.

We may be tempted to think that we can overcome consumerism and abuse of goods by sinking ourselves into poverty instead of learning how to detach ourselves from our possessions. But through generosity and detachment we learn how to stop clinging to goods, but to hold them more loosely share them readily with bigness of heart.

Jesus does not tell us that we must become poor: rather that we be generous and detached from material goods. Strange as it sounds, some poor people can be very materialistic and possessive. The more generous and detached we are, the more enriched and strengthened we become. These attitudes help to reminds us of our dependence on God. We can let go of our security blankets that provide us with the illusion of independence.

Let us contrast generosity in the life of a Marist Brother against the notion of holding on to possessions. Generosity helps us to look to the future while possessions defend the brittle present and build a wall to shield us against the future. Generosity looks to involve the world and to work with it while possessions seek to imitate the world and forget gospel values. Generosity responds to the Gospel values and hears the call of the Spirit. While possessions muffle the call of the spirit and ignore the gospel values.

Consider now the other word, detachment. Detachment is the ability to hold onto things but with a loose grip. Such gentle holding is at the heart of the spirit of poverty to be practised in living our vow of poverty as Marist Brothers. We are not asked to walk around in rags, no. Poverty means a personal detachment from the goods owned by the community and goods that we have the use of. It is only through detachment that we are able to grow closer to the Kingdom of God. While society and particularly the media calls us to acquire more and more, detachment helps us to say, “I have enough”.