A few weeks ago, I learnt something that made me realize just how important it is to be well-off financially.
For some context, after my reconversion to Catholicism, one of the issues I sometimes struggled with is the proper relationship that a Catholic —or any Christian— man should have with money. Many within our faith seem to think the pursuit of wealth is in itself inmoral, and many believe a Christian man should practice detachment from the world to the point of living in poverty.
Before I converted back to the Christian faith, I was very much focused on pursuing wealth. After my conversion, it became a little bit more difficult to know whether or not I should continue prioritizing that pursuit, mainly because I saw many speak out against it.
Deep down, I think I always knew it couldn’t possibly be right to claim the honest pursuit of wealth an inmoral one, since I had always seen money as a neutral tool to amplify the contents of your heart: a sinful, corrupted heart could use money for evil, and a pure heart for good.
I’ve written about this topic extensively in one of the chapters of my book, Christian Vitality, and I had already come to terms with the fact that it’s actually a righteous responsibility of Christian men to pursue financial and economic growth, as long as it’s done ethically and it doesn’t remove the pursuit of sanctity from the center of your life. But recently I learnt something that perfectly exemplified the relationship that I believe a Christian man should have with money, which further confirmed my already strong belief that refusing to pay attention to your capacity to provide is selfish and a grave failure as a man.
I have been blessed to have been born into a family in which we have never lacked food, shelter, or means in general. My father worked hard since he was a teenager, and he managed to climb the corporate ladder to a very good position for a good company, and he always provided for us whatever we needed. That’s the role model I grew up with, and I always saw how being financially well-off could allow a man to give his family a good life.
A lesson in generosity
But recently I learnt something about my dad which not only made me respect him even more as a man but also made it all the more evident why it’s important to develop strong financial capabilities.
My dad has an aunt, and throughout her life she was employed, living paycheck to paycheck but not necessarily lacking much. But, as soon as she retired, she started to struggle. The government in my home country is corrupt, inefficient, and terribly managed. For some reason which none of us ever understood, they refused to pay her her pension. I don’t know the specifics of the case, but knowing the way things work in my country, it’s highly likely they simply saw a way to cheat her out of her pension and left her with no income at the age of 65.
Her children had never been too well financially, which meant she found herself retired, scammed out of her pension —even though she had paid her taxes and done the “right” thing during all the years she worked—, and with her children being unable to help her.
I had no idea, but some weeks ago, in an unrelated conversation, the topic of my dad’s aunt came up, and my mom mentioned how my dad had been paying her pension for over 10 years. He had taken it upon herself to make sure she had a steady income, even if her being scammed by the government had nothing to do with him. He had zero obligation to do this.
Not only that, but he had never told us. He had never gotten praise for that. He never made her feel guilty, never stopped doing it, even when he himself was concerned for his own finances, having at one point had to pay for college for both myself and my siblings simultaneously. He had kept it to himself, selflessly taking on the burden of providing for yet another person.
What a man. I thought there was no way I could admire him more, and yet I couldn’t help but feel incredibly proud of being his son after learning how generous my father truly is.
Extend your field of protection and provision
This just convinced me even more: a Christian man should absolutely and unequivocally work hard to increase his financial means. How else will you provide your family with the financial security that it’s your role to provide? How else will you rise in influence so you can share the message of God even further? How else will you have enough means to fund the construction of churches, to donate to worthy causes, to help those close to you, to ensure your children and their children have access to food and shelter?
Some men have a specific vocation to poverty, like is the case of Charles de Foucauld, for example. But for the vast majority of us, men whose vocation under God is marriage, choosing poverty is selfish and goes directly against the role we are to play and the responsibilities of such role.
Money is not moral nor inmoral, it’s amoral, and it receives it’s worth from the use it’s given. As men of God, as men pursuing sanctity, we can use money to bring much good into the world. We can use it to further the message of Christ. We can use it to help those in need and extend our protection and provision further and further —like my father did.
Thank you for reading!
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God bless you,
Simple Man
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One benefit of the Catholic tradition is we have wealth saints and saints who lived in extreme poverty.
Great post.
Hebrews 13:5 ESV
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Proverbs 22:7 ESV
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Although these 👆verses seem to contradict each other, both are 100% true and to your point Proverbs 22:7 especially true.
But let us not forget that the heart of man is different for each of us and some can handle having the money while others it might take them straight down the path of the highway to hell. So God might have mercy on a person when He makes them poor for God is who gives you the ability to get riches in the first place.
““And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
Deuteronomy 8:18 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/deu.8.18.NKJV
And if He promises to never forsake us, ‘If I have Jesus, I have it all’ as the gospel song here in America sings.
We might not also forget that this verse from the Parable of the Vineyard of the Workers has some insights to it too.
#SovereignGod
“So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.””
Matthew 20:16 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.20.16.NKJV