One of the key means of living the Charism of our Institute is knowing how to relate well with temporal goods. This is where the vow of poverty falls in our religious life. God gives us the temporal goods for three main purposes. First, they are meant to sustain divine worship, by funding sacred spaces, ritual and religious services. Second, they are meant to support the clergy, by providing a fair and honest living for the ministers of the Church. Third, they are meant for charity and apostolate. In other words, they are meant for running evangelization programs, and helping the needy. From the teachings of Jesus, we are called to be faithful in the administration of what God has given us. This shows the close connection between our Charism and the administration of the temporal goods.
To help us live well the Charism of the Institute, our Founder, St. Joseph Allamano, among many things he taught, came up with ten principles which facilitate our Religious Life. Those ten principles are referred to as the ten commandments[1] of St. Joseph Allamano. The sixth commandment of St. Joseph Allamano touches specifically the issue of our relationship with material goods and spiritual goods. It says: Be reservoirs and not canals of spiritual gifts, canals and not reservoirs of material gifts. This conclusion is a brief explanation of Our Founder’s view of how we should live the Charism of the Institute through our relationship with material goods. It is particularly important in this booklet because its last part speaks about temporal goods.
I am sure that it is not the first time you have heard of this commandment. I am also certain that you already know what it means generally. That is, we should accumulate spiritual gifts so that we can be sources of the same to others, but for material gifts we are supposed to be just conduits, that is, means of allowing them pass to other people. It is however important to see the deeper meaning of the relationship between the terms “spiritual gifts” and “material gifts”.
We can say that the Founder immersed himself in the complex relationship between material goods and spiritual goods. A few years ago, the world was concerned about the relationship between spirituality and science, and maybe even today the dust from the fight is still settling. At the moment, the big fight is about the relationship between economics and spirituality. But what exactly did St. Joseph Allamano want to say in this sixth commandment? And what is this relationship between economics and spirituality?
Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. It touches the issue of administration of temporal goods. Spirituality is “the sense of connection that a person feels towards something greater than himself, a sense that involves a search for meaning in life.” To many people, there is very slim connection between the two terms, except the fact (a) that economic activities sustain the one living the spirituality. In truth however, the fact (b) that when God created man, he made him a manager or administrator of creation by telling him to rule creation (Gen. 1:28), means that it was not the plan of God that the link of the two terms be seen as if it is inconceivable as some of us think today. In other words, just as faith and reason are not in contrast, economy and faith should not be contrary to each other. Why?
Before the fall, man was to do the task God had given him while he maintained a good relationship with God. It was as simple as that. After the fall, he had to hard work to get his daily bread while searching God, trying to love him and serve him, as a way of creating a good relationship with him (God).
That was the only way that man could acquire meaning to a life that had suddenly turned chaotic. Today looking at the painful and regrettable situation that the economic system of the world has created, there is a need of looking into how the two terms can be merged.
Luckily, a number of people have discovered that a merger of the two terms is possible. It produces the term spiritual economics. And what exactly is this new term? Let us begin by saying that Spiritual economics is an exchange of energy (power, knowledge, values…) to enhance the potential for creativity, social wellbeing and harmonious coexistence. If that sounds complicated, then we can simply define spiritual economics as the economics practiced from the viewpoint of ultimate goal of human existence.
Certainly, St. Joseph Allamano may not have thought things up to that level, however, the idea behind his words is the vital force of spiritual economics. Although it may appear as if the Founder was just concerned about non accumulation of material goods by his missionaries, the truth is given that his missionaries were the only way he could teach people in the missions. The point is that the message was meant not just for the missionaries, but also for the people of God.
To be fair, his concern was not just about the non-accumulation of temporal goods as we shall see shortly. All in all, his message was exactly what scripture has taught from the onset: a person’s life is not measured by what he has, even when he has more than he needs (Lk. 12:15). That message is what Jesus expected people to get when he asked, “with what can one exchange life?” (Mt. 16:26).
Implications of St. Joseph Allamano’s words
Back to spiritual economics. For St. Joseph Allamano to tell his missionaries to be reservoirs of spiritual good and not of material goods, it means a lot. For him to insist that we should be conduits of material goods it means that there was something about material goods that made him wish that we could only pass the same to others. His words call us to do a number of things. First, to think about the impact of material wealth on spirituality. Second, to research on the role of spirituality on economic performance. Three, to understand spirituality as an economic good, since it plays important role in enhancing economic activities by shaping individual values and attitudes particularly in terms honesty, work ethic and trust. i.e. just as economic activities need capital, time, energy and resources, they also need spirituality.
From this, it is easy to see why “being fonts of spiritual wealth and conduits of material wealth” is important for the common good, including peace in the world. Lastly, to learn the experiences of interconnectedness from the process of globalization and hence realize that fair economics must become the science of the collective. Simply put, to realize that the individualistic tendencies of running missions and projects is no longer tenable.
The above important issues are only possible if we know the relationship between economics and spiritual economics, since both economics seek to create a condition of abundance, although even the definition of abundance itself is different for each.
Two economics
In truth, while in an economy of material goods, abundance is a quantitative idea, in an economy of spirit, abundance is a qualitative image. This is because, in an economy of material good, we have abundance if all our needs can be met and we have a surplus left over, through which we can use to determine the abundance. On the contrary, in spiritual economics we have abundance when we have no obstructions within us to the presence of God and to the empowering and creative flow of life.
Physical abundance from economics of material goods may come through hoarding and accumulation, but spiritual abundance comes through utilization and giving away. This explains why Jesus told the rich young man to go and sell all his wealth and give the money to the poor, because that way he would have treasures in heaven (Mt. 19:21).
Although we noted that the two economies are not necessarily contradictory, sometimes they are seen in opposition to each other. Generally, for one to be spiritually rich, for example, one may need to embrace material poverty. On the other hand, to accumulate wealth one may need to compromise certain spiritual ideals and "live in the real world." In truth however, in order to make a justifiable economic culture in the world, the two economies should to be seen as complimentary. The point is that integrity is what is needed. This is what St. Paul told Timothy to teach the people.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Tim. 6:17-19)
Since the economics of material goods touches our physical life, it is based on the basic need to survive and to grow, as individuals and as communities. Growth itself may be seen in two angles: (i) attainment of the basic capacity to survive and (ii) the attainment of the capacity to fulfil deeper potentials like (re)production. On the other hand, since our souls are eternal, survival is not an issue, but growth is.
From point of view of spiritual economics, one’s growth is measured by the extent he is able to manifest the divine being (God) fully in his activities including economical ones. If you look well, you will see that this expresses also the function of life – or better the purpose of being. Here, the function of life is perceived as creating the conditions that allow life to unfold and express with even greater power and fulfilment. This why Jesus said, "I come that you may have more abundant life." (Jn. 10:10-12). It is an issue of empowerment. Probably we should just say, the purpose of spiritual economics is empowerment just like material economics, but the empowerment of spiritual economics fulfils the purpose of human existence as compared to empowerment of material economics which is mostly financial might for a comfortable life.
Work
Even from the point of view of work, the two economics are different. Of course, we agree that for economics work lies at the heart of being human – but for different reasons. While work in the economy of material goods is seen from the perspective of the necessity to earn a living and to survive, in a spiritual economy, work is necessary for growth. Why? Because work is a gift itself, the gift of being productive, of using and perfecting our talents, of expressing our creativity, of enriching the whole of which we are also a part. Working becomes the process of being brought into contact with our world and with others; it is to form connections. It is the necessary condition from which growth occurs.
Through work, every person in the world tries to solve problems of life, some of which are economical. As far as spiritual economics is concerned, every individual has a role to play, using honesty, integrity and fair means. The same applies to the society as a whole. When St. Joseph Allamano wrote the commandment to his missionaries, more than emphasizing about non accumulation of material goods, he expected them to grow spiritually such that integrity permeated everything they did. In other words, if the missionaries were to accumulate material goods, then there would be no honesty and transparency as far as resources from the benefactors were concerned.
It would also mean that spiritually they would be very poor, meaning that the people of God would not be receiving the services they were supposed to. Even today, integrity is the foundation of economic justice which is the basis of sustainable society. Let’s put it in a better way! Economic justice here does not mean that everyone must have the same amount of money, the same number of goods, and so forth. It means that everyone needs an opportunity in which their unique gifts and talents can be developed and contributed to society. It means that the needs of survival and growth must be met, where growth is the practicing of the skills of communion and empowerment of people in a society.
This is clear in the gospel. In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus gives the parable of the workers in the vineyard, some of whom work all day and some of whom arrive close to closing time and work only a few minutes, but all of whom receive the same wage. Here, payment is obviously not based on any quantitative value system such as the amount of work done. It is based on the quality of being there in the vineyard, of having responded to the call of the owner for workers no matter how late in the day that response may have come.
In the value system represented by this parable, earning and working are separated from each other. [Value systems are set of individual values (values represent broad guides to action) which (i) exist in a hierarchy (scale) that reveals their degree of relative importance, and which (ii) affect the ethical behavior of a person or are the basis of their intentional activities.] Payment is a gift springing from God’s love. It comes to us regardless of whether we have earned it in the traditional meaning of that word; indeed, it cannot be earned. It is ours by virtue of being part of the whole, part of the vineyard. In other words, The benefits of the spirit – such as serenity, love, an enhanced creativity, joy – are not so much earned, however, as they are received as gifts.
Harmonization of spiritual economics and material abundance
And by the way, it is important to note that spiritual economics does not reject the possibility of material abundance. This is because, in a sustainable society, abundance may manifest itself in physical ways as part of a material economy, but rooted in a spiritual reality. This fact is based on (a) our ability to develop a sense of accomplishment, (b) to develop skills that honour our individual creativity and (c) allow us to give to our world. Abundance and love are reinforcing commodities hence the more we give, the more we have. (e.g. a generous person will have more friends. But this is not an issue of replacing money with people. Such a person represents more of love, more of trust, more of humaneness, etc.) Plainly put, even a rich person who understands his life as a gift of God to others, and his wealth as a tool of God to sanctify the world, fits very well in the spiritual economics due to his capacity to share what he has. Such a person “is”, more that he “has”.
St. Joseph Allamano’s call to his missionaries to be conduits and not reservoirs of material goods (and reservoirs and not conduits of spiritual goods), was in truth a call to integrity in matters of finance. In other words, St. Joseph Allamano was more concerned about the spiritual wellbeing of his missionaries. However, if applied in the economic realm (and in the day-to-day life of the people of God, who are supposed to enrich the world with Christian values wherever they are), these words of St. Joseph Allamano are a call to revolutionize the exaggerated worldly value system which is identified and characterized by accumulation of material goods.
Clearly, the key to this revolution is the move towards the humanization of welfare economics. Simply put, as St. Joseph Allamano invites us as his missionaries to be open and transparent in matters of money, we too are called to teach our Christians about the need for honesty, integrity and fairness in their economic activities. This is to say, in as much as the world emphasizes “human doing”, the ‘human having’ and the ‘human knowing’ it is critical that the ‘human being’ is not forgotten. This is because, while ‘having’, ‘doing’ and ‘knowing’ are extremely important aspects in our life, the intrinsic value, direction and identity of human life (like solidarity, caring, sharing…) are given by being and are in the nature of being.
From this point of view, abundance is not just a matter of “having” more but one of mostly “being”. The one resource we do have in abundance, one that renews itself through being used, is the resource of the innovativeness of the human mind and heart. This resource we can nourish in each other, which is the core of a spiritual economics. By so doing, we may ensure the success and the prosperity of our material economy as well. May St. Joseph Allamano’s spiritual economics help us understand the need to “be” more than “to have”. This is only possible if we are able to live the following aspects that are key in spiritual growth.
- Capacity to Sacrifice
As far as material good are concerned, we should not only not accumulate, but also we should be ready to offer even what belongs to us.
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” (Mk. 12:41-44).
- Contentment
We should be conduits of material goods. In other words, we should be contented with what we have. What does not belong to us should not remain in our hands, otherwise it will only be a temptation.
Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow. (Prov. 13:11)
Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked. (Psalm 37:16)
- Detachment
As far as material goods are concerned, we should avoid the spirit of retaining. This is because, once we start, we will not be able to stop. We should let material goods pass without corrupting our soul.
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. (Lk. 12: 33)
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13: 5)
- Integrity
We shopuld make sure that we are truthful, honest and reliable as far as material goods are concerned, because the capacity to be honourable in that matter is a sign of uprightness.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1Tim. 6: 10)
“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. (Ex. 22: 25)
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Mt. 6:24).
[1] In truth, the Ten Commandments of St. Joseph Allamano, were not particularly written and presented by himself. They are principles taken from his teachings. They are brief presentation of his thought in a radically summarized manner. Given however that they come directly from his teachings, they are considered authentic.