TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSEIGNEUR DE LA BOUILLERIE, Archbishop of Perga, Coadjutor of Bordeaux.
Thirdly: because Jesus Christ loves the poor, He takes care of them, and concerns Himself about their interests with admirable solicitude. " To thee is the poor man left," said the Kingly Prophet.
Ah ! this sacred deposit, could it be confided to a heart more loving? What has Jesus Christ done for the poor ? Two most merciful things.
Firstly: He has been able to inspire him again with the confidence which he had lost in a Providence always good, always active, always watching to come to his help. The Gospel is quite full of the sweet lessons by which one learns to trust in God. Jesus Christ compares the poor to the bird, and says to him: " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. Are you not better than many sparrows?" He compares the poor to the lily of the fields. " Solomon" He says, " in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. If the grass of the field, which is today, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe, how then shall He abandon you ? " Jesus Christ does not forget, all the same, to exhort the poor to have recourse, by prayer, to that Providence Who is God Himself! The bird does not pray, the lily does not pray; but the poor man must prays. And how then will he not have trust ? The God to whom he speaks is his Father. " Our Father Who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread!" O poor man who prays, how should you not be certain.of being better clothed than the lily, better fed than the birds ?
But at the same time that the Saviour reminds the poor that he should trust in Providence, He warns the rich that this same Providence counts upon them to be the instruments of His benefits to the poor. A few words from His Divine Mouth suffice to move the heart of the rich, and without infringing on the right which they have to their goods, without imposing on them any tax, He knows how to amass for the poor an immense and inexhaustible treasure—that of charity.
Christian charity and voluntary poverty— two beautiful things created by the Saviour— co-operate, so to speak, and are fulfilled in the interest of the poor. When Jesus Christ said to His disciples, " Sell all that thou hast," He adds immediately, "and give to the poor.'' And when He exhorts the rich to give large alms, He preaches to them in a certain way the precept of voluntary poverty.
Thus, thanks to trust in God, and to the charity of the rich, the poor man finds in Jesus Christ resources for his support which the world would never have given him.
Thirdly: because Jesus Christ loves the poor, He takes care of them, and concerns Himself about their interests with admirable solicitude. " To thee is the poor man left," said the Kingly Prophet.
Ah ! this sacred deposit, could it be confided to a heart more loving? What has Jesus Christ done for the poor ? Two most merciful things.
Firstly: He has been able to inspire him again with the confidence which he had lost in a Providence always good, always active, always watching to come to his help. The Gospel is quite full of the sweet lessons by which one learns to trust in God. Jesus Christ compares the poor to the bird, and says to him: " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. Are you not better than many sparrows?" He compares the poor to the lily of the fields. " Solomon" He says, " in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. If the grass of the field, which is today, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe, how then shall He abandon you ? " Jesus Christ does not forget, all the same, to exhort the poor to have recourse, by prayer, to that Providence Who is God Himself! The bird does not pray, the lily does not pray; but the poor man must prays. And how then will he not have trust ? The God to whom he speaks is his Father. " Our Father Who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread!" O poor man who prays, how should you not be certain.of being better clothed than the lily, better fed than the birds ?
But at the same time that the Saviour reminds the poor that he should trust in Providence, He warns the rich that this same Providence counts upon them to be the instruments of His benefits to the poor. A few words from His Divine Mouth suffice to move the heart of the rich, and without infringing on the right which they have to their goods, without imposing on them any tax, He knows how to amass for the poor an immense and inexhaustible treasure—that of charity.
Christian charity and voluntary poverty— two beautiful things created by the Saviour— co-operate, so to speak, and are fulfilled in the interest of the poor. When Jesus Christ said to His disciples, " Sell all that thou hast," He adds immediately, "and give to the poor.'' And when He exhorts the rich to give large alms, He preaches to them in a certain way the precept of voluntary poverty.
Thus, thanks to trust in God, and to the charity of the rich, the poor man finds in Jesus Christ resources for his support which the world would never have given him.
