To me voluntary poverty is about giving up the things in life that
you do not need and seeking things that will make you whole. By giving up
material goods and things that society deems important, we can spend more time
developing the self. People who practice voluntary poverty believe that by
giving up the unnecessary, there will be more time to help the less fortunate.
This goes along with what I have learned at Loras College. I have learned that
we need to put ourselves in other people's shoes, and learn to look at things
through someone else's eyes.
I think that voluntary poverty is
understated in today's age of material goods and technology. Nowadays, I feel
that there are more things to give up than there was a few decades ago. I do
not think that all are called to this life. Not everyone is called to be a
lawyer or a surgeon or a police officer. Everyone has their calling and
voluntary poverty is for some and not all. If everyone lived in voluntary
poverty, then other aspects of life would lose out on important people. If the
world's greatest surgeon decided to go live a life of voluntary poverty that
would greatly impact the field of medicine. Some are called to it, others are
not.
Anyone can be called and it is not limited
to just Christians. People can choose to live a simple life, and Christians are
not the only people who give up material possessions. People of all religions
and races have chosen to give up the life of excess and will continue to do so
throughout time.
Austin-
ReplyDeleteI agree with you to a certain extent. I definitely agree with numerous parts on the definition of voluntary poverty. That said, and this may just be from different experiences in college, I do not feel that I have learned or need to be in someone’s shoes to understand their way of life. I do believe that it is important to understand other people’s beliefs and viewpoints, but I do not think that it is necessary to become literally enter into their situation to try to understand it. Furthermore other people in the class have made a very good point that voluntary poverty, or at least the type they live at the Catholic Workers Farm, is not truly poverty. I’m sure poverty would not be a very big issue if every person in poverty had dozens of acres, a garden for vegetables, livestock, and solar energy. Voluntary poverty does not represent real poverty and I don’t think it really gets people any closer to understanding the problem. That said, I agree with you that everyone has their own calling and that the world would be at a significant loss if everyone followed the same path.