A Wealth Of Problems

 Last November. New York City elected arguably the most radical member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (also known by her initials "AOC"). At 29, she defeated ten-term incumbent Congressman Joseph Crowley in the Democratic primary. In New York City, having the Democratic nomination is tantamount to election. She easily won in the general election becoming the youngest Congresswoman ever elected. She represents all that is wrong with the world. A self-identified Socialist, AOC wants to tax the wealthiest Americans at 70%--- up from the current 37%. She hates the wealthy, and blames capitalism for "racism, sexism, homophobia (sic), and environmental degradation." (See the Democratic Socialists' website, an ideology AOC endorses, at https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/what-is-democratic-socialism/).

She supports murdering unborn babies, "sodomite rights," and the redistribution of wealth. No Traditionalist worth the name could ever support abortion or sexual perverts. However, what about taxing the rich? Not to support Socialism, but don't the wealthy get everything and exploit the middle-class and poor? Don't rich corporations cause tremendous evils being motivated by greed? Even Christ told us, "and again I say unto thee, It is easier for a camel to enter a needle's eye than a rich man into the kingdom of God." (St. Matthew 19:23). In Christ's parable of the rich man and the beggar named Lazarus, the rich man dies and goes to Hell, but Lazarus was saved. (See St. Luke 16:19-31). What is the teaching of the Church on wealth? Are the rich doomed? This post will set forth Church doctrine on the topic.

The Teaching of Christ on Wealth

The Divine Redeemer does not condemn riches, rather He proclaims the dangers of them and teaches the advantages of their proper use. St. Paul tells us, "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." (1 Timothy 6:10; Emphasis mine). It is not the wealth per se which destroys people, but the love of wealth and the material things of this world. While many rich people do oppress the poor (one of the Four Sins That Scream to Heaven For Vengeance), it does not follow that all rich people are evil, or that accumulating wealth is bad. 

• Riches are not condemned. We read in the account of the rich young ruler: 

And behold one came and said to him: Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?
Who said to him: Why asketh thou me concerning good? One is good, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He said to him: Which? And Jesus said: Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith to him: All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me? Jesus saith to him: If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me. And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples: Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. (St. Matthew 19:16-23).
Therefore, whoever wishes to be perfect must not only keep the Ten Commandments, but also strip himself of all of his goods. This, however, is a counsel and not a universal precept. Religious Order Priests (like the Franciscans pre-Vatican II), as well as all brothers, monks, and nuns seek perfection in following the Master and keeping His counsel.

Jesus wanted His Apostles (the first pope and bishops of His Church) to abandon everything: home, belongings, wife and children, in order to follow Him. Nevertheless, among the disciples of Jesus during His Apostolic travels, we also find some pious women, "who used to provide for them out of their means." (St. Luke 8:1-3). To those women, He did not enjoin absolute poverty. Lazarus of Bethany was rich, yet Jesus calls him friend. (St. John 11:11). The Beatitudes extol those who are "poor in spirit" not merely materially poor. The Church distinguishes between effective and affective poverty. Effective poverty is the actual lack of material goods, whether voluntary or involuntary. Affective poverty is the detachment of  the heart from whatever wealth one may possess, be it small or great. All members of Christ's One True Church are called to practice affective poverty because it is necessary to perfection; effective poverty is not necessary. One who practices affective poverty is "poor in spirit," even with great wealth.

• The Danger of Riches

Riches make it difficult to enter Heaven because: 

1. it affords us many comforts on Earth so that we are apt to forget God and the things of Heaven
2. it affords us the means to satisfy our most exigent and dangerous passions
3. they tend to render people proud and covetous by making us neglect the grave duties riches impose

Rich people can attain heaven, and the Bible records several wealthy people who found favor with God. These include Abraham, Job, and even Joseph of Arimathea, who was wealthy enough to afford a tomb and used it for Jesus’ burial.

However, wealth can lead to the temptation to idolize money, and so it is a spiritual danger for people. Jesus said a person could not serve both God and money lest he end up loving one and despising the other. "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." (St. Matthew 6:24; the word "mammon" is also used which means money). St. Paul included in his list of vices that can prevent someone from entering the kingdom of God "thieves," "greedy," and "swindlers."  "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:9-10).

Humanity's fallen nature is such that having money is a great temptation to evil, and it takes great Faith and graces from God not to give in.[If you doubt me, take a brief look at the immoral, narcissistic pagans on The Real Housewives of (Whatever location)] Hence, it is very difficult, but certainly not impossible, for wealthy people to be virtuous and go to Heaven.

• The Proper Use of Wealth

In order to be saved, one must make proper use of riches. It is therefore necessary to do the following:

1. To keep one's heart detached from earthly goods, thereby remaining poor in spirit, even if not poor in fact. Christ never said you cannot possess wealth; as long as the wealth does not possess you as its master. There are many people who make an idol of money, sacrificing everything to it, including their conscience--which results in the eternal death of the soul in Hell

2. Before God we are to consider ourselves not as owners, but but only as tenants of our goods. St. Paul asks, "What do you have that you did not receive?" (1 Corinthians 4:7) The absolute Master of All is God, Who grants us the use of some of His goods. Of this we must render Him a strict account, "Give an account of your stewardship, because thou cannot be steward any longer." (St. Luke 16:2). Our Heavenly Father wants us to use His goods for legitimate needs, not to gratify our passions

3. We must give alms to the poor. St. John the Baptist said, "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same." (St. Luke 3:11) The Divine Redeemer tells us, "But yet that which remaineth, give alms; and behold, all things are clean unto thee."(St. Luke 11:41) In other words, that which is not necessary for the support of oneself and one's family, according to each one's social condition should be given as alms to the poor

4. Pope Leo XIII explains in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, Therefore, those whom fortune favors are warned that riches do not bring freedom from sorrow and are of no avail for eternal happiness, but rather are obstacles; that the rich should tremble at the threatenings of Jesus Christ - threatenings so unwonted in the mouth of our Lord - and that a most strict account must be given to the Supreme Judge for all we possess. The chief and most excellent rule for the right use of money is one the heathen philosophers hinted at, but which the Church has traced out clearly, and has not only made known to men's minds, but has impressed upon their lives. It rests on the principle that it is one thing to have a right to the possession of money and another to have a right to use money as one wills. Private ownership, as we have seen, is the natural right of man, and to exercise that right, especially as members of society, is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary. "It is lawful," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "for a man to hold private property; and it is also necessary for the carrying on of human existence."" But if the question be asked: How must one's possessions be used? - the Church replies without hesitation in the words of the same holy Doctor: "Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need. Whence the Apostle with, ‘Command the rich of this world... to offer with no stint, to apportion largely.’" True, no one is commanded to distribute to others that which is required for his own needs and those of his household; nor even to give away what is reasonably required to keep up becomingly his condition in life, "for no one ought to live other than becomingly." But, when what necessity demands has been supplied, and one's standing fairly taken thought for, it becomes a duty to give to the indigent out of what remains over. "Of that which remaineth, give alms." It is a duty, not of justice (save in extreme cases), but of Christian charity - a duty not enforced by human law. But the laws and judgments of men must yield place to the laws and judgments of Christ the true God, who in many ways urges on His followers the practice of alms-giving - ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive"; and who will count a kindness done or refused to the poor as done or refused to Himself - "As long as you did it to one of My least brethren you did it to Me." To sum up, then, what has been said: Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's providence, for the benefit of others. "He that hath a talent," said St. Gregory the Great, "let him see that he hide it not; he that hath abundance, let him quicken himself to mercy and generosity; he that hath art and skill, let him do his best to share the use and the utility hereof with his neighbor." (para. #22)

• The Advantages Derived from the Proper Use of Riches

1. The right use of riches opens the Kingdom of Heaven to us. "Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in.."(St. Matthew 25: 34-35) Jesus identifies Himself with the poor, and blessed are those of means who help them.

2. The right use of riches merits for us the grace and blessings of God. Jesus said, "Give, and it shall be given to thee..." (St. Luke 6:38). Here, it means you shall receive good things not in Heaven only, but also here on Earth, for God does not allow the charitable person to lack the necessities in life. The Holy Ghost says, "He that hath mercy on the poor, lendeth to the Lord." (Proverbs 19:17). Those who lend to the Lord put their money in a bank that never fails to yield high interest. 

3. However, the State has no right to take money, morally earned, away from those who have bettered their position in life. contrary to the evil doctrine of the Socialists. Pope Leo XIII taught: "Socialists, therefore, by endeavoring to transfer the possessions of individuals to the community at large, strike at the interests of every wage-earner, since they would deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his wages, and thereby of all hope and possibility of increasing his resources and of bettering his condition in life." (See Rerum Novarum, para. #5; Emphasis mine)

(The above was adopted and condensed in large part from theologian Civardi, How Christ Changed The World, [1961], and to whom I give full credit.)

Conclusion

Jorge Bergoglio ("Pope" Francis) is an enabler of the wickedness embodied by the likes of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. Francis also harps on "the needs of the poor." And why not? This perfectly appeals to the millennials' sensibilities, who have grown up in a world devoid of the influence of the One True Church. They like the idea of making sandwiches for the needy without getting bogged down by "small minded rules" that require you to deny unnatural lust and protect unborn human life.

Francis makes giving to the poor the end all and be all of his version of "Christianity." He exalts the Corporal Works of Mercy over the Spiritual Works of Mercy, even though the latter are greater than the former. Corporal Works of Mercy only affect our neighbor's well being in this life, while the Spiritual Works of Mercy promote eternal interests. To those like the mindless bartender turned Congresswoman, Ocasio-Cortez, and the equally clueless "pope" of the Vatican II sect, who think all wealth is evil and must be redistributed, an aphorism attributed to the great G.K. Chesterton is in order: "Socialism can only work in two places; Heaven, where they don't need it, and Hell where they already have it."