TRANSCRIPT:
I was reading the Magnificat today, and the words hit me in a little bit of a different way than they have in the past. And I was thinking about the pride and the conceit and of the world, and I was thinking about the rich and what the Saints tell us that the purpose of the rich is. And the rich, of course, are here on earth for the aid of the poor- to come to their aid. And the poor are here on the earth for the spiritual salvation of the rich, to give the rich people an opportunity to work out their salvation through their generosity and their benefits and their assistance.
And each of us has been born into a particular place in our life, and most of us probably, that are watching this, are rich by any standard, certainly compared to what the Saints of all time have lived like. And a large portion of the world’s population today are dependent upon those of us that are rich. And Saint Thomas talks about how if we have an extra coat in our closet, we should give that to the poor. If it’s hanging in our closet and we’re not using it, that’s excess that we own that we should give to the poor. Or if we have an excess of food, that should be going to the poor. And I just thought about how my own closet is full of clothes that I don’t wear on a regular basis and haven’t worn in a long time, and that there’s not a single meal that goes by that I don’t at least have access to seconds, you know, a second portion, a helping.
And yet, how rare it is that that would go to the poor, or that the money that provided for that excess could have gone to the poor instead of going into seconds for my family or an extra coat or a second hat or a third pair of gloves or whatever. It’s a high standard, but it’s the standard that Saint Thomas tells us this is the one that we must adhere to for salvation. So, I’m just going to be working on looking for opportunities in my life to take the excess, the things that I don’t really need according to my state in life, and find a way to get those to the poor.