Living our poverty and chastity

LIVING OUR POVERTY AND CHASTITY

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            Poverty, chastity and obedience are the three vows that any religious would take when he or she enters into religious life. It may surprise you to think as to why I have not mentioned ‘obedience’ as part of the title of this article. Somehow it happens that when it comes to obedience, most of us generally obey and so I would not want to waste much time on it. I would like to speak about poverty and chastity. We could perhaps say that these two are in some way related. How? Here is a story to illustrate this point.

            One day two monks were travelling through a forest. As they were walking, they came across a village in which there was a river to be crossed. The river was pretty deep (at least till waste level) and so they decided to go all the same. However, just before they could make their journey across the river, a young woman happened to pass y and she needed help to cross the river. Knowing that this was not in keeping with their rule of speaking or having any contact with the opposite gender, the monks hesitated for some time. After a few minutes of thought, one of them volunteered to carry the woman on his back and so the three of them crossed the river.

            After crossing the river, the woman got down and thanked the monk who carried her and went her way. Later, as the monks continued on their journey, the monk who did not carry the woman retorted, “You should not have done it. It is not in keeping with our rules,” to which the other monk calmly replied, “I carried and helped the woman across the river and I have forgotten about it. You are still carrying her in your mind.”

            The story ends there but the message is clear. Poverty and chastity which are supposed to be part of the evangelical counsels can be understood on similar lines. Sometimes these two aspects of the evangelical counsels can be gravely misunderstood or misinterpreted. For instance, the aspect of poverty in religious life is usually understood or interpreted as giving up everything or having a dislike for material things. But if we actually go to look at it closely, perhaps, we may have to change or rethink our understanding of poverty. For it could very well happen that a person may not have anything or could have the bare minimum and crave for more while a person may have everything but yet he or she is detached, in the sense, that even if it is not there, he or she can still do without it. The same could be said about chastity. A person may have many friends of the opposite gender but may not lust after a particular person, while on the other hand, a person may have very few or none but may harbor a strong lustful feeling.

            Thus to conclude, the way we live our religious lives, especially with regard to our poverty and chastity largely depends on the type of outlook or mindset that we cultivate. Hence, it is for this reason that prayer and meditation is required which will help us develop a balanced outlook and a healthier approach to life.


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