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Poverty
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Transcript
- Well, maybe. Maybe. Why don’t we just talk about the vow of poverty and what I understand by it?
- Because, I think the danger is, sometimes with the way we talk about poverty, it could imply that poverty is a good thing...
- and..., in a sense, poverty is an evil, you know.
- If people are suffering, it is not a good thing.
- and..., what I understand by the vow of poverty, it’s a promise and a commitment to try and live in the world using the resources in a way that’s fair and just...
- so..., while, on the television, we’re hearing all the time, in advertising, you need this..., you have to have this..., you have to have the latest this..., you have to own this to be good, to be comfortable, to be secure.
- I don’t actually believe that’s true.
- And I think one of the problems we actually face in the world is that resources are limited, you know.
- Resources are limited..., and we as Christians,
- ... not just as a Priest, not just as a Religious,
- ... as Christians we all have a responsibility to use the resources of the world wisely.
- So the commitment I make as a Religious is to try and live in a way that I share resources with people.
- So it’s not that I haven’t my own car or my own house.
- I mean I have a house to live in, but it’s a house that is there for other people to use as well. It’s not just for my own.
- I do things that earn money: I was working the other day, and probably at the end of the day I would have earned about five hundred pounds for that day’s work with people.
- But at the end of the day that money doesn’t come to me for my own personal use.
- The money goes to a central fund and those resources are used to help other people.
- So when people in my order who could be sick, elderly, need help,
- ... people that might want to join, who need resources to be able to train to do the work that we do.
- So it’s not that we don’t have things for money.
- We have computers, we have cars, we have houses.
- But none of us own them personally, they are there to be shared.
- So we actually need to use less resources.
Obedience
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Transcript
- I don’t see the vows... of poverty, chastity and obedience ...as being about rules about what I have to do.
- I see them as being about ways to express my belief in the values that are important in the world.
- So, for me, obedience isn’t about a rule to do what I’m told by someone else.
- For me obedience is about having a commitment to try and understand what God wants for me in the world and to live as God wants me to live.
- Because if I do what God wants me to do in the world and take care to try and find that out, that’s actually what would make me truly happy.
- Now I think that’s what I have seen with, like people who I know who have entered Religious life much older than I am.
- People who have had a job, had a house.
- And not just people who enter Religious life:
- ... you know there are many people in the world who have been successful and there’s something missing and they will maybe as a family decide to sell up and go somewhere else to do something different
- It’s kind of, it’s not about following rules, it’s about seeing what are the values what are the things that are important to you
- ... and actually expressing those in your life through the choices that you make.
Celibacy
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Transcript
- There are times, yes, there are times when I would feel lonely and think about what if, and I think that’s true about everyone.
- You know, I mean, the vow of celibacy, or chastity, as [unclear] talk about it, is actually a value that everyone is actually called to, to live.
- Cause, as I said before, I don’t believe it’s just about saying no to sex, which is where it’s often understood, or no to being married.
- It’s about living in the right relationship with people.
- So when people actually make a choice to get married, and say their marriage vows, in some ways they are actually taking a vow of chastity.
- For what they are actually saying is, that they are making a commitment to express their sexuality in that relationship alone.
- And so they are saying that will no longer consider entering into a sexual relationship with another person, because their sexuality is going to be expressed in that marriage relationship.
- Now that doesn’t mean that a married person stops thinking about...
- ooh, that’s an attractive person...
- they may still find themselves attracted to other people.
- But they recognise that they made a commitment not to follow up on those feelings, because it would be inappropriate:
- they would be doing damage to their partner, to their wife or their husband,
- they would be damaging, possibly, the other person, because they would be merely using them, and wouldn't be prepared to commit to them.
- And so, it wouldn’t be a right use of that gift of sexuality.
- So, it’s the same principle and value, as a Priest, as a Religious, that I would be following,
- ... that it wouldn't be appropriate to follow up on something like that just because I felt like it, if I wasn’t prepared to follow up the long term commitment.
- So just as you might see someone that you are attracted to for a moment, but say oh, no, that’s not what I committed myself to,
- ... it would be the same for most Priests and Religious, that they may have moments when they think about the possibilities.
- But, if they feel content fundamentally with that choice that they have made, they will carry on trying to live the promise that they made.