Christian Mission and Poverty

Afterword

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God and physical care for one another. He understood that, in addition to shaping our lives around prayer, Christians must be committed to limiting the accumulation of wealth and not hoarding things as our own. Mary of Paris demonstrated how these lessons can be lived out not just in the monastery but in our cities and communities. She called Christians to reject miserliness and greed and instead live into postures of spiritual nonpossession, particularly among the poor. Thomas Aquinas showed us that Christians have always agreed that the Bible doesn’t just teach us how to live as individuals but also teaches us how to live in relationship with others, especially those who are poor. He demonstrated that the Gospel affects how we think about property ownership, distribution of resources, and economic systems of lending, debt, and interest. In this sense, the Gospel has political ramifications because it affects the polis, the systems and structures of human community. While the church must not align with a particular political party, nation, or governmental leader, we must live out the holistic Gospel in both personal and social holiness. The Gospel Includes Justice and Charity As we have talked with mothers and fathers of the faith, we have seen that the Gospel calls us to alleviate poverty and to care for the poor. Today, Christians often have differing perspectives about whether this means we should provide charity or should work for economic justice. We have seen in these readings that the Christian tradition calls us to both charity and justice. Basil and Chrysostom stressed the importance of charity for those in need. At the same time, they contended that