By Sister Genevieve Sachse, OSB

Our vow of poverty certainly takes different forms today than in past centuries; moreover, some of the clichés around concerning the nature of the vow of poverty are being questioned today.

I have heard the complaint by laymen, sometimes well justified, that “You take the vow of poverty and we keep it,” and I am also aware that some of the laity have been scandalized because of what they consider to be a misuse of the hard-earned funds they have contributed to the church.

Many of the practical aspects of the day-to-day living out of the vow are indistinguishable from the responsibilities of the concerned Christian layman.

My salary (such as it is!) is not for my use alone; just as the father of a family has responsibilities to the total family, so we as religious have the responsibility to live as economically as we can since anything over and above the cost of living must go for further education and professional preparation not only for myself but for the young women coming into the community, for retirement and for the support of the aged in the community who gave so much to the church while they were active.

Living in community does make the life of mutual sharing more feasible, but economics is no more the reason for communal living than communal living is for the vow of poverty. There is the asceticism of really owning nothing of my own, but how many people in our credit-oriented society speak of “being owned by the bank.”

Does it really make any difference whether I receive a salary somewhat lower than my professional training would warrant and in effect donate this amount to the church or if I were professional salaried and put it into the collection basket or worthy charities? Both ways serve the needs of the church in the world.

Why then bother with the vows at all? In my last column I spoke about the specific distinction that the spousal commitment makes for the religious by directing her energies toward the development of that personal and spousal relationship with the Lord.

Because the religious has committed herself to developing her oneness with Christ she takes on the concern of Christ in his poorest members, just for the sake of sharing in all that is his.

It is of no value to be poor just for the sake of being poor. If I need a decent car because of the great amount of city and highway travel I must do, the needs of the church will not be met by my having a clunker which requires frequent nursing at the side of the road.

Just because our apartment is furnished in contemporary army surplus décor does not mean that poverty requires that we refrain from redoing the furniture to make it as attractive as possible. Poverty does demand that I make the best possible use of the funds provided.

Different communities have different historical backgrounds regarding the spirit of the vow. Most people are aware of St. Francis’ love for Lady Poverty, yet 700 years earlier, St. Benedict had written in his rule that the monk should not throw away his old tunic and scapular but that they should be saved and given to the poor.

Poverty for the religious has been a kind of freedom from the concern of the materialism of our times. It is truly a burden to have to spend previous time dealing with monetary matters and perhaps it is the poverty of time that most religious feel today.

The needs and demands and opportunities for service in the church today are so great that most religious must draw the line at a sixty to seventy hour work week lest the involvement become self-destructive. The asceticism of a judicious use of time is a real form of poverty.

By her vows, the religious proclaims in a public act of religion that, regardless of how the goods are utilized, there is something more to life and its meaning than the hear and now struggles we face each day.