The Spirit Of The Evangelical Counsels: Poverty, Chastity, And Obedience – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; October 13, 2024

Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.

These words of the Lord are one of the passages that serve as the “charter” for the religious or consecrated life.

The words, go sell what you have, constitute the basis for the evangelical counsel of poverty. To this is added the evangelical counsel of chastity: there are some who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven; let him who can take it, take it. (Mt 19:12) And the evangelical counsel of obedience, after the pattern of Christ himself who was made obedient unto death, death on a Cross. (Ph 2:8) The vowed profession of the evangelical counsels establishes the “religious” or “consecrated” life because through them a man or woman offers his entire life, consecrates his life, to God as a sort of “holocaust”, the supreme sacrificial offering, the supreme act of religion.

Nevertheless, more than poverty, chastity, and obedience, the evangelical counsels are constituted by Christ’s words, come follow me; the religious life seeks to follow the way of life that Jesus, the Son of God made man, chose for himself when he walked on this earth. Jesus was born in the poverty of Bethlehem, died naked on the Cross, and during his public ministry declared that he had nowhere to lay his head. He did not take a woman to wife because he had come to give his life in sacrifice to betroth to himself the whole of redeemed humanity, the Church; while Adam, through Eve, was the father of fallen humanity, Christ, the new Adam, through the Church, through the spiritual regeneration of baptism, has become the father of redeemed humanity. He accomplished his work of redemption, in particular, through his obedience to the Father’s will, obedience to death on the Cross, undoing the disobedience of Adam. (cf. Ph 2:8) On entering the world he said, Behold, I come to do your will, O God … in which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. (He 10,5,9,10)

The religious or consecrated soul makes vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, thereby making to God, in union with Christ, an offering of his entire life, exterior goods through poverty, his body through chastity, and his very self through the offering of his will in obedience. These same vows work to remove the impediments that can keep him back from that total gift of self to God. Voluntary poverty frees from the preoccupation with worldly affairs that would keep him from prayer and meditation on the word of God; celibate or virginal chastity keeps him from the temptations of sensual pleasure and keeps his heart undivided for Christ; obedience, frees him from pride and self-will so that he can give himself over completely to the service of Christ’s kingdom.

This is all well and good, but you might be wondering what it has to do with your own life? Well, in the first place, it is important for married men and women, fathers and mothers, to have some understanding of the religious life, to have some grasp of its inestimable value, in order to be able to guide their children to be open to God’s call, to be ready to answer God’s call.

There is, however, another reason, one that touches each of us personally.

The evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience are called “counsels” not “precepts” or “commandments”. The Christian is not obliged to follow the path of the evangelical counsels, at least not literally. They are offered by Christ, our teacher, as “advice”. As another Gospel reports his words, he says to the rich young man, if you would be perfect. (Mt 19:21) Indeed, he commands us, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, (Mt 5:48) but perfection consists in charity, love of God and love of neighbor in God; poverty, chastity, and obedience are excellent means to Christian perfection, not the goal itself.

Nevertheless, it is said that since all Christians are obliged to seek perfection in charity – that means they must at least desire to overcome sin in their lives and grow in love of God and neighbor – they must at least follow also the spirit of the evangelical counsels. Christ himself proclaims blessed those who possess the spirit of poverty. (Mt 5:3) St. Paul points us in this direction also when he says, Let those who use this world be as those who do not use it, for the form of this world is passing. (1 Cor 7:31)

In a moment I will say a little more about what that means, concretely, but I should first elaborate on the obligation to seek perfection in charity, to grow in that direction; it is the perfection of a wayfarer always pushing forward on his journey. If someone should say to himself, “I have enough faith for my purposes, enough hope, and I am satisfied that I am a loving person” he cuts himself off to growth in grace and charity and puts himself in danger even of eternal damnation. Why? Because such a statement, such an attitude is, shall we say, a rather lukewarm response to the burning love of Christ, who gave his life for us on the Cross and continues to give himself to us in the Holy Eucharist, precisely in order to kindle and nourish the fire of charity in us. He said, in this regard, I have come to set fire on the earth and what would I but that it be kindled. (Lk 12:49) As for the lukewarm, who are content with mediocrity, he says, I would that you were hot or cold, but since you are lukewarm, I will vomit you from my mouth. (Rev 2:15-16)

So, then, what does it mean to seek the perfection of charity, following Christ in the spirit of the evangelical counsels?  For us, this is as impossible as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, but for God all things are possible. To follow Christ, we must continually beg God’s grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So first, regarding the spirit of poverty, to which the kingdom of heaven is given (cf. Mt 5:3), we must remember that Jesus told all of us, No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will endure the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.  (Mt 6:24) And then, after warning us not to be preoccupied with what we are to eat or what we are to wear, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you. (Mt 6:33) The Catechism of the Catholic Church, commenting on the words of the Acts of the Apostles, They had all things in common, (Acts 4:32) teaches, “Everything the true Christian has is to be regarded as a good possessed in common with everyone else. All Christians should be ready and eager to come to the help of the needy . . . and of their neighbors in want. A Christian is a steward of the Lord’s goods.”(CCC 952)

Now, I would say that in the world of technological prosperity in which we live, the spirit of poverty requires of the Christian that he make a determined and conscious effort to pursue simplicity in his manner of life and impose limits especially on his use of technology. He should seek more to live in the real world, created by God, with all its sharp edges, the cold, the heat, the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, the change of the seasons, the pace of natural growth, of planting and harvest, than in the man-made world of cyberspace and television screens, the bright lights of the casino and the highspeed of the freeway, or the numbers in a bank account. Yet, turning away from technology towards reality must be ruled by the supreme purpose of seeking God in prayer, free from distractions. This requires the cultivation of patience and silence so as to be able to meditate on the word of God.

Note, that I have spoken of turning away from, not abandoning technology. To turn away from technology, in a spirit of poverty, means learning that we do not need the latest gadget, but that given the circumstances of modern life, we need to learn to make use of the equipment that is available and needed, precisely as “tools.” As tools, they should be employed to sustain our bodily life and in some measure assist the life of mind and spirit – caution, you do not know what is at your fingertips in your iPhone, but know only what you retain in your soul through memory – but true life is found in our relationship to God and in our relationships with our neighbors, first of all those with whom we can physically interact, who are part of our daily lives in the place in which we live. Virtual community is no substitute for real community. Real books are better for the formation of the mind and imagination that screens.

Next, we turn to the evangelical counsel of chastity. Chastity is a beautiful virtue that all must practice, each according to his state of life. Besides the consecrated chastity of virginity or celibacy, there is the chastity of availability in the single life, and also the chastity of married life and of widowhood. “Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of bodily and spiritual being … the chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.” (CCC 2337,2338) The virtue of chastity gives a person mastery over himself, a mastery that makes it possible to make of himself a true gift in love.

This self-mastery requires discipline of eyes, imagination, and emotions. This requires great care in what we watch, listen to and read, the “diet” so to speak of our soul.  We should take care to feed ourselves well, not on junk food, much less on poison.

As a part of the virtue of temperance, chastity turns away from the pursuit of pleasure and is protected by the practice of temperance also in matters of food and drink. God made pleasure, but he made it to accompany the necessary pursuits of our bodily life. Imagine having to eat to nourish the body, but finding no pleasure in the food, just a laborious task. We should not seek these pleasures but accept them with gratitude as they come and leave without sorrow as they go. Rather, we should seek the supreme joy of eternal life and union with God, where there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage. (cf. Lk 20:35) For this reason a husband must belong to God before he belongs to his wife; a wife must belong to God before she belongs to her husband.

Then we come to the spirit of obedience. The vowed religious obliges himself to obey the superior of the community in accord with the rule of his order, which is constituted in the service of Christ’s kingdom. Through his vow and the concrete structure of his religious community, he is integrated into the order of Christ’s kingdom.

As for the spirit of obedience. We are all obliged to obey God. Jesus says, If you love me, keep my commandments. (cf. Jn 14:21,23; 15:10) Love, however, is not minimalist, but generous. Love seeks God’s will in all things, after the example of Christ, who said, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and accomplish his work. (Jn 4:34) So also we pray every day, thy will be done on earth – by us – as it is in heaven – by the holy angels, God’s ministers who do his will. (Ps 103[102]:21) By obeying God’s will we put ourselves at the service of his kingdom, putting his plans ahead of our own.

Yet, it is not just a matter of obeying God directly. St. Paul writes, there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. (1 Cor 13:1) This applies to authority in the family, authority in civil society, and authority in the Church.

We need to understand what this means. Authority is always hierarchical, defined and limited by the higher authority from which it receives its commission, and ultimately defined and limited by God himself. For this reason, it is said that an “unjust law is no law; the same for an unjust command. For that reason, we can never excuse wrong doing by saying, “I was just obeying orders.” At the same time, legitimate authority, exceeding its bounds, may not so much command us to act unjustly as impose unjust burdens upon us. Usually, prudence is required here, it is better to suffer and tolerate injustice than oppose the authority structure established by God, whereby he allows the inevitable injustices perpetrated by fallen men.

In this we follow the example of Christ, who, while bearing witness to the evil, submitted himself to unjust abuses of power by both the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to the point of accepting crucifixion itself. St. Peter exhorts us: It is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong. For Christ also died, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Pe 3:17-18)

All this will seem very hard, unless we consider that nothing in this world can be compared to the wisdom of God. All this will seem very hard, so long as we consider only the passing things of this world. If, however, we learn to live in the light of eternity, then our view point will be changed. If we learn to live beneath the gaze of him, before whose eyes all things are naked and exposed, to whom we must render an account, who does not look upon us with coldness and severity, but with love and mercy, as the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins with his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, what seemed hard will become easy. (Rev. 1:5-6)

May the Holy Mother of God, most perfectly consecrated to her Son, in both virginity and motherhood, help us to respond to his gaze that looks upon us with love.