The question of poverty has, perhaps, best been explained in Gabriel Marcel’s and Erich Fromm’s books on Being and Having. Stripped of all possessions the individual is naked, defenceless and vulnerable. For an infant this does not matter because total dependence on another, in this case the mother, is appropriate. The infant is at the beginning of the process that will ultimately lead to individuation, independence and responsibility. But for an adult it is another matter and it would be irresponsible for an adult to make himself indigent. This is saying, ‘I refuse to be responsible for my own well-being. Others must take over responsibility for feeding, clothing and sheltering me otherwise I will die.’ Yet Jesus asked his disciples to do precisely this. They were told not to take any provisions with them, no extra clothing or money. They were to make themselves totally dependent on others. If the people in the villages they visited were not happy with this they were to move on, ‘shaking the dust of the town off their feet.’ What might this imply? For the disciples it required the absolute trust that the rich young man could not give – a blind trust because, as we know from other passages, that they did not fully understand what it was they were doing. We know also that while they may have abandoned their possessions they were still attached to them, and to their lives. For some of the people it implied that these men were fools, for others it implied that they had found something more valuable than gold.
There is much in the Gospels that reminds me of the story of the man who had a dream about finding diamonds.
There is an Indian story about a man on a journey through the forest. He came across an old man, a sannyasin, or holy man. I cannot remember the details now, but this old man had a collection of what looked like pebbles. The traveller recognised that they were in fact uncut diamonds. As he left the old man he asked if he could have one. ‘Of course’, said the old man and gestured for him to take one. The man took the largest and went on his way delighted at his good luck and the fact that he was now rich. As he walked he began to berate himself. ‘I should have asked for more. He had many. I should have taken several.’
For the rest of the day he could only think of the diamonds. Where had the old man found them? Were there more? That night as he tried to sleep a new thought surfaced. Why had the man given the diamond so easily? Why was he still in the forest instead of living a life of luxury? The next day he made his way back to the old man and returned the diamond. ‘Old man, tell me what you have that allows you to give away such wealth without a thought.’
I think Jesus had a similar affect on his disciples as the guru, who could so easily give away vast riches, had on the man. What had he found that was more precious than gold? We all search for the elusive secret of happiness. Jesus had found it and his disciples had blindly followed his instructions hoping that they too would discover it. I think that at Pentecost they did, not before. By Pentecost they had been emptied of their possessions. They had left everything, lost everything. As prisoners of fear in the Upper Room they no longer even had the freedom to roam the streets and the countryside. Only when they had been emptied could they be filled with the Holy Spirit.