It's a rich man's world... (with apologies to Abba)

Jennifer F at Et Tu? has an excellent post where she laments our Western Christian lack of zeal, our fear of Biblical austerity, and our failure "to stand out like sore thumbs more than [we] do" by living distinctively Christian lives amidst a broken world.

I couldn't help but be struck by the parallel with this account, from Saint of the Day, of a remark by Pope Pius X (1835-1914):

Ever mindful of his humble origin, he stated, "I was born poor, I lived poor, I will die poor." He was embarrassed by some of the pomp of the papal court. "Look how they have dressed me up," he said in tears to an old friend. To another, "It is a penance to be forced to accept all these practices. They lead me around surrounded by soldiers like Jesus when he was seized in Gethsemani."

The entry goes on to state:

Interested in politics, [Pius X] encouraged Italian Catholics to become more politically involved. One of his first papal acts was to end the supposed right of governments to interfere by veto in papal elections—a practice that reduced the freedom of the conclave which elected him.

In 1905, when France renounced its agreement with the Holy See and threatened confiscation of Church property if governmental control of Church affairs were not granted, Pius X courageously rejected the demand.

While he did not author a famous social encyclical as his predecessor had done, he denounced the ill treatment of the Indians on the plantations of Peru, sent a relief commission to Messina after an earthquake and sheltered refugees at his own expense.

This is the attitude we need in order to live prophetic lives among the wealth and pain of our Western culture.

The paradoxical thing is, though, as I said in a comment on Jennifer's post, that in the West the church is so inured to its comfortable lifestyle that, living simply, we can sometimes find ourselves being looked down on by "better-off" believers. (This especially in true of some of the more evangelical churches, ones who consciously claim to resemble New Testament fellowships, I'm sorry to say.)

I think the assumption may be that, if you're following Christ, you will be blessed. Seeing blessing in material terms, comfortably-off believers assume that if you're not "blessed" in the same way, then there must be something amiss with your "Christian walk."

Asceticism is, to some degree, an inevitable part of our Christian calling, part of the way we are to be "salt and light" in a damaged world. We forget this to our peril, and risk becoming like the rich young man in Matthew 19.15-25, who, unable to accept Jesus' call to asceticism, "went away grieving, for he had many possessions..."