“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mt. 19:24). The U.S. has the world’s largest economy by measurement of the nominal GDP. What does that say to us? Well, let’s see what possession of wealth said to today’s saint!
St. Jeanne Delanoue, aka St. Joan of the Cross, was born in France in 1666 (died 1736) as the youngest of twelve to parents who owned a business. After her parents died she took over the business and became successful, due in part to her shrewdness, but also due in part to greed, to the point of keeping the store open on Sundays, which was against the traditions of the time. However, a poor widowed pilgrim “converted” her during the days of Pentecost. In his canonization homily, St. John Paul II stated: “Known as a prudent and self-interested merchant, she suddenly became ‘very generous in charity,’ when the Holy Spirit, extinguishing ‘the fire of her avarice,’ made her understand that her ardent faith also required ‘the fire of charity,’ showing her the extent of poverty.” And so she changed her ways, founded a religious order, and started to serve “all those who on the Day of Judgment might say to her: I was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, homeless.”
So what does her life say to us? Again St. John Paul II guides us: “Her example will certainly challenge our modern world.” Too true! We need to root out and address the causes of poverty. “But attention to the poor, and immediate and effective aid, remain essential to remedying the harshness of our world.” We can be benefactors! St. Joan of the Cross, pray for us.
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