A person who is admitted to a religious order makes a vow of poverty, along with the vows of chastity and obedience.
On the surface, it appears that the vows make a person less free and more confined or restricted.
Ironically, the opposite is true. In reality, the vows make a person more free.
After I was admitted to the Salesian congregation and made the three vows, my worries about what to eat and wear and where to live ceased.
As a result of the vow of poverty, for a few years I lived a worry-free life.
Scripture says that whatever you give to God will be returned a hundredfold (Mark 10:29-30).
This is an even more pronounced reality for a person who enters a religious order. As St. Francis of Assisi said, “It is in giving that we receive.”
I left the Salesian congregation with full knowledge of the consequences of my decision.
I knew that the worry-free life I enjoyed for a few years would end.
I knew that starting a new life would be a challenge, especially since I came from a different country (the Philippines) and a different culture.
In America, I had no family to help me during the transition. The absence of a safety net made my decision to leave the congregation more scary.
Fortunately, while at the Josephinum I was recruited to work in a team that put on a cursillo weekend retreat at Holy Cross Church in Columbus.
During that weekend, I befriended a few people in attendance. I turned to them for help when I left the Josephinum.
In looking back, I could see that it was a part of God’s plan for my life, for God used cursillistas in my transition from the religious life to that of a layperson.
A cursillista, who was the chief financial officer at the St. Therese Shrine Center at the time, loaned me some money interest-free to help me start a new life in America.
To supplement the cash I borrowed, I wrote a letter to a few cursillistas to beg for help while I was looking for a good-paying job.
But I dropped my begging activity like a hot potato after receiving a three-page letter in response.
“Stop begging! Go to work! You are not in the Philippines,” the letter said.
I could not believe what I read. I thought it was a big joke, but it was not.
As I read the letter, it felt as if I was hit in the face by a bunch of 2-by-4s.
I was shocked. I was angry. I felt humiliated. I felt belittled. With my blood boiling, I tore the letter up and threw the pieces in a trash can.
Then I had a moment of “It is the Lord.”
After I recovered from the initial shock, a thought flashed through my mind.
“I am a healthy person. I should not beg. I should support my own self,” I told myself.
Looking back, that was the best letter I ever received after I left the congregation.
It changed my mindset from relying on others to self-reliance. The letter was God-sent; it was a blessing in disguise.
Though it was hard to swallow, it gave me a better understanding of the American culture of “self-reliance” and the “do it yourself” mentality.
“In America, we believe in self-reliance. If you want to live in America, you have to change your mindset, so stop begging and get you a job like everyone else,” the letter said.
Its author was right. In the Philippines, begging is a common practice. I could still remember that during and after World War II, as children, we followed American GIs and begged for chocolate. “Chocolate, Joe,” we cried.
The Philippine government also begged the American government for financial aid to help rebuild the country from the devastation caused by destructive bombings – first by the Japanese invaders and later by the American liberation forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
“Change your mindset!” the letter emphasized. And change I did. As the saying goes, “If you give fish to a man, he has fish for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he will have fish for life.”
I totally embraced the “self-reliance” philosophy, even in my walk with God. I started to believe in “do it yourself Christianity, believing I had the power I needed.
All I had to do was to look deeper and longer within myself, and there would be nothing I could not do.
I started to believe that “God helps those who help themselves” or “God has started it and now you must finish it” or “God has done His part and now I must do mine.”
I later discovered that self-reliance does not work in my walk with God.
Why? Because the concept is framed on a faulty premise: God will work for me as long as I work; or my faith is strong as long as I am strong; or my position is secure as long as I am secure; or my life is good as long as I am good.
Here is the problem: My faith is not always strong, my position is not always secure and I am not always good. “No one is good,” Scripture says (Matthew 19:17).
The 50-50 proposition is too little. I need more than “to try a little bit harder.” I need help from outside of me.
I need the kind of help that Jesus promises: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He lives in you” (John 14:16-17).
What a wonderful promise from our Father. God is not only near us, God is not only above us, God is not only around us – God lives in each one of us.
God dwells in our heart. In the hidden recesses of our being dwells not an angel, not a genie, not a philosophy – but the God of the universe! Can you imagine it – God in you?
Think about it. It was not enough for God to appear in a bush; it was not enough for God to dwell in a temple; it was not enough for God to become man and dwell among us; it was not enough for God to leave His Word and promise that He would return in the end of time.
God goes farther … God takes up residence in each of us.
Paul asks, “Do you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you do not think that God would go that far to bring you home.
If you don’t, then think again.