I continue to speak about the subject of happiness - not superficial happiness that passes, but true happiness that endures - the kind of deep happiness described by the Greek term makarios, which is also translated as blessed I am using the beatitudes to focus our thoughts, because the beatitudes are Jesus' central teaching about happiness. In a culture where everyone claims to be seeking happiness, these chapel services are a time when we can think about what Jesus taught his disciples on this subject.
There is something wrong, isn't there, when we are all so desperately interested in a subject like happiness, searching for it everywhere, reading self-help books by the ream, and yet disregarding the words that many of us regard as the word of God on the subject? Somehow there is a disconnect here. Part of the disconnect, as I have explained, is that the words of Jesus on this subject are so preposterous that we can not believe he meant them. They must be "spiritual" and therefore irrelevant. Such seems often to be our attitude. But I am pleading that we consider Jesus' words on happiness seriously, as if they meant something, as if they actually were and are instructions to those of us who seek to be his disciples.
And so we begin: as Matthew has it, "Blessed (or happy) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Or Luke, more simply: " Blessed (or happy) are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."
Poverty and happiness are subjects that in our mental world are only inversely related. The poorer one is, the unhappier. The richer one is, the happier. So we often think. But Jesus says otherwise. I recently received an invitation from a Dartmouth graduate who, shortly after graduation, joined the Jesuits, which, as you know, is a Roman Catholic order. This student invited me to be present as he made his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Although I could not be present at his ceremony, I thought how absolutely opposite those vows are to the values that seem to guide most of our graduates. Instead of poverty, we value wealth; instead of chastity, sexual license; and instead of obedience, independence. Most parents do not send their children to Dartmouth to become monks; they send their children top Dartmouth to become, as we say, whatever they want to be, as long as it makes them happy. But, judging from the path taken by most of our grads, we seem to believe that wealth is the road to happiness. If Jesus says otherwise, well - either Jesus did not know what he was talking about, or he must have meant something else.
Now let me be clear. When Jesus spoke of poverty - whether simple poverty (as in Luke) or "poverty of spirit" (as in Matthew), I do not believe he was advocating the kind of grinding poverty that so many people in the world experience, and that the prophet Amos condemns. It is no blessing to starve; it does not make anyone happy to see their children starving or naked or unable to receive medical care or any semblance of education. No one is advocating grinding poverty. That may be why Matthew calls it poverty of spirit. As Amos proclaims, the God of justice condemns those who trample on the poor. The frustration of never having enough, and of having no way to change that situation, is an awful thing; it is not a blessing; it is a disgrace - not to the person who is grindingly poor, but to the nation, the society, the world that allows such things to happen. And in the United States, the richest nation in the world by some measures, 13% of our total population, and almost 18% of our children, live in poverty.[1]
Of course poverty is a relative thing. The poverty rate in the US for 2005, for a family of four people, was $15, 735.[2] This is of course, about one-third the annual cost of attending Dartmouth. But in terms of the world, it is high; the "middle" income range for the world is approximately $1500 per person,[3] or $6000 for a family of four. In other words, the family of four that is below the poverty line in the US is actually two and a half times as wealthy as the world's average family. Now if course we know that conditions vary from place to place. Purchasing power is different in different places. But isn't it interesting that while we can define the poverty rate in our nation - we can define how much is not enough - we do not define the wealth rate - how much is too much? Is there any amount of money that is too much? In Luke, Jesus says that there is: "Woe to you who are rich. You have already received your consolation." (Luke 6:24)
Most of the world is poor. The average family in the world, if they devoted their entire income to paying for it, would be able to afford one month at Dartmouth. The average American family would have to devote its entire income, with nothing left over, for one of its children to attend Dartmouth. Now I know about financial aid, which of course is the only reason that Dartmouth and its peers have any moral claim to exist. I am simply trying to point out that we are so immersed in a culture of privilege and its perpetuation that we may be blind to the reality of the world.
I do not believe that when Jesus proclaimed the poor blessed, he meant that poverty was acceptable. Every person in the world deserves enough to eat, a place of shelter, and medical care. Rather, he was countering, I think, the false belief that wealth is the basis of happiness - a false belief that we continue to hold and to perpetuate.
I say false belief. Who says it's false? Well, Jesus, of course, But if you want corroboration, you can ask the social scientists. Consider these words from a social scientist summarizing research on the subject: "Try to imagine yourself changing places with either Bob or Mary. Bob is thirty five years old, single white, attractive, and athletic. He earns $100,000 a year and lives in sunny Southern California. He is highly intellectual, and he spends his free time reading and going to museums. Mary and her husband live in snowy Buffalo, New York, where they earn a combined income of $40,000. Mary is sixty-five years old, black, overweight, and plain in appearance. She is highly sociable and spends her time mostly in activities related to her church. She is on dialysis for kidney problems. Bob seems to have it all .... Yet, if you had to bet on it, you should bet that Mary is happier than Bob."[4] The reason: almost every factor that Bob enjoys and that seems to compromise Mary is, on the basis of "objective research", wrong. You can check it out. I can give you the reference - chapter and verse.
So you can believe either Jesus or social science. In this case they agree. They both cast doubt on our assumption that wealth makes us happy. So what else do we need to know before we reconsider the direction of our life?
One more thing: recently Mohammad Yunus won the Nobel peace prize. Probably most of you have heard of him. He is the father of microfinance - a practice of lending very small amounts of money to entrepreneurs - mainly women - in third world countries. The amounts of money are so small that traditional banks would not deal with them, yet they have proved so successful that Yunus says he hopes in 25 years we will have to build a museum to see poverty. In a recent interview,[5] he explained how his idea of microcredit arose. He said: "In 1974, there was a famine in the country (Bangladesh). I felt empty because my knowledge in economics meant little to the people suffering. Villagers had to borrow from loan sharks on terrible conditions - some even becoming slave labor for the moneylenders. I made a list of 42 people most seriously in debt who, all together, owed no more than $27. I went around the village according to the list, giving each of them the money they owed with no conditions other than they concentrate on their work and repay me when they could." Such was born an idea that now involves over 100 million people, and that Yunus believes has the capacity to make poverty extinct. May it be so. Amen.
copyright©2006
Richard R. Crocker
[1] http:://www.poverty.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty04/pov04hi.html
[2] US Census Bureau; http://www.census,gov/poverty/threshld
[3] http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm
[4] Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, New York, Basic Books, 2006. p 87.
[5] "Mohmmad Yunus", Time Magazine, October 31, 2006, p. 21
