Both Paul in first Corinthians and Jesus in Luke’s 6th chapter address a similar theme: the reality of owning, both its dangers and possibilities.

First, owning as a danger. You have a bank account, and your focus is not only retaining it but, more to the point, building it up. You own it, but in a clutching, grasping kind of way, such that you can never stop fretting over it, never stop doing anything and everything to grow it.

We wouldn’t have to stretch our imaginations all that much to recognize some modern-day proponents of this mindset.

But then the contrary: retaining something, but in a looser, freer way. Possessing, but not as your overriding focus in life. Owning but not being possessed by your possessions.

Paul’s counsel on this: “Time is running out. And so, in this time of the coming Kingdom, those buying are to act as if they were not owning. And why? Because all this in its present form but is passing away.”

Jesus words echo this theme. “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for when you ignore the Kingdom to come, you will indeed be hungry.”

We recognize Paul’s and Jesus’ thoughts as expressions of what we know as evangelical poverty: holding creation’s goods lightly and being ready to share them with those in need.

This is to own but not to grasp what we possess. This is holding but doing so loosely because we believe there is something more, not only in the next world, but also in the glimpses of that world we catch in the here and now.

In short, we can own in two ways. We choose the second: holding our possessions lightly and trusting that life in God offers more than anything we can hold in our hands.

In a letter to his companions, Vincent appeals to this same gospel truth.

What will become of the Company if attachment to worldly goods infiltrates it? What will become of it?… Poverty is the crux of Communities and especially of ours, which has greater need of it than others. It’s this bond that frees it from all earthly things and attaches it to its God. (Volume: 11 | Page#: 209) Poverty, 6 August, 1655 added on 6/28/2011