The Bigger Questions

• Why are the churches full of countless people who claim to love God, but who despise the prospect of experiencing insecurity?

• I have met people who will associate with the poor and advocate for them, but not out of solidarity with them. These do so because they despise the rich and powerful. So, if people will do something like this out of spite, why are there so few who are willing to become poor out of love?

• How is it that I have observed that many who have spent their religious lives in some form of manual labour and simple, careful reflection are greater contemplatives than formally trained men and women who know theology and scripture and the lives of the great mystics?

• When did it become the modern norm that Christians came to expect a certain degree of economic security, the satisfaction of bodily and psychological needs, and a high standard of living? Food, clothing, and shelter I understand. But no one in God's service can minister to the poor as God instructs us to do without participating to some extent as one of them. That is to say, that they do work that they would rather not do, suffer the inconveniences that the poor suffer, and to learn to be content with many things that could be greatly improved.

• Why is so little importance in the Christian life attached to living out the everyday routines of work, poverty, hardship, physical labour, and monotony that characterize the lives of the poor across the world?