The sensation of “lacking” is almost a habit. “I'm lacking… I'm lacking…”. “I'm lacking… space”. “I'm lacking… time”. “I'm lacking money”. “I'm lacking strength”. “I'm lacking...”.
A deficiency sensation. Almost like saying –emphatically- “a thrown away life”.
Why this sentence so emphatic?
Yes. Because, always when speech constrains to the lacking, and we relate it with… -usually- the concrete, the material, the lacking is –always- a heavy load. A heavy load that never is… filling. Always something is left over… And of course, it exercises like a multiplying factor.
“Lacking”…, “I'm lacking…”
Like when once –remembering- they officially invited us to Cuba to give a seminar, and after the corresponding praise in the beginning of the tender:
“Because knowing that you are such and such, and recognising the works such and such…, we invite you to the Republic of Cuba to give an international seminar, of such and such… Given the situation of the Cuban people, you will have to pay for the plane, the lodgings, the stay…”
They parted from the base that we were in the opulence: “Because over there you earn… dollars!”.
They confused the dollar with the peseta, imagine that…
And they were persistent about it. And when I told them: “No, but, at least the lodgings… Or in “Cuban aviation”, that thing doesn't even consume coal. They always fly by miracle”.
No, there was no way, no way. Later, finally we went to Cuba -for other reasons-, and obviously covering the necessities that there were.
It is very typical-topical –because it has been divided into rich and poor- those who feel poor… And they are poor!, but it turns out that everyone is poor!: if we take a look, faced with…“I need”, “I need”… “I'm lacking…” everyone… from the Rockefeller family, to the poorest man of Sri Lanka, needs; they are lacking.
And, of course, when the person has taken the charisma of poor, he believes, -and he believes it- that everybody around him is rich. Everyone! Everyone means everyone! And well… well… the poor one is an island surrounded by abundance… that he can't take.
Really, the humanity has learned little. Of course, it doesn't know how to be rich; it tries to. But the gravest thing is that it doesn't know how to be poor.
And we say that this is the “gravest” because, in reality -as humanity- we are surrounded by abundance. With a little respect and care, nobody would be lacking any material element. Nobody! But just when arises the vanity, the egotism, the haughtiness, and all of these small anxieties, is when it becomes very different to aspire to the richness, than to live in poverty.
Yes! When the being aspires to the richness, he searches, and searches… but he aspires to be rich! He wants to be rich! -Because this gives him prestige in the eyes of God-. And he gives an example of what he is capable of! It’s easier. He has it easy! And he achieves it, eh?
Now, the poor one…; the poor one, deep down, wants to be rich. But he has the intuition that the status of poverty could give him a “certain level of spirituality”, separated from the opulence. And there, the things become a lot more difficult; yes, a lot more difficult, because in reality… it is not known how to be poor! He knows how to be rich!… Clumsy! –because the rich are clumsy- but he doesn't know how to be poor. Always calling for something from the rich: “give me something...!”
Poverty is not that…
As we said a moment ago: “There is more than enough”.
But how can I gain spiritual prestige faced with the surroundings? Showing myself as poor; complaining like the poor; complaining about what we lack. And as poverty has been identified -in our environment- with “spirituality”, well there we have the cake of poverty… rancid, uncomfortable, not real.
And don’t confuse it with the material poverty, which is a product of the speculation, the robbery, the robbery of a few. Of course it exists! Of course it's there! Nobody doubts this. We are in the prayer, and we are talking about this attitude, this position of… “poor little thing”
In the eyes of the Creation… do you dare to declare yourself “poor little thing”?
If you dare to, in the eyes of the Creation, to declare yourself “poor little thing”, you are unpresentable. Yes! I'm going to explain it: in the eyes of the Creation you are a creature that has presented its credentials in the existence and in life, thanks to the Creative Force. Does that privilege not seem sufficiently rich, so as not to present yourself in front of the Creation as “the poor little one”Father Daniel, or brother Jesuso? –I said “Jesuso”, eh?-.
What surprising richness… the Creation gives us!, when recently we contemplated the flowers of the cactus; when all of the evenings we enjoy the colour, the tone, -the rosy pink- that vitalises us. Where…? Where is the poverty?
When my senses make me sigh, when food makes me smile, when the greeting comforts me… everything becomes grand. I could call it “richness”. I don't find poverty anywhere. Yes it is certain and true that the vanity and haughtiness has kidnapped an aspect, and have created a lack of culture, a lack of food, a lack of experience a lack of knowledge…
Yes of course! That is true! But in the spiritual man this complaint of “lacking” is not admissible!
Not so long ago, someone told us -a person who lives daily with poverty-poverty-poverty, that material which wounds and kills-, when asking how everything was, they told us:“Uy!, very good. Poverty is very grateful”.
Of course! It's a perfect status to show yourself as spiritually “the better one”, “the generous one”, “the giver”…
We return to the old story of Robin Hood, or of Luis Candelas, or of the so many famous -well, not so many!: a few- bandits, who robbed the rich to give to the poor, and like this maintain the cycle, because the rich didn't stop to be rich, and the poor ended up being –once again- poor. Although he aspired to be rich!, but he lacked… he lacked “charm”!, he lacked drive, he lacked courage!, he lacked dedication, he lacked eagerness!...
It is very easy -with the Force of life- to be rich!
It is very difficult -with the Force of life- to feel yourself poor, without complaining!; without demands!
Because, yes!, evidently, just as we say: “What grandness and richness surrounds us!” also at the same time -as if it was a puzzle- we feel, faced with so such magnitude -like when we love-, we feel… small!, very poor! Because it is too much! We don't... We don't know!
We brandish strategies to pray, and this praying shows us –like right now- how poor we are: “What do I say?! To whom do I speak?! To what do I say...?! How…?! How do I give thanks for my existence, the life…? How do I direct myself to the Breath of the Mysterious Creator, who overwhelms me with its smallest expressions?”
I feel very poor! And, at the same time, very rich!
What could I be lacking?!
Ah!, but the dear… comparisons arrive; and instead of living this apparent duality of “richness” and “poverty”, no!... no, no. The being, usually compares himself with the man who has the ranch, the man who has the car, the man who has... all that have more than you! Always someone will be found. Or a lot!, or a multitude!
Take a look, those men of Bangladesh who only just earn 38 euros a month, for 18… 15 hours of daily work. How many rich ones will they have around them? Thousands of millions!… who have more. If we stay there, why should we live? If we stay there why should we live?... Suicide is the best remedy.
But, as we see, the people, the beings, don't stay there. It is there. It is happening –yes, of course!- but they don't stay there. There is something more! There is a richness of life, by itself, which impulses to carry on, to continue. And the complaint and the demand of what is lacking is not the way!... Because it stays in the human level, it stays in the material level. They will always need!
There will always be a new pot to buy. There will always be a new innovation to have... It doesn't matter which level you are in! If I have a plastic glass, I will want one of tin; and when I have one of tin, I will want one of clay; and when I have one of clay, I will want one of...
Is it there that we have to live?
The praying sense of today, of this week, doesn’t call of us to live there. It calls of us to live in this continuous “thanks!”; in this gratifying sense of being alive, of being invited, of being a guest, without contributing anything, everything has been given: eyes, mouth, nose, skin, words. Anybody has done anything, to perhaps, deserve this?
It was said a long time ago that “not only from bread does man live”. But, like so many things that are said, they stay there... And many reply: “But bread as well, eh?” “Yes, yes”. And the bread is a farm, another day it is a factory, another day it is a plane, another day... The bread has many possibilities.
I feel rich; rich faced with the existence and life.
I feel poor; poor, very poor, faced with the Mystery of the Creation.
And, in my living-together, I lack nothing; everything is gestated in the adequate moments, in the precise instances, according to the true necessity.
Ay!, in stopping to be a permanent “lacking”, little by little appears a necessary evidence that... there is; that what really is needed.
The conviction –like a fire that propagates- in the praying sense, fills us with virtues, with privileges, with richness. In the way that we feel very poor faced with such grandness, in this way we are capable of giving continual thanks; not feeling ourselves lacking; not being a complaint but a smile, an encouragement, a hope.
