Who Is Really Poor?

◆ That materialism had not warped the thinking of the early post-apostolic Christians can be seen from what one of them wrote: “That many of us are called poor, this is not our disgrace, but our glory; for as our mind is relaxed [weakened] by luxury, so it is strengthened by frugality. Yet who can be poor if he does not want, if he does not crave for the possessions of others, if he is rich towards God? He rather is poor, who, although he has much, desires more.”—The Octavius of Minucius Felix, chap. 36, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 195.