Prom--or lack thereof--a Catholic lesson on evangelical poverty

Today, Oct. 18, is the feast day of St. Luke, best remembered as a Gospel author and the namesake of 90210 heartthrob Luke Perry. According to my daily email from AmericanCatholic.org, Saint Luke--in his Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, which he also wrote--promoted the discipline of evangelical poverty.

What's that? Apparently, the radical notion that what we own reflects what we believe. Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1993 letter "If You Want Peace, Reach Out to the Poor".

The consumer society makes the gap separating rich from poor even more obvious, and the uncontrolled search for a comfortable life risks blinding people to the needs of others. In order to promote the social, cultural, spiritual and also economic welfare of all members of society, it is therefore absolutely essential to stem the unrestrained consumption of earthly goods and to control the creation of artificial needs. Moderation and simplicity ought to become the criteria of our daily lives . . .

Evangelical poverty is very different from socio-economic poverty. While the latter has harsh and often tragic characteristics, since it is experienced as a form of coercion, evangelical poverty is chosen freely by the person who intends in this way to respond to Christ's admonition: "Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Lk 14:33).

Such evangelical poverty is the source of peace, since through it the individual can establish a proper relationship with God, with others and with creation.

I thought of this when I read that a Catholic high school on Long Island has had its prom cancelled after the conspicuous consumption it engendered got too gross. (Prom Cancelled Due To "Financial Decadence", ABC.) Father Philip Eichner and Brother Kenneth Hoagland, the brave president and principal of Kellenberg Memorial, wrote about alcohol "Long Island has more than its share of what is an American flaw--we eschew moderation." On prom overspending, they wrote to a student's mother:

Aside from the bacchanalian aspects of the prom - alcohol/sex/drugs - there is a root problem for all this and it is affluence. Affluence changes people. Too much money is not good for the soul. Our young people have too much money. Sounds simple, but it is true. When Jesus said that it was very hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it shocked his hearers and it still shocks us. Wealth is powerful, not only in terms of possessions, but in being possessed by it. Wealth changes personalities, priorities, principles. . . Some may say: it is my money; I can do what I want with it. Well, yes, you can, but not without moral repercussions." (September Prom Letter)

Some of those benighted parents are apparently hard at work organizing unofficial Hamptons bacchanals for their deprived little Catholics. For shame. The folks who are schooling those kids know what it is to live the Gospel: too bad they aren't the only ones teaching their values.