There is a paradox here; progress on earth can only be effected by work. Work is divine. Work can only be borne out of two ways: Suffering and charity.Those who are suffering, the so called poor ( not only monetary poverty) are the true protagonists. They are the movers and shakers of this world, not the rich. The poor are actually the leaders(in all truth!). Christ knows this that is why He often says that the first shall be last and vice versa. Progress can only be effected by the work of poverty. Yet in justice, the rich have an obligation towards charity. The rich can join in this work of protagonism by practicing what i call Caritas et humilitas (charity in humility)
We must not then say, because the poor effect positivity, then they should be neglected or ignored to continue in their poverty ,or , even heap more poverty on them. A great deal of narcists do this, they realise that goods(even wordly) come out from the poverty of the other man.Yet God is always on the side of the poor, because true work itself-which is divine-requires some expendition of some stuff , which itself becomes poverty.
What then does ideal progress consist of? Ideal progress is that which involves charity in truth and justice. The ideal which we should focus on is first, to lift the poor out of poverty if posssible there should be a universal work to achieve what i call commonwealth, which requires much of charity in justice. This done, we dont move out of poverty, we only move to another realm of poverty, which is even more effective than material poverty, which is the poverty of spirit, and we dont hope to be entirely delivered of this as far as we are in this world,the poorer we are spiritually, the greater we truelly are, and the more the world prospers.This spiritual poverty is not disengaged from charity, in fact , somebody says charity begins where justice ends, we must not stop at giving to the poor, the ideal charity then is that which is of Christ : being poor, so that the poor can be rich!
The more one practices this spiritual poverty, the more the world progresses and the more the kingdom of peace is advanced!You see, it is all in our power to make Christ come, and soon too!
So afterwards, after material poverty has been conquered, when there is no more war, sickness, hunger, pain etc, the we move towards this caritas et humilitas, which is more efficacious towards wordly growth than material poverty. humility is truth. This then becomes the greatest work of man, which is nothing but the work of God. The truth , of which this humility basically consists of is simply that we are, and can do nothing of ourselves but only by God. Welcome to the kingdom of God!
