How did the faith remedy the world’s economic problems?

As Christianity spread with great rapidity, a solution to these problems became available; not through the imposition of civil laws, but through an understanding based on faith that works in the mind and heart. Every believer — and indeed, the Church as a whole — must care for the poor, the widows, the orphans, and all those suffering from financial distress and hunger. Thus, the Christian concern with eternal salvation and sincere love for other people produced practical solutions, as the Book of Acts and the letters of St. Paul witness. The churches collected donations for the poor of Jerusalem who were enduring a famine. Indeed, communal sharing of each other’s possessions is one of the chief characteristics of the life of the Church that practices its faith, and a sign of love for others and of unity.¹¹²⁰

St. Clement of Alexandria says, “[God] made all things for all. All things therefore are common, and not for the rich to appropriate an undue share … For God has given to us, I know well, the liberty of use, but only so far as necessary; and He has determined that the use should be common. And it is monstrous for one to live in luxury, while many are in want.”¹¹²¹

If the rich glory in their possessions now, one day all their possessions will be taken away from them and there will be no difference between them and their servants. Often, these rich masters are actually less healthy than their servants. Therefore, we should not marvel if God sometimes permitted His faithful servants to be in need. St. Clement of Alexandria says, “Take away, then, directly the ornaments from women, and domestics from masters, and you will find masters in no respect different from bought slaves in step, or look, or voice, so like are they to their slaves. But they differ in that they are feebler than their slaves, and have a more sickly upbringing.”¹¹²²