“The Mystery of the Incarnation” is a mystery of poverty”. That way of expressing it surprised me when I first read it in our Book of the Institute (BI 28). Yes, it is true. The Son of God, “though He was rich, became poor for our sake” (2Cor 8:9). It is His entering so fully into our human condition, becoming like us in all things, that is startling. Jesus, the Word Incarnate, was dependent on human beings from His conception to His burial. His dependence on God, His Father, was total. He wanted only what God wanted and in the time and ways God wanted. He was poor, in fact and in spirit.
Our spirit of poverty, or lack of it, reveals itself in our attitude to people and especially in our attitude before God. We can feel superior to others, even feel we have a right to judge their motivations and their way of being. We do not want to be dependent even on God. We want to do things our way. We want to be our own saviours, by our own strength and effort. We do not like to acknowledge that we are creatures, drawing our very existence and all that sustains it, moment by moment, from God.
God sometimes gives us the grace to experience our own emptiness and nothingness apart from Him, then we know we are poor! “Happy the poor in spirit” “They are happy who know their need of God”. (Matt 5:3).
We are entering Advent and our journey to Bethlehem begins with Our Lady. The wonderful thing about her is that she knew she was poor, and a beloved child of God, the work of His Hands. She was content to give her whole being back to God and simply be His maidservant. Mary, too, emptied herself. She did not take any credit for her holiness or get puffed up by her privileged place. She was happy, full of gratitude, to God, her Creator and her Saviour.
“He that is Mighty has done great things for me. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my Saviour”.
Comments