Day Two of Forty: The Virtue of Poverty
The ensuing post has been inspired by the first half of Pope Francis's Lenten Message, which focuses on Christ's poverty. I know: the first two days of these Lenten reflections are dealing with the virtues that are no fun...no fun at all. Yet, if our goal during Lent is to be more like Christ, we must come to understand what it means to fast and become poor like Him.
Poverty is the virtue by which material possessions and selfish pride are cleared away so that Christ can enter any situation, and so that we can be brought to salvation by His grace. The Holy Father remarks that "there is only one real kind of poverty: not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ." Our Heavenly Father never fails to meet any of our needs, including material needs, if we are willing to relinquish control to Him. Further, without attachment to created goods and our own egos, human beings are much freer to enter into deep and meaningful relationships, most especially with Christ Our Savior.
This is precisely why it is good to imitate the poverty of Christ, by which we are liberated. By His poverty, He could make a total gift of Himself to us, so that we might share in the richness of His treasures and grace. He has called us to imitate His example, so we must make a total gift of ourselves in poverty. In that way, others will come into relationship with Him and become rich. Now, we are a little closer to fully understanding what the Messiah means when He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).
Poverty is the virtue by which material possessions and selfish pride are cleared away so that Christ can enter any situation, and so that we can be brought to salvation by His grace. The Holy Father remarks that "there is only one real kind of poverty: not living as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ." Our Heavenly Father never fails to meet any of our needs, including material needs, if we are willing to relinquish control to Him. Further, without attachment to created goods and our own egos, human beings are much freer to enter into deep and meaningful relationships, most especially with Christ Our Savior.
This is precisely why it is good to imitate the poverty of Christ, by which we are liberated. By His poverty, He could make a total gift of Himself to us, so that we might share in the richness of His treasures and grace. He has called us to imitate His example, so we must make a total gift of ourselves in poverty. In that way, others will come into relationship with Him and become rich. Now, we are a little closer to fully understanding what the Messiah means when He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).
