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PAGE 2-B—THE BULLETIN, December 27, 195S
THE GRACE OF POVERTY OF SPIRIT
By
REV. BERNARD J. WUELLNER, S. J.
The follou ing is condensed
from a chapter of the hook,
“The G races of Christmas"
published this fall by the Bruce
Publishing Company. It is re
printed with permission.
GOD'S CHOICE
St. Paul recognized the pov
erty of Bethlehem as a token of
God’s love. He called the atten
tion of his Corinthian converts
to it: “Brethren, you know for
your sakes, that through His
poverty you might be made
rich.”
St. Francis fell in love with
the poverty of Christ, his Sister
Poverty. St. Catherine of Siena
said of the homeless Christ in
his borrowed hut: “He descend
ed into the stable of our hu
manity that we might ascend to
the temple of His divinity.”
The Holy Family was poor
and bore the hardships of the
poor. There was no room for
them in the inn. No room meant
no rest after a hard trip, no
warm food, no one to care for
the animals and luggage, no
chance of giving special care to
the coming Child. Discomfort,
cold, little light, and slight pro
tection from the nightly changes
of weather were part’of life in
their borrowed hillside shelter.
An animal refuge was the first
home on earth for God. It was
an unfurnished spot, with bare
floors, soiled and crude, worse
than quarters usually allotted to
slaves.
Here they are away from their
own home in Nazareth. Mary
thought of the plans she had
made for His birth in that sweet,
clean home up North, of the
clothing she had woven for Him,
of the cradle Joseph had made,
and of the economies they had
been practicing to fit a spot for
Him.
Their plans have gone astray
because God had better plans.
God wanted Mary and Joseph
for what they were and not for
what they had. God had wealth
in heaven; He came on earth
to find the treasure of poverty.
This set of conditions is a de
liberate preference of God. Om
nipotent Providence could ar
range all things just as He wish
ed: the hour, the place, the fur
nishings, the dignity, the care
were as much within divine
choice as had been the selection
of the Mother of God. God let
the law's of nature and the nat
ural .run of historical events
bring His Son to Bethlehem’s
cave.
THE GOD OF THE POOR
What is the plan of God in
giving the privations of the poor
to His own Son, to His mother,
and guardian father?
He chose it out of charity, says
St. Paul: out of love for Mary,
for the poor, and for the sinful
rich, but not out of love for
Himself.
First of all, poverty gave
Mary some privacy to rejoice
over Him in the first hours of
His life. A rich, well-known
lady would not have been alone
with her divine Son.
Next, He would be like men
in all things, save sin. But most
men are poor. He who loved all
men would show His love of the
poor by coming very near to
them. To know our wants better,
He would come under circum
stances where the barest means
of living would be His. He
would have to fly away to
Egypt. He would learn a trade,
that of a carpenter. He would be
at home among fishermen. He
would travel by foot. He would
spend His mature preaching
years more homeless than a mi
gratory worker without a place
that He could call His own. He
would die dispossessed of abso
lutely all earthly wealth.
He is the Savior of the world,
both of the poor and the rich.
Because He is even so poor, the
poor know that in Him they can
save their souls. They realize
that His is not a fair-weather
religion or a Faith for the elite,
Seasen’s greetings and our thanks to
all our friends whose patronage we value so
highly! We’re all aglow with warm wishes for
a holiday full of love, joy and good cheer!
MERRY BROTHERS BRICK & TILE CO.
Face Brick — Common Brick — Roman Brick
Norman Brick — Jumbo Brick — Structural Clay Tile
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA
— ESTABLISHED 1899 —
• USE CLAY MASONRY AND ELIMINATE CRACKING WALLS
a hope for the comfortable, a di
vine vocation for people of
worldly importance, a church
for uptown and fashionable sub
urbanites only. He is a God not
unfamiliar with slums, alleys,
and crowded jungles in rundown
districts.
He would also offer salvation
to the rich. The rich, He knew,
need saving from their own
riches and their worldly desires
to gain; retain, and increase
their wealth even at the cost of
their souls and their opportuni
ties for holiness. The poor, He
knew, would need saving from
the bad example of the rich and
from their dangerous desires to
own, control, and enjoy this
world’s goods in imitation of
the rich.
Christ has come as the Teach
er of spiritual values to men.
Like a great teacher. He makes
His first lesson a most memor
able one. It is a lesson in the
unimportance of wealth in the
sight of God, a lesson in God’s
preference for the inner heart
of people. Christ knew what
keeps so many away from God.
He saw the heart’s clinging to
the things of earth. Fie knew
why Herod would be so jealous
of Him, why Judas would be
tray Him, why the Pharisees
world kill Him, and why His
Church would so often suffer
from robbers of her property
and so seldom have resources
enough for her essential work.
Fie knew how men worried and
lost their peace over income and
how concern for property left
them no time for God and the
supernatural life of prayer and
charity. Christ knew the source
of the worst forms of pride. He
knew the grinding injustice re
sulting from greed, the miseries
of the poor, the luxury and ex
travagance, the quarreling, and
the wars of conquest that would
be due to wealth. Therefore, He
underlines in the shivering sta
ble this most important lesson
of the freedom of the heart from
this world’s goods. He proclaims
the special character of His
kingdom this night as a kingdom
of the spirit.
THE POOR AT HEART
Let us be clear about what
Christ is teaching from the crib.
He is not recommending desti
tution or improvidence. But He
is saying that the poor can be
favored ones in the kingdom of
God. He stresses it by calling
hired shepherds to be His vis
itors; He bypasses the owners of
the flocks. He picks the laborers,
not the profiteers, for his cour
tiers. He is not teaching that
no rich man can be saved: for
prudence, justice, and charity all
require that there be some
abundance of wealth, well man
aged by someone for general
human welfare. But He is teach
ing that the rich must be de
tached at heart from their rich
es and must avoid the evils to
which possession so readily
leads. He is not saying that rich
es in themselves are evil or that
only the wicked possess them.
But He is saying that they are
usually dangerous, that they
tend to keep the spirit away
from God and open it to pride,
injustice, cruelty, and indulg
ence. It will be hard for the
rich and proud to be like Christ,
the Man of the meek and hum
ble heart. It is easier for the
poor to be humble, because they
are not much thought of and
must bear the humiliation of
being overlooked and of being
Above is a statue of Our Lady
of Coromoto, Patroness of
Venezuela. Commissioned by
the women’s section of the
secular institute, Opus Dei, it
is the work of Venezuelan Jose
Luis Ulibarrena. The statue
shows Our Lady with the fea
tures of an Indian girl as she
appeared in 1052 to a Coro
moto chief in order to hasten
the conversion of his people.
-A Mr,,,
considered as impersonal beings,
mere hands, slaves, tools of the
mighty and wealthy.
To imitate Christ, we do not
have to rush out to stables to
celebrate Christmas nor turn
our maternity hospitals into old
barns. But we must acquire
Christ’s respect for the poor and
His practical interest in them.
We must be willing for the love
of Christ to give un some or
all of our wealth if God should
so wish it. We must guard our
spirit against the hardness of
the rich man’s heart. We must
bring ourselves to tell Christ of
our readiness, for His glory, to
serve Him in actual poverty,
dependence, and some want. We
can put ourselves to a test of
sincerity by sharing some of our
material wealth during this sea
son with Christ or some cause
dear to Christ, such as Catho
lic education. In this way we
can prove that we forget self
and have mastered our riches
by joyous giving that youth may
be trained, as the divine Child
was trained, in the love of God
and of the poor.
The grace of poverty of spirit
is one of the deepest Christmas
graces. For just as there are
people who are young and oth
ers who, though old in body,
are young at heart, so there are
people who are poor and there
are others, whether rich or poor,
who are poor at heart, poor in
spirit.
It is to these that Christ ad
dressed His beatitudes: “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.” For
they exchange the riches of
earth for the treasures of grace.
St. Joseph the Worker and
Father of the Poor, pray for us
that we may. come close to
Christ in His poverty and be
come contented with our lot.
CHRYSLER AIRTEMP PRODUCTS
PENNELL HEATING &
AIR CONDITIONING COMPANY
855 WALKER STREET AUGUSTA, GEORGIA
Cl n dimad and .wd ^Jiapptj ^jeut IJoa r fri
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Our Thought’s of You!
II r finally found the happy words
that will our thoughts convey;
And draw this pic of old St. Nick,
his reindeer and his sleigh.
We loaded down our Santa Claus
with words for him to say.
And told him to deliver them
to you on Christmas Day.
Among these words are "Season’s," "Yule,"
and oh, there’s "Happy,’’ too,
But he si of all we think is this:
"Merry Christmas, Friends, To You!"
MEMBER FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
MAIN OFFICE — 701 Broad UPTOWN BRANCH — 1109 Broad
GWINNETT ST. BRANCH — Gwinnett at Eleventh
DANIEL VILLAGE BRANCH FORT GORDON FACILITY
WALTON WAY BRANCH at Liberty Street