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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 REMEMBER: “If if s Borden’s, its’s got to s Sancken Dairy Augusta, Georgia BCE CREAM be good!” ClauSSeitS BREAD AND CAKE Tire South’s Finest Since 1841 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