As we pass the second Sunday in Lent, I find myself with three days without school or work. This has given me much time to read and reflect. Many of us who celebrate this penitential season, do so with a degree of asceticism, giving up something in our lives as a means of sacrifice. Once again I reflect upon what that means, and how that may bring be closer to where I wish to be in my spiritual life. --Divine Poverty-- “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master (Matthew 10:24) Christ was born of a humble birth, swaddled in rags for clothes, and placed in a manger. He was born a king, yet wore rags instead of riches, and carried poverty instead of power. He lived a humble life, seeking not the riches of a king, but the life born by the humble hands of a carpenter. He died a humble death, without protest, without argument to the accusations brought against him. In the end, he was brought even lower, stripped bare of all he owned, and was mocked and spit upon. Even his life was stolen from him, nailed to a cross, where he left the world in the same fashion in which he came into it, with humility and poverty. Humility and poverty go hand in hand, for one naturally leads to the other. It is in humility that all other virtues are found. Just like pride comes before the fall, does humility come before the other virtues that are received unto us by the grace of God. From humility comes patience, for it is patience that tempers humility within us. It is in patience that we wait upon God to provide for us as we have need, for divine providence occurs in the timing of His will, and not our own. It is in patience that we must bear with our own shortcomings, for it is through time alone that we are refined by the fires of temptation. We must also be patient with others, their ignorance, as we collide with them by grace into a mutual understanding of differing ideologies. To find Christ is to find humility. Christ put himself lower than all things, yet we as his disciples, must yet place ourselves lower than he, our King. So, if no disciple is greater than his Teacher, than who are we to seek to rise above he who embraced a divine poverty beneath all things? Let the ungodly seek the riches of this world, and the promises they bring. We, His disciples, shall seek after the promises of Christ. Our asceticism shall bring us closer to Him, as we strip away the trappings of this world, removing what stands between us and the divine poverty of Christ. The riches of the world weigh us down, and keep us from rising to the heights of holiness. We strip ourselves naked of the world, and we ascend to the greater riches of virtue, and those proposed to us who believe, stored for us in His heavenly kingdom (Matt 6:20). ▶ Show quoted text
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 21:28:30 +0000
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