Poverty

Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said,

"God blesses you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is given to you.

Luke 6: 20 (New Living Translation)

---------------------------------------

"We always seem to be better at giving than becoming. We can give love even when we are not intrinsically loving. We can be generous even when we are not truly compassionate. We can be concerned about others and yet essentially still live for ourselves. We can be giving to the poor and yet withhold the very thing they most urgently seek: companionship in the journey.

Nouwen reminds us that "being poor is what Jesus invites us to, and that is much, much harder than serving the poor." If we wish to journey with the poor, we need to be poor ourselves -- poor for the sake of the gospel and poor for the sake of our neighbor.

This poverty does not only mean that we voluntarily lay aside our time, our power, and our priorities to serve others. At a deeper level, it means that we discover our own poverty, weakness, and brokenness and can thus journey in true companionship with the poor. We journey not as those who have much to give and who have all the answers, but as fellow travelers toward light and liberation."

"Poverty: Learning to Give Ourselves", Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen by Charles Ringma.