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Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation

Friday May 24, 2013 

 

Jesus is Poor

 

Jesus, the Blessed One, is poor.  The poverty of Jesus is much more than an economic or social poverty.  Jesus is poor because he freely chose powerlessness over power, vulnerability over defensiveness, dependency over self-sufficiency.  As the great "Song of Christ" so beautifully expresses:  "He ... did not count equality with God something to be grasped.   But he emptied himself, ... becoming as human beings are" (Philippians 2:6-7).  This is the poverty of spirit that Jesus chose to live.

 

Jesus calls us who are blessed as he is to live our lives with that same poverty.

 

- Henri J. M. Nouwen  

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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, �1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible �1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.