Quotes From the Holy Father

A couple of quotes from Pope Benedict’s homily for the Mass of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God (my translation from Italian original):

“…the earthly history of Jesus…is the beginning of a new world, because he really inaugurated a new humanity, always capable only by the grace of Christ, to work a peaceful ‘revolution’.   Not an ideological revolution, but a spiritual one, not utopic but real, and for this one needs infinite patience and a long time, avoiding all shortcuts and moving down the more difficult way, the way of maturation of responsible consciences.”

“…I have chosen for my message this year: ‘To combat poverty, build peace‘. A theme that presents a double level of considerations…. On one hand, the poverty chosen and proposed by Jesus; on the other hand, the poverty one needs to fight to render the world more just..”

“The first aspect is found in the ideal context of these days, in the time of Christmas. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem reveals to us that God has chosen poverty for itself in his coming in our midst. This poverty God has chosen. He wanted to be born like this – but we need to add: he wanted to live, and to die poor. Why? …love for us spurred Jesus not only to become man, but to make himself poor. In the same way… to cite…. St. Paul in the second letter to the Corinthians:  ‘Jesus Christ… made himself poor for you so that you might become rich through his poverty.”

“the second aspect: there is a poverty, an extreme poverty, that God does not want and was ‘combatted’…a poverty that impedes persons and families from living according to their dignity…also the poverty, not of material things, that are found in rich and developed societies:  marginalization, relationship problems both moral and spiritual.”

“It is needed, therefore, to establish a ‘virtuous circle’ between poverty ‘chosen’ and poverty ‘to combat’.”

I find it interesting that the Pope makes a connection between the virtues of chosen poverty for the sake of others and the abject poverty of so many peoples. He calls it a virtuous circle. If I understand him correctly, he is calling on us to willing choose poverty in some manner for the sake of justice and thereby, peace in the world.  In effect, to live as Jesus lived.  To be poor for the sake of others.  He is calling this a spiritual revolution.

How to do this in the concrete realities of our lives is part of the challenge.