Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Luke 9:58
“Lord, when I came into this world, I did not bring anything with me, and when I leave it, I shall not take anything out. So long as I have something to eat and clothes to wear, I am happy. Because if you want to become rich you fall into temptation, into foolish desires which carry one away and lead towards death. The root of all evil is covetousness. Many who have coveted riches have turned aside from the faith and encountered affliction.
But I will encounter You, You who are truly poor, because although You were rich, for my sake You became poor. Who could possibly have an accurate idea of Your riches? And who could have an accurate idea of Your poverty?
What poverty, the poverty of the Lord!
You were conceived in a virgin’s womb, You were enclosed in the body of Your mother. What poverty!
You were born in a narrow room, they wrapped You in swaddling clothes and laid You in a manger. And then the King of heaven and earth, Creator and Maker of all things visible and invisible, drinks, eats, cries, grows up, reveals His age, and hides His majesty. In the end He is arrested, flogged, mocked, spat upon, slapped in the face, crowned with thorns, fastened to the cross, transfixed by a lance.
What poverty!
Lord, when I meditate on Your poverty, whatever I may look at loses any attraction for me.”
Augustine of Hippo in Sermon 14 (PL38:115) in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World, ed. by Thomas Spidlik (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1994) 307-308.
While at home on COVID-19 lockdown, we may say to ourselves, I need this, or I want that. Let’s shift our focus from ourselves and think about Jesus. Imagine leaving the glory of heaven and coming to earth in poverty and not complaining one bit. Jesus did not even have a place to lay His head.
The length of our crisis is unknown. It may only be getting started. I think God may be trying to teach us to embrace the poverty of Christ. We can do this by being generous with what we have and by entrusting our needs, cares, worries, and fears to the Father. We’ve got this. God’s got us.