The Life of Poverty Which Jesus Led from His Birth!

Christmas Novena – Day 3

Monday, December 18, 2023

It is not just that Jesus was born as a man and as a child. But Jesus was also born poor. 

Jesus’ parents were ordinary village people with no affluent background. His father was a carpenter. 

Born to those parents in Bethlehem, away from his native place, Nazareth, had its own host of disadvantages. 

But Jesus came to endure it willingly. 

Pope Francis said, ‘The poor manger was rich in love.’ 

To the question of why Jesus chose poverty over affluence, the Pope said that he was born poor ‘to make us understand the immensity of his love for our human condition: even touching the depths of our poverty with his concrete love. The Son of God was born an outcast in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God.’

I have also read that ‘Poor is the color of God.’

That is the inspiration behind the Church’s proclamation of the ‘Preferential Option for the Poor and Marginalized.’ 

God wanted to recognize the experience of the majority of people, and therefore, He chose poverty.

In his ‘poverty,’ Jesus does not alienate anyone because poverty does not just refer to material but spiritual deprivation too. 

The poor God-Child majestically lying in the manger is the authentic sign of God’s love. Come, let us adore Him!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar