Poverty December
(The Crosier) lives in a spirit of confidence in God (Profile of the Congolese Crosier).
The vow of poverty responds to the paternity/maternity of God. If I am an orphan, i.e., someone having had to rely on his own resources, I busy myself right away in activity that secures my life. Left alone, I am obliged to take care of myself. But, if all of a sudden, someone adopts me, the priority I gave to my own self diminishes in importance. In effect, God reveals himself as mother: “Can a woman forget her baby at the breast . . . Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you” (Is. 49:15). God relates to the human being as father: “I myself taught Ephraim to walk, I myself took them by the arm” (Hos. 11:3). Jesus was clear: “I shall not leave your orphans” (Jn. 14:l8). If this question of God-Mother and God-Father is not resolved in the human heart, the person remains always worried, preoccupied with self. Without the confidence of being a true son or daughter who can count on motherly and fatherly love, the human person is condemned to egotism. It’s filial confidence that is at the heart of the witness of the vow of poverty.
O Sacred Lord of Ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.
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