In his book The
Violence of Love, St. Oscar Romero observes that “Mary appears in the Bible
as the expression of poverty, of humility, of one who needs everything from
God.” Perhaps because artists often depict Mary in queenly robes, it’s never
really sunk in for me that Mary was part of the peasant class, which makes her “Yes”
to God’s request even more remarkable. Marriage was really the only way for her
to survive given her culture and her economic status, yet she put her impending
marriage to Joseph at risk by agreeing to conceive and bear God’s son before
she was wed. She was very aware that she needed everything from God, and
because of her trust, everything came to her, including God’s very self,
Emmanuel.
All of us, of course, need everything from God, but our
material possessions mask that fact. It’s no wonder Jesus insisted that we give
up our possessions to follow him, because poverty unveils our latent hunger for
God and our need for each other, which leads us to the very God we crave. Mary
needed a man who trusted God and was willing to step into the mystery of God’s
ways with her. Without Joseph’s compassion, the birth of Jesus could not have
been accomplished. Together, Mary and Joseph give us a model for cultivating
the poverty of spirit that allows Christ to come to us and to our hungry world.
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