Christmas 2019 - Straw Poverty

A few years ago, I came across an article from Rolling Stones magazine, an interview with Bono, the lead singer of the group U2, one of the best known rock groups in the world. Bono had acquired some notoriety, not simply for his significant musical talents, but for his humanitarian efforts, particularly in raising awareness and funds for combatting third world poverty and the AIDS epidemic. His efforts were even praised by Pope John Paul II, and there is a photograph with the Pope putting on the rock star’s distinctive sunglasses. 

So here is this figure, this famous pop star, a humanitarian and philanthropist on the global level, and in this article from Rolling Stones, Bono talked about his spiritual life. He was asked about the Bible, and he said “the bible, the bible sustains me.”  What a terrific statement.  The interviewer then asked him, “do you believe in God?  And he said, “Yes.  I believe in God, that there is a love and a logic that stands behind all things.”  Another great statement, for God indeed in His love and wisdom has created and has ordered the universe.  Then Bono added this, “and the Poet in me sees how artistically appropriate it is that that unspeakable power would express itself as a child born in straw poverty…that’s why I’m a Christian.” Because of the “child born in straw poverty”.

That the God-child is born in straw poverty is certainly one of the great and beautiful paradoxes of Christianity: that the magnificent power Who created the cosmos from nothingness, who shaped and ordered galaxies, enters the human condition, and expresses Himself in the weakness and humility of a child born in straw poverty. 

For Bono, the contemplation of the Christmas message has impelled him to not simply seek stardom and fame and wealth through a musical career, but to enter into the poverty and suffering of others, as Christ has done; it has impelled him to put the love and logic of God into practice, as it should. For the event of the Incarnation of Christ implicates us into action. The love and logic and humility of God on display in Bethlehem is meant to permeate the whole of our lives as Christians.

Nearly 800 years ago, in the year 1223, St. Francis of Assisi assembled the first Christmas nativity scene in the city of Greccio, Italy. St. Francis said, “I wish to do something that will recall to memory the little Child who was born in Bethlehem” and  to show the inconveniences into which he was born and how he lay between the ox and the donkey.

St. Francis’ reasons for setting up the manger scene were quite clear.  He wanted people to be reminded of the poverty into which Christ was born. 

Well, a few week ago, Pope Francis visited Greccio, Italy, and from there issued a beautiful letter on the meaning and importance of the nativity scene. I encourage you to read it, it’s fairly short for a papal letter, only 3000 words. In this letter, Pope Francis, like his patron, St. Francis, draws our attention to the beautiful and powerful message of the Nativity.

He writes, “The enchanting image of the Christmas crèche, so dear to the Christian people, never ceases to arouse amazement and wonder. The depiction of Jesus’ birth is itself a simple and joyful proclamation of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The nativity scene is like a living Gospel rising up from the pages of sacred Scripture. As we contemplate the Christmas story, we are invited to set out on a spiritual journey, drawn by the humility of the God who became man in order to encounter every man and woman. We come to realize that so great is his love for us that he became one of us, so that we in turn might become one with him….In a particular way, from the time of its Franciscan origins, the nativity scene has invited us to “feel” and “touch” the poverty that God’s Son took upon himself in the Incarnation. Implicitly, it summons us to follow him along the path of humility, poverty and self-denial that leads from the manger of Bethlehem to the cross. It asks us to meet him and serve him by showing mercy to those of our brothers and sisters in greatest need).”

I extend the Holy Father’s invitation to all of you, to kneel before the Nativity scene today and over the next two weeks of the Christmas season. Consider the identity and mission of the Christ Child—how the God of the cosmos, born into straw humility, entered into a fallen world, to raise us out of sin, into a life of love and peace. Out of love for us, he took upon himself our human condition, our fragility, our vulnerability and he opened up for us the path that leads to the fullness of life to a share in the life of God himself. 

On Christmas Eve a few years ago, Pope Benedict wrote, “God is so great that he can become small. God is so powerful that he can make himself vulnerable and come to us as a defenseless child, so that we can love him. God is so good that he can give up his divine splendor and come down to a stable, so that we might find him, so that his goodness might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through us.”

If any of you are having difficulty finding God in your life these days, finding God in this chaotic, sad world, start at the stable, look to the straw poverty that God willingly embraces, to show you that his is with you in the darkest of nights, he can be found in the coldest, most impoverished and depressed of conditions. Allow that encounter with God in the straw poverty of the stable to be a new path in your life, a path of harmony with God and your fellow man, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.