From Poverty to Love

After time awoke because of the rumbling of our steps, and after time had reached its zenith, Christ appeared in time, and renouncing the advantages of being God, he subjected himself o all the disadvantages of being man, and once reduced to our stature, he descended even lower to infrahuman levels.

Having descended to these abysses, he went much deeper until he touched the final bottom, the dust of nothing, denying his own instinct to live in loving obedience to the Father whose will permitted and disposed that the beloved Son should disappear amid the ruins of catastrophe, submissive and obedient until death, even death on the cross.

This is where Freedom raised its head, crowned with light in triumph. Denying his own self, Christ transcended himself. That means by denying himself, he made an immense emptiness in his being, and this emptiness became, for him, the space of freedom which permitted him to be the man for other men. Because he was free, he was available; and because he was available, he could be the servant of the Father and of the brothers. From poverty to love.

Extracted from the book “The Poor of Nazaret” by Father Ignacio Larrañaga