Mary comforts our weaknesses
The Beautiful Door
*”I have nothing to offer but this, which I do give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).* The words of the apostle Peter to the poor sick man at the Beautiful Door are imbued with a performative quality, typical of God’s Word, highlighting the paradox inherent in Christianity.The Poverty of Jesus of Nazareth
One of the most distinctive traits of Jesus of Nazareth, to which Peter refers, is poverty, not only recommended but voluntarily embraced, as taught by Paul. This poverty intertwines with an existential and anthropological essence, demonstrating that it is not material riches that elevate a man, but his creative consistency.Being Over Having
In this context, *”Blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20)* underscores the importance of being over having. Revelation, philosophy, and theology converge on a common point: the created image of God and belonging to the realm of being and life, illuminating humanity and reinforcing the need to fill poverty with genuine wealth.The Incarnation of God and Poverty
*”For though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, so that through his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).* The Incarnation of God embraces poverty, symbolized by the Crib and the Cross. This scandalous path, alien to pagans, reveals a concrete logic rooted in our life experience, especially in moments of poverty and illness.Divine Compassion
The expression *”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)*, borne by the poor Jesus, finds its response in the Letter to the Hebrews: *”We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, who is seated at the right hand of the Father” (Hebrews 4:14).* Poverty is the signature by which God presents himself to the world, meriting respect as the place of his beneficial richness.Addressing Poverty
Our actions towards poverty should stem from recognizing that God, by becoming poor, enriches humanity. Material means and riches should be seen as subordinate to the value of the human being, in collaboration with the Creator and in harmony with creation. The richness of the Paschal Vigil, abundant in naturalistic elements, exemplifies this direct experience of the interaction between faith, creation, and human expression.Prioritizing Being in the Whole Person
Then, what poverty are we called to fill? The answer lies in the wholeness of the person, where, beyond insisting on having, it is necessary and due to start from being, which is the source of action for the benefit (one hopes) of humanity.Challenges of Human Objectification
The challenges we face include the objectification of man.A current of thought rooted in rationalist and scientific materialism led to the objectification of man, reducing him, in the worst cases, to a commodity for exchange. This line of thinking also accused Christianity of exploitation and violence against the cosmos, giving rise to a new paganism that fails to recognize the uniqueness of man at the apex of creation and as the creator of culture in its various manifestations.
Beyond the Material: The Offer of the Person
On a philosophical and theological level, a possible path to recomposition and reconciliation lies in the offer each person is capable of making to others, always discovering in themselves a fund of neediness and poverty. This is a discourse that transcends a material level, but does not exclude it. Sharing, giving, offering: but how?
What Moves Man to Act?
The central question is: What moves man in his actions? Secularly, the answer may be a deep faith in the universal preciousness of human life and its potentialities, or a limiting and sometimes dangerous quid pro quo that leads to shipwreck in lies, egoism, and functionality. Acting for the good merely to alleviate conscience is another aspect of this vicious circle.
The True Solution: The Redemptive Incarnation
Among the solutions, only the first shows a certain degree of positivity and acceptability, although, in the eyes of a believer, it remains incomplete, as it does not imply the semper novum of creation, and even more, the redemptive Incarnation. No machine, product of human thought, or mythological being has ever fully incarnated or saved man, where poverty, far from being spurned, is valued as an optimal condition to receive a wealth that is not of this world.
The Poverty to Be Filled: Multiple Faces
The poverty to be filled reveals different faces and is not limited to monetary or material goods. In this dense plan of fulfillment for man, we find the summary in the Eucharist, where the infinite Word and the inexhaustible Bread are given without measure as concrete realities of a Presence that the Church must welcome, inspired by what Mary, Mother of that Word and that Bread, proclaimed and accomplished.
Jesus’ Commands: Uniting Action and Grace
The two commands: “Do this in my memory” and “Do everything he tells you” relate to the person of Jesus and point to his unique mystery, in which the Holy Virgin is inserted as a singular emblem of an active witness to poverty, filled with the grace’s gift.
Mary’s Song: The Magnificat
The Visitation and the Magnificat
The great canticle sung by the Virgin in the episode of the Visitation (cf. Lk 1:46-55) remains a reference point for the believer who wishes to understand evangelical poverty, but also for the “distant” one who can easily perceive how the plot of history is lived by the poor. In this text, Mary, the poor woman now enriched in an incomparable way by the presence of the Son, proclaims the reversal, the novelty that God of Israel offered to his people and, by extension, to all nations.This is a reversal of all those who, in one way or another, remaining attached to worldly power and wealth, become resistant to God’s liberating action. The poor, in their various specifications, are blessed and exalted because they are those who most easily receive this divine action. This poverty is linked to humility of which Mary, since the Annunciation, became a model and an image.The Magnificat, starting from a respectful reconsideration of the poor, becomes “a radical challenge to the kingdom of sin defeated by the work of the Savior and now without future“. A kingdom expressed with images of wealth and power, pushing the reader back to reflect on the meaning of our actions in relation to poverty without the accounts we usually make when we relate to people who can reciprocate.In the person of Mary, we see the double relationship with poverty: on the one hand, the humble servant of Nazareth who presents herself before God in her simplicity, offering or sacrificing what little she has, in a project of common life. On the other, the rich and omnipotent God who gives himself to this woman, teaching with this act, even before the parables, the gratuity of love and the disinterested offering.From there, we understand the importance of the offering of the poor woman who, in the temple treasury, gives all she has to live (cf. Mk 12:41-44 and Lk 21:1-4), and on the other hand, the necessary implementation of Jesus’ command to invite those who are most in need to our feasts (cf. Lk 14:12-14), a call that opens the gates of heaven.What can man give to the rich God who benefits him? Nothing. But the wealthy man who helps the needy, inspired by God’s behavior, can participate in eternal life, all of this escaping any logic of calculation and, if we want, market logic.Mary and the understanding of povertyWe can then say that the person of Mary helps the reader consider the concept and situations of poverty with greater completeness: certainly we have material and spiritual poverty to combat, healing where there are strips of socio-economic degradation through an appropriate and balanced use of the earth’s goods and spreading a true and respectful culture of man.Illumination and Denunciation through SongReturning to the evangelical text that the Church daily recites (or sings) in Vespers, we can share what Alberto Valentini affirms: “It is the task of Christians to illuminate with this song the truth about God and His designs, to denounce and render vain the plots of powerful, rich, and oppressors.” We are very close, in substance, to the continuous appeals of Pope Francis to the Church for sobriety and aid-respect for the less fortunate.Dispossession as Optimal Condition for DiscipleshipNot far from the previous evangelical denunciation of the negative side inherent in poverty, we have the same face as a condition optimal for following and being disciples of Jesus, without anything weighing on the heart and mind, and leading man to a dangerous and sinful attachment to what is fleeting.The consolatory and strengthening role of Mary is deepened in the encyclical *Redemptoris Mater* of John Paul II, which presents Mary as a mother who accompanies the Church in its sufferings.ConclusionThe dispossession lived and represented by Mary, in addition to being characterized by the absence of any concession to idolatry and greed, distinguishes itself by available service to God and, in the person of the Son, also turned towards his brothers and sisters. The absence of wealth does not mean disengagement but positioning oneself alongside those who, without putting obstacles, are more facilitated to discover the beneficial footprints of God in history.Deepen your studies: explore *Mariology*, *Theology Mariana*, *Marian Apparitions*, and *Post-Graduate Studies in Mariology*.Graduate Studies in Mariology
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