THE GOD OF THE POOR Ego mendicus sum, et pauper. I am a beggar, and poor. (Psalm xxxix. 18.) I JESUS wanted to be the poorest of the poor, in order to be able to stretch out His hand to the lowliest of men and say to him: "I am your brother." Heaven looked down on Jesus during His mortal life and marveled at a God become poor for the love of man, to be his model and to teach him the worth of poverty. No man, in fact, was ever born in more wretched conditions than the Word Incarnate, who had the litter of animals for His cradle and their shelter for His home. As a child, He fed on barley bread, the bread of the poor, and during His apostolic life He lived on alms. He died in a state of destitution that will never be equaled. And now that He is risen and glorious, He still takes poverty for His companion. He has found the means of honoring and practicing poverty. Jesus, dwelling in our midst in His Sacrament, is still poorer than during the days of His mortal life. His home may be but a poor church, worse perhaps than the cave of Bethlehem; His tabernacle consists of four boards, which often are worm-eaten. His priests or His faithful people must give Him everything: the matter of the Sacrifice, the bread and the wine; the linen on which to place Him or with which to cover Him; the corporals, the altar cloths. He brings nothing from  except His adorable person and His love. The poor are without honor; Jesus is without glory. The poor are without defense; Jesus is at the mercy of all His enemies. The poor have scarcely any friends or none at all; Jesus Eucharistic has very few. He is a stranger, unknown to the majority of men. How beautiful and lovable is this Eucharistic poverty of our Lord! II OUR Lord asks us to honor and imitate His poverty in our lives. We would be very far from perfection if we believed that temporal poverty is what He requires of us. Jesus aims higher: He wants us poor in spirit. What is poverty of spirit? It is perfect love; it is the soul of true humility. A man who is poor in spirit and is convinced that he has nothing and of himself can do nothing, makes of his very poverty a most powerful and valuable claim on the heart of God. The poorer he becomes, the more rights he has on Divine goodness and mercy. It is well to note that the more a poor man puts himself in his poverty, the more he puts himself in his natural place-----for we are nothing; and that the more he does so, the more he honors God, his Creator, and the greater and more merciful he makes Him. For this reason the Lord says through one of His prophets: "Upon whom shall I cast a look of love, if not on the poorest of the poor, and on him whose heart is broken?" This is where the good God finds His glory: in our poverty, which returns everything to Him and offers everything up to Him as a homage. The good God loves the poor in spirit so much that He deprives them of everything to make them triumph by their very poverty. He paralyzes their understanding, dries up their affections, and takes away from them the sweetness of His grace and of His peace. He delivers them up to the tempests of the passions, to the fury of the devils. He hides His sunlight from them and deprives them of all help. And He Himself withdraws, as it were, from His creatures in distress. What a woeful state! But no! What a sublime state! The man that is poor in spirit will triumph over God Himself. The more he is despoiled by God, the more he thanks Him for it as for a great good. The more he is tried by God, the more he puts his trust in God's inexhaustible goodness. And when he is threatened with Hell by the devil, and reproached and condemned by his sins, how noble he is as he says to God: "Yes! I justly deserve Hell. Hell is not even terrible enough, avenging enough for the sins my wickedness has committed against Thee, O my Creator and my Father! I deserve a million Hells, and that is why I hope in Thy infinite mercy. I am deserving of Thy mercy, the most deserving of all since I am the most miserable. Satisfy Thy justice on me in this world, O my God! Many thanks to Thee for giving me the chance to pay my debts! Be still harder on me, Lord; for I deserve it." What can the good God answer to such gratitude? God will own Himself vanquished by him. He will embrace him, open all His treasures to him. He will show him to the Angels as a wonder and say to them: "Behold the man who has really glorified Me." III LET us be fond of making our adoration and receiving Communion in the spirit of God's poor. We shall then find it easy to make them according to the four ends of the Sacrifice. 1. What does a poor man do when he begs an alms from a kind rich man? First of all he addresses him respectfully and cheerfully, forgetful of his wretchedness, his slovenly appearance, and his shabby clothes, and mindful only of the rich man's kindness. Act likewise with our Lord. Forget your wretchedness and think only of His kindness. Adore Him in humility and confidence. 2. The poor man also praises the rich man's kindness. "You are very kind; everybody says so. And you have already been kind to me!" And he goes into the details of the favors received. In the same way, praise and thank the kindness of God toward you, and your heart will find sweet and persuasive expressions and grateful tears. 3. Then the poor man makes known his wants: "Here I am again at your door with still greater miseries than in the past. I have no one else but you! I know your kindness will not grow weary; it is greater than my poverty. I know I bring you happiness by affording you an opportunity to do good." Let us, in like manner, make known our wants to our Lord; let us appeal to His Heart, to all the good He can do, and we will make Him happy; for His love manifests itself only through the outpourings of His goodness. When a poor man receives much more than he asked for, he melts into tears. He does not think of looking at what has been given him; he sees only the kind generosity of his benefactor, and he can say only one thing: "Ah! How good you are! I knew it well!" But if the rich man bids the poor man come in, invites him to his table, and sits next to him, ah! the poor man has not the heart to eat, so embarrassed and touched is he by such kindness. Is not that the way our Lord treats us? May our misery make us appreciate His kindness all the more! 4. Lastly, the poor man takes leave of his benefactor, saying to him: "Ah I If I could only do something for you I At least I will pray hard for your family." And he goes away with a blissful prayer in his heart and the praise of his benefactor on his lips. Let us do likewise. Let us pray for the family of our Lord, His Church. Let us praise His goodness. Let us proclaim His glory on every side and offer Him the homage of our hearts and of our lives. 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