The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. Luke 1:32-38, NLT.
A person with poverty of spirit, does not seek their own advantage. In today’s self-culture we are taught to be self-centered first, above everything else. We’re definitely an “I’m worth it” culture.
How odd it is today to see someone who models an “others first” mindset. It’s the truest form of poverty of spirit. There are some outstanding examples of this sort of poverty of spirit. Fr. Damien De Veuster went to serve the leper colony in Molokai, HI, and it cost him his health and his life. Mother Teresa spent a large part of her life serving the poor in Calcutta, India. The One-Way Missionaries were so called because they would buy a one-way ticket to a foreign land and packed their belongings in a coffin, signifying their dedication to live and die in a place they selected.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, demonstrated the same spirit. Visited by an angel, she was told she would be the mother of the Messiah. If you did not know about the angel visit, Mary’s pregnancy looked like every other pregnancy in Israel. What is different, however, is Mary’s resolve to do what God wanted her to do, even though it would draw the criticism and condemnation of others.
Nevertheless she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” With that, Mary embraced a life of agreement with God’s call on her life. In her song that we call the Magnificat, she said, “God took notice of his lowly servant girl.” This is what someone who is “poor in spirit” says. No pretense. No arrogance. No entitlement.
Mary and all the others like her simply see one’s life as a tool to be used expressly for service to God and God’s purposes. She knew that this call would be long term. Whatever she might have envisioned for her own life was suspended the night an angel said, “Mary, you have found favor with the Lord.”
Being able to do that comes from poverty of spirit.
Prayer:
Father, you asked Mary to do a big thing – bear in her young body the future Messiah. And she modeled for us what it means to be poor in spirit. Namely to be humble, to not think too much of ourselves, and to consider nothing unimportant that you have asked us to do. Give us the kind of humility that lives without excuses, entirely in your service. In Jesus’ name. Amen.