Here is the last verse of our New Testament reading, from 2 Corinthians: ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

St Augustine wrote: ‘What human being could know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed under the poverty of his humanity? For, “being rich, he became poor for our sake that by his poverty we might become rich.” When he assumed our mortality and overcame death, he manifested himself in poverty, but he promised riches though they might be deferred; he did not lose them as if they were taken from him. How great is the multitude of his sweetness which he hides from those who fear him but which he reveals to those that hope in him! For we understand only in part until that which is perfect comes to us. To make us worthy of this perfect gift, he, equal to the Father in the form of God, became like to us in the form of a servant and refashions us into the likeness of God’.

Let us trust in Him, that, hidden in our hearts, He may form us each day more completely into His likeness; that we may journey through poverty of spirit into the true riches of God; and may He bless you this day.