Sons and Beggars

“This seeming contradiction, that we are both sons and beggars, is not in fact a contradiction. We are beloved in the eyes of God our Father, yet the image and likeness of God in us has been damaged. We are like beggars because we are profoundly poor in our being, our intellect darkened and our will weakened by the fall of man, and we remain capable of much evil. Yet our Father loves the image of the Son within us. He sees who we truly are in Him, how we were intended to be 'from the beginning,' as sacred Scripture says. Like the Prodigal Son who returns begging to his father, we do not claim any rights for ourselves. We open our hands and hearts in trust. And He pours forth what we need--most importantly He gives us our identity as true sons. If we are 'beggars,' it is as beloved beggars. Christ has lived with us and died with us in our poverty. And He desires to take us with Him back into the palace as full inheritors of the Kingdom.

In my own life, many powerful graces have come when I pray in a condition of weakness, without any merits of my own, when I have nothing to offer the Lord except my little bit of trust in His promises. The older and older I become, the more I realize that we must grow younger and younger in the heart, and become as little children. In this regard I must say that poverty is my only riches. And, strangely, it has been the source of much joy. When we are this poor, then we can allow our Papa to give to us.”
~Michael O'Brien