Gospel Acclamation: Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.

Today's Gospel acclamation calls us to reflect on the true nature of rich and poor. Jesus, we are told, was rich and became poor for our sake. Jesus was, is, and will always be God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the divine Son, the Father's only-begotten. Yet He set aside the glory of His divinity when He chose to become man. He did not set aside His divinity, but He chose to take the form of a slave, a human being. He became the God-man, and He entered into a life of earthly poverty, misunderstanding, persecution, and finally, death on the cross.

Jesus did all of this that by His poverty we might become rich. We are poor, horribly poor. On our own, without divine grace, we are fallen, sinful creatures on the road to eternal death. But Jesus died for our sins that we might become rich. Through Him, we can embrace the true wealth of God's grace and mercy that lead us to eternal life.