that way. We can do nothing by ourselves. Saint Paul says, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph 2:10). In the Gospel we read instead a story of chosen weakness, glorified poverty, exalted lowliness. God will never take away our inner poverty, for then he would take away exactly what we need to depend on him. He wants us to realize that we can’t achieve salvation and grow in contemplation by ourselves. Actually,