Based on commercials and store displays, watching movies, television shows, one might think the Christmas season might be about giving and receiving perfect gifts. Of course, that is just a heightened attention to what much of our culture focuses on…acquiring money, power and possessions.

So it is that a particular word has been jumping out from a variety of things that I have read recently. The word better represents the poverty and humility that is Jesus and what He asks of us. The word is detachment.

In this season of consumerism, the secret to a life of poverty of spirit and humility – the example of Jesus from the moment of his birth —  is to detach ourselves, our efforts, our focus and our intentions from what we think we want to possess in order to abandon ourselves to the life that Jesus asks us to follow.

The humility and poverty shown by the Son of God to become man reveals that the way to achieve the example He set for us is actually to detach from all that we think we want or need.  This Christmas season, try to detach more and desire less.