We devote much energy to projecting our image of uprightness to the world and almost as much energy giving attention to others who successfully do the same. We want to be thought of as good and so we surround ourselves with those who’ve achieved that status in hopes of obtaining credit by association. But the way of Jesus is different. He associated with the lowly, the unsuccessful, the poor. And it was not pity that moved him to do so, but solidarity. Jesus knew his own lowliness, his own poverty. He knew that to be human is to be a beggar, one who depends on another for life. It is until we know and love our poverty that we will know and love our people. We belong among the poor, where mercy triumphs over judgment.