'Thanks God for my humanity!'

'The poorer you are the more Jesus will love you' -St.Therese of Lisieux[Little Flower]
What a tremendous statement, stopped me cold in my tracks as I was reading 'Souvenirs of Solitude' by my favorite author Brennan Manning. This statement came in chapter 11:
Really Human - Really Poor. Now I'm about as far from being a theologian as one can get, and perhaps some [probably should say 'all'] of you will find great disagreement with this article, but I welcome your remarks, just don't labor yourselves with thinking I will agree; but disagreeable agreeable exchange of thoughts is always welcome in my book. Manning goes on to say, 'To be poor in spirit means to cling to your impoverished humanity and to have nothing to brag about before God.'[p.87] I've got the apostle Paul agreeing so far. I love it, I love it. For so long I've wearied of theologians telling us we should reject our humanity, that we are earth sucking worms before God. Now I am the first to agree about the great gulf that divides us, but its not insurmontable to God. I keep thinking God created us and he doesn't waste his time making junk. He loved[loves] us so much, even in our sinful state, he gave his son to die for us, so how about we stop minimizing the price. He became one of us, should have seen this one coming, theologians will be quick to point out 'he was without sin,' I'll give you that because its scrptural truth but Jesus never mentioned how discouraged he was because he was human or how lowly he felt because he had become flesh. Manning goes on to say, 'Of course, the Evil One gets upset when we cling to our humanness. He was very distressed in the desert w/Jesus for this very reason. He wanted Jesus to renounce his poverty, his humanness. Satan already knew that when Jesus accepted the poverty of the human conditin, the saga of salvation history was moving towards its climax. Jesus held nothing back, clung to nothing, permitted nothing to shield him - even his true origin. [Php. 2:6-7] p.87 Jesus emptied himself, not of his humanity but his divinity - and Satan was furious! Satan despises the poverty of humanness because when it casts its poverty upon Christ we are filled. My LIMITATIONS are INVITATIONS are invitations to become more like Christ. My LIMITATIONS make me more compassionate, my limitation remind me that I am no better than anyone else, my LIMITATIONS remind me that it is his love, his strength that help me to achieve his plan in my life. Well, I'm getting to passionate, and probably sound like I'm rambling on ........... but this chapter has addressed a many many years searching come to an end. I'll close with a quote from this same
chapter:'Sin does not magnify the suffering of man's plight; instead it mitigates it. When I sin, I seek an escape from my humanity. I used to say to myself, 'well you're only human!' But sin does not make me more human; it compromises my humanity.' [my being made in His image]p.89 Thanks Brennan.