In its current weakened state, brought on by external forces and by its own sinfulness and failure, the Church is being invited to consent to a poverty that is not of its own choosing and, in so doing, to enter freely into the kenosis of Christ. The way of self-emptying takes the form of living in evangelical poverty, becoming the Church of the Poor who know that life and the life with God are given freely, without calculation. It is the truly poor who know how to wait with boundless hope for such a gift that is always and everywhere on offer.