Blessed Are the Poor In Spirit

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From the series The Chosen I love the exchange between Jesus and Matthew as Jesus is preparing the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus asks Matthew: “Which section stands out to you the most?”

“Do not be anxious about your life,” Matthew responds.

“Are there any sections that concern you?

Matthew hesitates.

“Give me your honest opinion. I know I don’t have to say that but…”

The whole truth, Matthew asks.

You know I won’t be offended.

“It’s all pretty striking. But if I do the math in terms of good news and bad…it seems like there is not a lot of good news. ‘Anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery.’ Doesn’t that make everyone an adulterer?

Jesus does not object.

‘If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.’ Wouldn’t that leave an entire population of people walking around with only one eye?’ Oh and this one, ‘If anyone were to sue you and take your tunic, let them have your cloak as well.’

Hmm…Jesus responds

Matthew continues, ‘Trees that bear bad fruit must be cut down and thrown into the fire…The gate is narrow and hard that leads to life….Depart from me I never knew you.’ Do you realize how heavy laden your sermon is with these kinds of pronouncements?

Jesus steps close to Matthew and with a piercing look says firmly: “It’s a manifesto Matthew. I am not here to be sentimental and soothing. I am here to start a revolution. I said revolution, not revolt. I’m talking about a radical shift. Did you think I was just going to come and say, ‘Hey everyone, a, just keep doing what you’ve been doing for the last 1000 years since it’s been going so great.’

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Jesus came to start a revolution that begins with a radical shift, a reorientation of one’s whole life.

That is why Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, the first of which is Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

St. Gregory of Nyssen

Do you wish to know who is poor in spirit?  It is he who exchanges physical wealth for the riches of the soul, who is poor for the sake of the spirit, who has thrown off earthly riches like a heavy load, and who would be born aloft through the air to be with God.  If we want to advance to the things above, we need to be poor and needy in the things which drag us down, that we may become conversant with things supernatural.

This Beatitude confront us with decisive choices concerning our lives.  It calls us to purify our hearts to teach us to seek after and love God above all things. Why?  God alone satisfies.

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Pope Benedict in his book Jesus of Nazareth says St. Francis of Assisi is the most intense illustration of what it means to be Poor in Spirit.

And Pope Benedict says to be poor in spirit is to direct one’s whole life to a deep interior friendship or union with God.

To be poor in spirit means making a deep friendship with Jesus the priority of our life. And you can only have one priority.

Prayer is friendship with God. And there are three main categories of prayer, just like friendship – talking, listening and just being with your friend.

This corresponds to talking to God from the heart in prayer, as well as thanking and praising Him and the prayer of petition, asking God for the things we need and the needs of others. But talking alone does not make for friendship. We need listening, which is meditation. In meditation we read or listen to something from the Word of God and think about it so that we can know and love God better and form firm convictions that we turn into concrete resolutions. That is why we do the Rosary the way we do – so you can learn about God and your faith while praying. The Rosary is supposed to be meditation.

But as we progress in this friendship with Jesus our meditation should over time simplify into a loving attention. Just sitting with God in silence – not really thinking but just loving him. Are you giving enough time and space for meditation that will eventually lead to this simplification? If not, you will never progress.

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Now Poor in Spirit does not mean that we neglect other necessary areas of life as we make friendship with Jesus the priority.

Happiness is to possess the good things that complete or fulfill our human nature. We are complicated creatures who need many good things to be fulfilled and happy. We need a Hierarchy of good things - three levels of good things:

1.   Divine Good – Union with God, sharing in His Life by means of the sacraments, prayer and the practice of virtue.

2.   Human Goods:

a.   Physical goods (food, shelter, health, safety, security, exercise, rest)

b.   Psychological well-being

i.    Order, certainty, stability

ii.    Variety / Uncertainty, opportunity for change and growth

c.   Friendship and family – Love and Acceptance with other persons

d.   Knowledge – truth

e.   Achievement / Meaningful Work / Contribution / a sense that we are needed and useful

f.     Beauty

3.   Instrumental goods – These are means to higher goods and not ends in themselves

a.   Protein and carbs – coffee - because we need nutrition… 

b.   Money, power, good reputation as a means to the higher goods

c.   We need things that are just a means to an end – like books - Books are good, but only as a means to knowledge or beauty or achievement

To be Poor in Spirit means that whatever we do or pursue must be done in such a way that it ultimately leads toward friendship with Gode and not away from Him.   

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The Danger of Exceptionalism

God wants his children to be excellent humans who share in His divine life allowing them to live in a supernatural way.

An enemy of being poor in Spirit is the pursuit of exceptionalism. Exceptionalism is when we seek to be the best in one area of life which causes us to neglect other necessary goods, preventing us from two things: deep friendship with God and the excellence of a well ordered and beautiful life that results in happiness.

Exceptionalism is when we dump all our time, energy and attention in one area of life. We usually do this because we are trying to find our happiness or identity and value there rather than in living a well ordered and balanced life which finds its ture worth in being a son or daughter and intimate friend of God.

I see this most often when we place all our emphasis on excellence in a profession – seeking our identity or self-worth there; or by placing everything in our children and trying to make them into something great.

The antidote to exceptionalism is to be Poor in Spirit, to seek an intimate and transforming union with God while at the same time living a well ordered and balanced life.

Here is where we come back to the great tool called a rule of life. Do you have a rule of life and are you living by it? I have a meditation on the Rule of Life which you may want to go back and listen to.