Sep 25 Mon
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
When our Lord Jesus Christ was preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, he began healing various illnesses, and great crowds came to him. Because they were slow to believe, they had first to be induced by visible miracles to desire the salvation of Jesus’ doctrine. To cure men’s souls, he had to cure their bodies.
Then Jesus climbed to the solitude of a mountain, and called the apostles to himself. His words revealed a sacred compassion for all: “I shall put my laws within them and write them on their hearts.” This was not done amid terrifying sounds and lightning, but through a tranquil discourse which clearly reached the ears of all who stood nearby, so that, the spirit of adoption, as children, which the Lord was offering them, might dispel the terror of slavery to sin.
Christ leaves it clear; whoever desires to attain eternal happiness must go through the steps that he declares. “Blessed, he says, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
It might have been unclear to which poor he was referring, if he had not clarified what kind of poor he had in mind. For then, anyone suffering poverty because of necessity could think it sufficient to merit the kingdom of heaven. But it would be useless to live without any money if we constantly entertain the desire of having it. True poverty is not “to lack everything,” but to be detached from the things we use.
But Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5,3). In Jewish, the ‘poor in spirit’ are the ‘anawim’ (only one word).
The anawim, "the poor and lowly ones" (Psalm 149. v. 4) are not just the oppressed, the miserable, the persecuted for justice, but mainly those who, with fidelity to the moral teaching of the Alliance with God, are marginalized by those who prefer to use violence, riches and power. In this light one understands that the category of the "poor" is not just a social category but a spiritual choice. We can describe them as those who do not have a “backup position or sponsor,” no other way to go, no other support; all they have and trust, all their wealth is God’s paternal protection. And they accept it.
No matter what your wealth is, you can be, and must be a “poor in spirit”.
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