Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3
Things. Thinkin’ ‘bout
things. If we are not careful, our lives
will begin to revolve around things. God
gives us things both to bless us and to test us. I like my things, but they have always been a
challenge for me. I always tried to take
good care of anything I had, even when I was a little kid with my toys and
books. I always sought to keep everything
in good shape. Today I get upset when
equipment gets torn up or something breaks.
I hate to see things destroyed or broken. I don’t like dings or scratches on my
vehicles. I don’t like to hear funny
noises. I don’t like computer crashes or
stuff like the wifi on my wife’s laptop ceasing to work for no good
reason.
For people like me, it is easy to get entrapped and enslaved
by acquisition and maintenance, to become the host for a host of mechanical
parasites. But a spirit of poverty
allows us to have, use, enjoy, and benefit from things without possessing or
being possessed by them. Things, from
machines to money, exist to serve us.
They are not who we are, and we do not derive our worth from them. A dead battery or a broken belt or even a
ruptured bank account may result in anything from a minor annoyance to a
radical lifestyle change. Maybe, though,
our lifestyle needs to change.
If I am living in such a way that a thing or things can
effectively destroy me or render me helpless and hopeless, I need to switch my
focus from the temporal world of things to the eternal realm of the Spirit, to
remember that this trek through time and matter is only a place where I learn
to look to and love the Lord.
I can be a good steward and manage well that which God gives
me to oversee, but if I ain’t got nothin’, I ain’t got nothin’ to lose.
8 comments:
For people like me, it is easy to get entrapped and enslaved by acquisition and maintenance, to become the host for a host of mechanical parasites.
Oh, yeah. I have the same problem. Gotta keep reminding myself I own stuff, stuff don't own me.
I need to switch my focus from the temporal world of things to the eternal realm of the Spirit, to remember that this trek through time and matter is only a place where I learn to look to and love the Lord.
Good point.
About this "poor in spirit" term. Always sounded like a bad thing to me. Like you are lacking something spiritual.
It does kind of sound that way. Luke's version just says, "Blessed are you who are poor ...".
Wuest's expansion is almost worse: Spiritually prosperous are the destitute and helpless in the realm of the spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Paul helps us out a little: This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)
And: ...as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. (2 Corinthians 6:10)
Thanks Mush. Still don't quite get it. Maybe it's that the old rules of the world will not longer apply. I'll let it soak into the gray matter a bit.
Poor in spirit, as I understand it, is kind of what Bob is talking about over at OC today. The glass must be empty before it can be filled. You have to know nothing (or in truth, understand that you know nothing) before you can learn anything. And spiritually speaking, you must not be full of yourself if you wish to be full of O, as it were. Or one more way of saying it: how can you slake your thirst with Living water, if you have already filled yourself with mere horizontal water?
Yes, that's true. Just being a jar of clay, empty and available to be filled with whatever it is that Christ wants to pour in.
Fr Barron does well with "poor in spirit" in his Catholicism DVD series. At least for me; I likewise have had a difficult time understanding this. I'm making some headway anyway. Barron describes the poor in spirit as those not too attached to the world. Those blessed with a simple life. Or a life they keep simple. To be child-like in your daily-going-about.
And then there is: ...it is better to have loved and lost...
Perhaps this is a kind of poor in spirit too. For who is more blessed than one who truly KNOWS where once drew breath their beloved.
That's really where Christianity and Judaism diverges from other religions. "For God so loved the world", His creation is precious to Him, so much so that He made us lords of creation. The rest of it now awaits and groans for the revealing of the sons of God.
It's quite a paradox.
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