THE FOURTH WORD Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? At the beginning of His public life on the Hill of the Beatitudes, Our Lord preached: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. At the end of His life on the Hill of Calvary, He now practices that poverty of spirit by His Fourth Word from the Cross My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? But the Beatitude and the Word are foreign to the spirit of the world. Modern society is what might be characterized as acquisitive, for its primary concern is to acquire, to own, to possess; its aristocracy is not one of blood or virtue, but of money; it judges worth not by righteousness but in terms of possessions. Our Blessed Lord came into the world to destroy this acquisitiveness and this subservience of moral to economic ends by preaching the blessedness of the poor in spirit. It is worth noting immediately that the poor in spirit does not necessarily mean the indigent or those in straitened circumstances of life. Poor in spirit means interior detachment, and as such includes even some who are rich in the worlds goods, for detachment can be practiced by the rich just as avarice can be practiced by the poor. The poor in spirit are those who are so detached from wealth, from social position, and from earthly knowledge that, at the moment the Kingdom of God demands a sacrifice, they are prepared to surrender all. The Cross and the Beatitudes, Bishop Sheen, P2 (e-reader)
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 14:53:59 +0000
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