I wrote this reflection about All Saints Day for our parish bulletin. The readings for this weekend are here. There are many other ways that one can live a life which is poor in spirit besides what I mention below (I had a word-count constraint, so I dwelt only on one way). I hope folks will share their own ideas in the comments for how they've chosen to live a life which is poor in spirit
We celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints, also known as All Saint Day, on November 1st every year. This year it happens to fall on a Sunday, so our long march through the Sundays of Ordinary Time is interrupted for a weekend to celebrate the saints who have come before us. The saints help us toward the goal of our discipleship, which is to be saints ourselves – which is to say, to be with our Lord Jesus Christ, and to see him as he is.
Today’s familiar Gospel reading, Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes, is practically a recipe for discipleship. Luke also has a version (Lk 6:20-23). Luke’s first beatitude (“blessing”) is, “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” Disconcertingly, Luke pairs that “blessed” with a corresponding “woe” a few verses later: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation (6:24).” This view of the opposing destinies for the poor and the wealthy should not surprise us, if we have heard Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31).
Matthew’s version of that beatitude is slightly different: it reads, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” [I have added the italics for emphasis.] Some scholars speculate that Matthew’s addition of “in spirit” broadens Luke’s injunction to include not only those who are poor but also those who are materially better-off. Then, as today, the Good News attracted both those who were poor and also some who were quite well off (the middle class as we understand it today was not as large then as it is now).
St. Edna’s faith community comprises some who are poor, some who are wealthy, and many who are somewhere in between. Matthew’s beatitude is Good News indeed, because it announces that God’s kingdom is open to all of us, regardless of our economic status. But note the qualifier: if we are not materially poor, we still must be poor in spirit.
In my view, this requirement that all be poor in spirit poses one of most important spiritual problems in our suburban community. Many of us have been blessed with talents and opportunities, such as being able to achieve a college degree, which we tend to take for granted but which are, in reality, tremendous advantages in achieving prosperous and stable lives – advantages which aren’t enjoyed by most Americans, not to mention most in the developing world. According to the US Census Bureau, about a third of Americans (both native-born and immigrants) have a four-year college degree. Some research shows that possessing a four-year degree boosts the degree holder’s lifetime income by over $2 million on average – that is 80% higher than the lifetime income that persons with a high school diploma will earn. As a parent, I’ve seen how the excellent schools in our local community prepare our children for college, giving them outstanding educations, the opportunity to earn college and Advanced Placement credits while in high school, and opening doors for admission to top-flight colleges and universities.
If we are fortunate enough to be in this situation, our first action, of course, should be to thank God for these blessings (beatitudes). We can do this in our personal prayer, and as a community when we gather each Sunday, in person or virtually, to celebrate the Eucharist (“thanksgiving”).
Then, after thanking God, we should remember Jesus’ injunction today to live lives that are “poor in spirit”.
If one is materially comfortable, how does one live a life that is poor in spirit? We must keep our lives in a proper perspective: the perspective of God’s kingdom. It is all too easy to become consumed with the accumulation of wealth, privilege and power. We must resist those temptations. For many of us, this is a difficult spiritual struggle: we are blessed with abilities and opportunities which make us better off; but we know that Jesus calls us to be poor. For those of us in that situation, one recourse is to share our good fortune with others who are less fortunate. The canon of saints is replete with examples of holy men and women who gave entire fortunes away to the poverty-stricken. Of course, many St. Edna parishioners already live with this saintly perspective and balance, as evidenced by your generosity to our parish, our food pantry, our Outreach program, our prison ministry and many other community programs which support those in need. Your generosity is a holy example of how we can be “poor in spirit”.
I wonder if Jesus ever said "in spirit." Matthew reads like a gloss to me. St. Ambrose famously said, "If you have two shirts in your closet, one belongs to you and the other to the man with no shirt." That sounds extreme, but Sts. Basil the Great and John Chrysostom said similar things. So did Servant of God Dorothy Day.
ReplyDeleteThere are to prerequisites, istm, to meeting that Beatitude with a 401(k), Medicare and Social Security:
1. Recognize that it is not all about you; it is not your story. You are only carrying a spear, and probably not in the first row. It took me nearly 50 years to figure that out, and I still backslide, although not as much as I used to.
2. You didn't make that. Barack Obama said that, thinking of the societal backstop needed for any business (who educated your employees? who built the road your products travel on?), and he was excoriated. There are still some pompous fools who bring that up. But the theology is correct, and only pompous fools believe the answer is "me" when they are asked who made them so damn smart.
Thoughts on the saints from two theologians:
ReplyDeleteRahner asks: “Why does the Church spend so much time canonizing saints?” Would not that time be better spent articulating doctrine? His answer was that every saint is a fresh and varied example of how to imitate Christ.
Congar: Every saints life is a commentary on scripture.
My reflection on these thoughts: Spirituality, i.e. lived Christian life, is more important than theology, i.e. the study of doctrine and ideas.
Theology has is place. It is important that Christianity in its Catholic and Orthodox forms has stressed the importance of rationality and the data of revelation. A prominent sociologist has argued that the rational approach to revelation laid the foundations for science, the rational approach to nature.
However, Christianity is not simply the historic data of revelation. Christ not only became incarnate but also sent us the Holy Spirit. The life of the Spirit in the Church as exemplified by the multiplicity of spiritualities of the religious orders, and all the various saints is there to support us even more than theology.
And of course, the Spirit never ceases to create saints for our time and place. Merton in his writings emphasized the uniqueness of each person's sanctity.
I like that quote by Congar. It's been in my head all week. Thanks!
DeleteDeacon K. is also homilising this morning. He is also using the beatitudes, and working in a mention of Bl. Michael McGiveny. We watched his livestreamed beatification ceremony yesterday on youtube. Whatever one thinks of the present day leadership of the K of C, Fr. McGiveny did live out the "poor in spirit" beatitude. He came from a poor family himself, and advocated for the poor Irish immigrants who made up his parish.
ReplyDeleteI was scheduled for EMHC yesterday evening, so attended that Mass. Another deacon gave the homily. He brought up "election anxiety". Sigh. Though thankfully didn't advocate any candidate. Skated pretty close to it though.
As a low income person, I have a horror of poverty and the poor. They're too close for comfort.
ReplyDeleteBeing poor in America means being given a backstory that blames you for your problems and holds you up as a drain on society--you made poor career choices, you have screwed up priorities, you had too many kids because you were dumb about birth control, your only life skill is in working the system, you are addicted to booze/drugs/junk food, you are too dumb to figure a way out of poverty.
If you want to be poor in spirit, you have to understand the way those assumptions foster terror and despair. You also have to understand that every handout you get is both a relief as well as proof that the backstory about you is true.
I read a quote today that I thought was good. Kind of speaks to what you are saying.
Delete"Charity is vertical, so it's humiliating. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other, and learns from the other."
-Eduardo Galeano
Yes, I like that. But I don't think it plays in America, and neither do the beatitudes.
DeleteIn America, the poor are measures of worthlessness for the rest of us--at least I am not on food assistance, at least I can afford to fix my teeth, at least I can pay for my meds, at least my clothes are clean, at least they've never shut off my water, at least we still have Christmas presents for the kids.
Why would anybody want to be poor in spirit?
Isn't that kind of a human trait though, not just in America? Being "poor in spirit" sounds like it ought to be easy. But it isn't. The attitude of "I'm better than those others" must have been pretty common in Jesus' time too, or he wouldn't have spoken so often of the need to care for those less fortunate.
DeleteMaybe, but I have never lived anywhere else or in anger time, so I don't know. I think the work hard and achieve mythos is deeply engrained in American life.
Deleteany *other* time. Ugh. Even when I re-read this stuff typos creep through on the tablet.
Delete"Being poor in America means being given a backstory that blames you for your problems and holds you up as a drain on society--you made poor career choices, you have screwed up priorities, you had too many kids because you were dumb about birth control, your only life skill is in working the system, you are addicted to booze/drugs/junk food, you are too dumb to figure a way out of poverty."
DeleteJust catching up here. Jean, many thanks for sharing this.
All the blaming you're describing: the other side of that coin, I think, is the mistaken notion that, if I have a stable, prosperous life and a balance sheet which is in the black, that that's due to my own hard work, and that therefore these are things which I've earned - that I deserve. That's it's the just reward for my labor. That's a very American outlook, and in my view it isn't a Christian outlook.
I do think we've been given gifts - talents - and we have an obligation to make use of them. But "make use of them" should mean, "Build God's kingdom with them", or "Put them to work for the praise and glory of God." If that work also causes a lot of money to flow into your bank account, then - that's more to put to work to build God's kingdom or to offer for the glory of God.
Would say more, but now I'm off examining my own life ...
Yes, these are American cultural ideas, and I would argue that there is no greater shame in America than being poor.
DeleteYears ago, The Boy was unable to afford to go on his senior year school band trip. We warned him a year in advance we could not swing this trip and he would have to come up with most of the money, which he didn't bother to do despite frequent reminders that this was on him.
When it turned out that he would be the only kid in his class not going, someone contacted us from the school. An anonymous parent's group had offered to pay half his fee for him.
I was humiliated and furious. Offering us the entire fee would have been bad enough, but I inferred some implied judgment from the half fee--that we were malingerers who needed to be shamed out of our shiftlessness by another parent coming forward with half.
I declined the offer with as much cold thanks as I could muster, and explained that it wasn't the money (although it was), but the kid's failure to put in any elbow grease on his own.
I was so glad he graduated a few months later, and I didn't have to go back to any more concerts or school functions.
Perhaps poor in spirit doesn’t refer to material wealth. Perhaps instead it is meant for those who are in some kind of mental, emotional and/ or spiritual dark place, which afflicts the materially rich as well as the materially poor. It often brings the materially poor to despair. This we can understand, at least to a degree, even if we ourselves are not as poor. Life is so very difficult for the materially poor.
ReplyDeleteBut spiritual poverty can also bring rich and powerful people to near despair. Think of some of the celebrities who have committed suicide in recent years. They try to self- medicate - alcohol, drugs, sex, lavish spending, overeating, too much tv, too many parties and charity balls, too much time on any number of pasttimes that are really ways to try to escape the darkness. Some of the rich and powerful give up running and end it instead. And people wonder why - but he/she was rich, successful, powerful, and “had it all”. Why would they commit suicide? Because they were poor in spirit and didn’t know the hope promised in the beatitudes?
Silence, centering prayer, natural beauty, and trying to remember to practice gratitude are ways I try to overcome my periods of spiritual poverty. In the material realm, I try to give money more generously than had been my norm up until the pandemic. I used to make a whole lot of December donations. To remember to give more generously, I switched from annual donations to my favorite causes to automatic monthly donations. I also try to be aware of special, unexpected needs that may arise in the local community and give specific monetary gifts to those. My husband and I are fortunate- barring a total economic meltdown and a true stock market crash, we should be fairly financially secure for the years we have left. So we do try to also help those we hear about who are not as secure. Recently a lot of the appeals are from the groups like Catholic Charities who have mounted a huge food purchasing and distribution effort to meet needs that have quadrupled since a March. A priest from my long ago RC life is pastor of an inner city parish who tries to help his people with rent money etc. He is at the top of my November gift list for special needs.
Anne, I think you are right that being poor isn't always in a material way. It can be emotional or spiritual, or lacking physical health, especially in this time of pandemic.
DeleteWe are okay materially, but have to be rather frugal. I do make a priority of giving to St. Vincent dePaul and their food pantry, and other agencies when we can.
A couple of comments back you alluded to something else that most of us who are not materially poor need to work on developing - humility - a positive way to be poor in spirit.
DeleteAnne, it warms my heart to read about how you're trying to help others. Thank you!
DeleteI think there is a certain zero-sum dynamic at play: we can't love God and mammon.
For a recipient's take on being the object of charity, see my response to Jim's comment above.
DeleteAnother prayer request...I went to the All Souls day Mass at one of the other parishes in town, and the celebrant, Father Joe, collapsed at the offertory. I noticed when he started Mass that he was hoarse, and his color was bad. He is 82, and has been in good health up until now. The paramedics were called, and arrived quickly. He had regained consciousness and insisted on finishing Mass seated in a chair. Which I didn't think was a good idea. I didn't stay after the Our Father. To be honest I was worried about Covid. I am hoping he let them take him to the hospital and do a proper medical evaluation; anyway please pray for him.
ReplyDeleteI guess he was being an old trooper. I'll pray for him. I like old troopers. Katherine, if you were in a large indoor volume and socially distanced, you should be ok.
DeleteThe PA COVID app shows we've spiked beyond the April peak. The death rate is climbing but nowhere near April rates. We should rate this pandemic mortality in Twin Towers (TT's). Right now, we're hitting one TT per week and climbing.
I wasn't worried about through the air exposure since everyone was distanced and wearing masks. I didn't stay for Communion, the hosts are not covered during the consecration, and are handled by the celebrant prior, unless they are placed in the ciborium by the sacristan or deacon.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear cases are increasing in PA. I got a text this morning from a friend who lives in Erie, she said she had finally recovered after being sick for 5 weeks with Covid.
Prayers for Fr Joe, the parish, and the EMTs who responded.
DeleteMichigan is averaging 3,500 infections per day. Death rate is down from 10 percent in spring to about 5 percent. Combo of better/quicker treatment, fewer people in hospitals, and infections among young people rather than oldsters.
Katherine, I am sorry to hear about that. Prayers on the way for Fr. Joe.
DeleteMy observation is, more often than not, people for whom the EMTs are called at mass, don't want to be strapped to the cart and put into the ambulance. I guess most of us don't want to have a fuss made over us. But there are times when the fuss is necessary.
On the home front, M tested negative for the virus. So I guess I won't get a test. So nice to return to normal levels of anxiety.
DeletePrayers ascending.
DeleteStanley, glad to hear you and M are in the clear.
DeleteI will leave this topic with a column by Nicholas Kristoff about being poor in America and the attitudes toward poverty. My students had a good discussion about it some years ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-its-not-just-about-bad-choices.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Kristoff article, I always enjoy reading him.
DeleteAbout your son's band trip, I hear you. I have noticed a change since I was in school. We didn't have all these high-cost "extras" to deal with, in public school yet. It was even starting with my kids in the 80s and 90s. My older son's French class was ginning up a tip to Paris over Christmas break. "All" it would cost us parents is plane fare and lodging expense. Supposedly they were going to stay in a youth hostel, or something. Thanks goodness our son didn't want to go, because it would have been very difficult for us to afford the expense. His comment was that it would suck up his break.
"tip" should be trip.
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