Day # 1 Blessed The Poor Of Spirit.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5: 3)

Source

Thanks to scv and the Apostle Darlenys for giving us the opportunity to participate in this wonderful teaching of the word of God with reference to the Beatitudes.

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount highlighting one of the characteristics of the citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. This verse is the key to understanding all the other teachings of Jesus given on that occasion. In affirming that the Kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, Jesus is saying that all his commandments are for people of that nature. Thus, the teachings of this Sermon are not for the whole multitude.

Being the Sermon on the Mount the code of ethics of the citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, we can affirm that this Kingdom is made up of people who are poor in spirit. All other characteristics of the citizen of this Kingdom derive from this first.

The term used to designate "poor" in this verse has the meaning of someone deprived of all things, someone who has absolutely nothing. Thus, for the disciple to be admitted into that kingdom it is necessary to have nothing, or be devoid of all things.

In this way, being poor in spirit means that when we are before God, we recognize ourselves as empty and without anything to offer. The practical consequence of this teaching is that we must recognize our inability and sin when we are before Jesus. We are empty sinners who need to be saved.

If we are poor in spirit, we recognize ourselves as sinners. If we recognize ourselves as sinners, we will realize that we need the grace of God. If we have the grace of God, we are saved. And if we are saved, we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Once we recognize ourselves as poor in spirit, we know that we can not do anything without the grace of God, not even fulfill the other commandments that come after it.

That is why the Sermon on the Mount is not an order to moralize the world, nor a set of laws to establish the Kingdom of Heaven as a political instance here on Earth.

We are empty and we can not do anything apart from the grace of God. The transformation of the disciple of Jesus, of the citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, always happens from the inside out and never the opposite.

Thus, he begins his transformation of character internally before doing anything externally. This inner transformation that begins by admitting its emptiness before God clashes with the pattern of the world that asks that people be powerful, discover their inner strength, that they be conquering and independent.

However, Jesus asks that his disciples admit their inner emptiness, their weakness and their dependence on the grace of God. The disciple of Jesus does not conquer the world, since the Kingdom of heaven was already given to him.

Being poor in the spirit does not mean being shy or withdrawn. It is not also a false humility or modesty. There are times when we do certain things so that everyone observes our attitudes of modesty and humility. In the same way we do not have to make great sacrifices to be poor in spirit. That is not what Jesus is asking of his disciple.

To be poor in spirit is simply to recognize the sinner before a Holy God. It is recognizing the emptiness before the almighty God.

We are all afraid of emptiness, because when we are in front of it, we are forced to look inside ourselves. And when we look inside ourselves, we perceive that we need to be transformed.

The apostle John in his first letter (1 John 3: 2) affirms that we are still what we will be, certainly, one day. And what we will be one day, by the transformation generated by the grace of God in us, leads us directly to the Kingdom of heaven, which was made for those who recognized themselves as poor, empty and dependent on the grace of God.

It is not possible to be before God without recognizing our inner emptiness, our limitations and without recognizing our dependence on his grace and mercy. The Kingdom of heaven belongs to those who have already gone through the experience of discovering themselves empty before the almighty God.