“Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs
is the Kingdom of Heaven.” ~Matt 5:3
A commentary on the Beatitudes from the Sisters of Life
“As consecrated Religious, we profess the vow of poverty,
and yet Jesus tells all of His followers, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” … the
natural and human response is to recoil and step back from the Blessedness that
Jesus teaches us. At every point in our
life we tend to seek comfort and riches, and not poverty, mourning, hunger,
thirst, persecution. The Beatitudes
leave us uncomfortable!”
Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI said, “The world
promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for
greatness.”
The greatness of
man lies in his conformity to the likeness of God. We have been made to look
like Jesus Christ. He is the blueprint.
The Beatitudes are the road map that sets us on the right path… Beatitudes are
paradoxes – when we begin to see through the eyes of God – the values of the
world are turned on their heads…
This is what it means to be poor in spirit; to have a
radical trust in God for everything; to trust that God will meet all of our
very real needs and desires, and so not to worry about anything for ourselves…
Our God longs to be with us, to give us His life, peace,
joy, strength, freedom, healing, forgiveness and mercy. He constantly desires to draw us deeper into
His Sacred Heart to show us His Divine Love for us...
Why is it ‘blessed’ to be poor? Our God came to us as the poor one and He
remains with us in the Eucharist, longing to give us the Kingdom of Heaven- the
gift of Himself… When we let go of all the attachments of this world and
participate in Christ’s poverty, nothing can compare to the joy and interior
freedom of living wholly for God in service to vulnerable human life.”
Jan. 29th, 2017 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Zep
2:3; 3:12-13 ~ Psalm Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10 ~ 1 Cor 1:26-31 ~ Mt 5:1-12a
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