THE POOR IN SPIRIT:
A Reflection on the Gospel of Matthew 5:1-12A

One day Saint Anthony of Padua learned of the shoemaker’s reputation for living with virtues and poverty. He was inspired to seek out the shoemaker in order to observe how he lived up to the values. After days of looking, Anthony finally found a shoemaker with whom he had a conversation on the spiritual life. Anthony inquired about the shoemaker's daily schedule. The shoemaker claimed that his day is broken up into three segments of eight hours each: 8 hours for work, 8 hours for prayer, and 8 hours for eating and resting. Meanwhile, Anthony always spent the whole day in prayer, not just eight hours. Anthony also asked how his money should be used. The shoemaker said that 1/3 is for him, 1/3 for the Church, 1/3 for the poor. When Anthony heard this, he assumed that the shoemaker could not live more virtuously than he did because he gave all his wealth to the poor, not just one-third. However, Anthony discovered that the shoemaker had to live in the middle of a corrupt city, surrounded by sinners and bad examples. The shoemaker grieved about it and cried out incessantly to God for them. In the end, Anthony realized that that was what he fell short of the shoemaker. Anthony said that he had not yet had the awareness of the sufferings of those around him, on the contrary, he was looking for a peaceful life with a hermit life.

We know that there are three types of poor: (1) those who are so actually poor as beggars; (2) those who are poor in spirit but rich in fact, as Abraham; (3) those who are both in fact and in spirit, as the religious, who vow poverty from love and affection for it, and who give up themselves of all their worldly goods.

But how to properly understand what is “poor in spirit”? Nyssen says, “It is he who exchanges corporeal opulence for the riches of the soul, who is poor for the sake of the spirit, who has thrown off earthly riches like a heavy load, and who would be borne aloft through the air to be with God. If, then, it behoves us to advance to the things above, we must needs be poor and needy in the things which drag us down, that we may become conversant with things supernal.” Saint Francis of Sales says, “The poor, or beggars in spirit are those who beg—i.e., who have an insatiable hunger and thirst for the Spirit—that is, for increase of love and zeal for God, that He may ever grow and burn in them with constant increase.” This means that blessed are those who live towards God as beggars to the rich, namely those who with as great humility of spirit confess their poverty, and with as much earnestness beg for grace from God, as beggars ask an alms from the rich.

Thus, “poor in spirit” is not only measured by how much material wealth we give up and how much we donate for the common good, but also by how much our hearts are turned to God, how much our humility before Him, how much love and zeal for Him, and how much desire for His grace.

In Christ,
Hoa Nguyen