Blessed are you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
The poor who heard him might have had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, they didn't feel particularly blessed. In fact they felt trodden under foot by those with money and power. But on the other hand, to be singled out by this charismatic preacher meant something. He seemed to see some reality or potential in the life of the poor that even they themselves may not have perceived. It was therefore a call to view their own situation from the perspective of faith. If they did so they could then more easily fulfill the exhortation of Paul to the Corinthians:
I tell you, brothers, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.
It was simply not possible for the poor to invest themselves in the world in its present form in the way that it was for those whose lives were filled with wealth, food, and laughter. The rich would always be at risk of falling under the woes Jesus proclaimed. It was a temptation ready at hand to seek their consolation in this world only as though this world was all there is. To counter this tendency they would need to actively and consciously guard against the temptation by recognizing the impermanence of their resources and possessions, that the things they had were passing away, and that for their very lives and our own, "the time is running out".
The poor are therefore more free to seek the higher spiritual goods and to treat any possessions as temporary blessings and gifts rather than ends in themselves. We rich tend to forget the giver and focus on the gift, forgetting that it is temporary, which is the inversion of what should be. But the poor are less likely to make this reversal simply because they know that possessions in themselves have not always been there for them and that they are not a guarantee.
Poverty makes it less likely to be fooled by the promises of rewards that belong to this world only. It is more natural and easier for the poor to seek to have treasure in heaven. They are more free from the need to achieve validation in status in the eyes of others, from standing on a street corner to pray so that they might be seen be all. The world has already showed them they hard way that such rewards are ultimately hollow.
Now it is of course the case that not all those who are materially poor have this attitude. Nor do we present it as a justification for lack of charity on the part of those with means. We present it rather a model for ourselves who are rich and in critical danger of coming under the condemnation of the woes of Jesus. We need, if not material poverty, at least poverty of spirit. We cannot serve both God and mammon. We cannot insist that both God and comfort in this world are our absolute goals. We will eventually choose one or the other, with the added risk that choose comfort and yet still believe ourselves to be also seeking God. We need to be resolved in advance to put the Kingdom first, to experience some temporary discomfort, but for the sake of eternal joy.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
We must learn to hold lightly enough to the things of this world that we are free to stand up and be counted as followers of the Son of Man. We need the grace to know the shortness of this life, and the truth that this world in its present form as passing away. Then we can seek first the Kingdom and use all else we receive wisely, without clinging, with our hearts fixed on the giver and not the gifts alone.
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