The First Beatitude: What is poverty of spirit?
What is
poverty of spirit? Saint
Gregory says there are two kinds of riches: Material wealth and Virtue. Now the
Lord instructs us not to put our trust in accumulating material riches.
Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and
where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in
and steal. (Matt 6:19-21)
In other
words everything material is subject to decay or loss. On the other hand the
Lord commands us to strive for spiritual wealth. These once gained cannot be
lost.
Gregory
points out that there are two kinds of poverty. We can be poor in virtues like
justice, wisdom or prudence. When we are poor in this sense we lack what is
most important. But another kind of poverty is where we are voluntarily poor in
all that has to do with sinfulness. Gregory says, "He who is the man whom
the word presents as enjoying that poverty which is called blessed, whose fruit
is the Kingdom of Heaven."
The aim
"of the life of virtue," says Gregory, "is to become like
God." But he acknowledges that for mankind to live without passions and
sinfulness is impossible. What we can do is to imitate God to the extent that
is possible based on our nature. "If we do this," he says, "you
will have put on the blessed form."
Our
downfall comes when we make our aim to follow our passions, to seek only
pleasure from material things or sensual pleasures. To become like God we must
aim for a life based on virtue. This will come with a voluntary humility. We
must voluntarily give up the aim of sensual and material pleasure. Paul advises
that this is the way of Christ, "Who for us became poor, being rich, that
we through His poverty might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9)"
Gregory
highlights that the kind of humility we call "poor in spirit" is not
easy to obtain because we are filled with pride. This was the downfall of Adam
and Eve. To purge this from our way of being, Jesus advises us that we must
remove it from our character by trying to imitate Him who became poor of His
own will. The apostle Paul says,
"Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a servant. (Phil 2:5-7)."
As
Gregory says, "The Ruler of rulers,
the Lord of lords puts on voluntarily the garb of servitude. The Judge of all
things becomes a subject of governors; the Lord of creation dwells in a cave;
He who holds the universe in His hands finds no place in the inn, but is cast
aside into the manger of irrational beasts. The perfectly Pure accepts the
filth of human nature, and after going through all our poverty passes on to the
experience of death. Look at the standard by which to measure voluntary
poverty!"
Gregory
gives us some advice about how to overcome our pride by examining our nature.
Think of our creation. We are made from clay. He says, "the high dignity
of the proud is related to bricks." He sarcastically advises to beware of
uncovering the shame of our relatives, things we don't want others to know
about us, for if we do our pride might be uncovered. Then he become quite
descriptive.
Do you
not look at both ends of man's life, where it begins, and how it ends? No, you
pride yourself on your youth, you look at the prime of your age and are pleased
with your handsome appearance, because your hands can move quickly and your
feet are nimble, because your curls are blown about by the breeze and your
cheeks show the first signs of a beard. You are proud because your clothes are
dyed in brilliant purple and you have silk robes embroidered with scenes from
war or hunting or history. Perhaps you also look at your carefully blackened
sandals delightfully adorned with elaborate needlework patterns. At these
things you look but at yourself you will not look? Let me show you as in a
mirror who and what sort of a person you are.
Have you
never gazed at the mysteries of our nature in a common burial ground? Have you
not seen the heaps of bones one on top of the other? Skulls denuded of flesh,
fearful and ugly to look at with their empty sockets? Have you not seen their
grinning jaws and the other limbs, strewn about at random? If you have seen
these things, you have seen yourself. Where will then be today's blooming
youth? Where the lovely color of your cheeks, the fresh lips, the fine
brilliance of the eyes flashing under the circle of their brows? What will then
have become of the straight nose beautifully set between the cheeks? What of
the hair falling down to the neck, and the curls round the temples? Where will
be the hands skilled with the bow, the feet controlling the horses? The purple
and fine linen, the mantle, the girdle and the sandals? The neighing horses
with their race-course? What will have become of all the things that now feed
your conceit? Where, in these bones, are all these things about which you are
now so greatly puffed up? What dream is so fleeting? What are these
hallucinations? What shadow eluding touch is as unsubstantial as the dream of
youth that vanishes the moment it appears?
He does
not stop here but then addresses those in middle age:
But what
shall we say about the middle-aged, who are, indeed, settled in years, but
whose moral life is unsettled, and whose pride is a growing disease, though
they call this moral cancer highmindedness? The foundation of this pride is
usually high office and the power that goes with it. For they are affected by
it either in the office itself, or whilst preparing for it; even talking about
it will often fan the latent disease. But what words could penetrate their
hearing which is already filled with the voice of the heralds? Who shall
convince people in such a frame of mind that they are just like actors parading
on the stage? For these, too, don a delicately polished mask and a
gold-embroidered purple robe, and proceed solemnly in a chariot. Nevertheless the
disease of pride does not invade them on account of this. But their frame of
mind remains at the procession the same as it was before they appeared on the
stage; and later they are not sorry to have to descend from the chariot and to
discard their dignity....
For they
imagine themselves master over life and death, because, having to judge men,
they bestow on some the sentence of acquittal, while condemning others to
death. And they do not even realize who is the true Master of human life, who
determines the beginning as well as the end of existence. ...
Hence he
ought to be poor in spirit, and look at Him who for our sake became poor of His
own will; let him consider that we are all equal by nature, and not exalt
himself impertinently against his own race on account of that deceptive show of
office, but, being truly blessed, he will gain the Kingdom of Heaven in
exchange for humility in this transitory life.
Then he
concludes his discussion as follows:
Would you
like to know who it is that is poor in spirit? He who is given the riches of
the soul in exchange for material wealth, who is poor for the sake of the
spirit. He has shaken off earthly riches like a burden so that he may be
lightly lifted into the air and be borne upwards, as says the Apostle, in the
cloud walking on high together with God.
Gold is a
heavy thing, and heavy is every kind of matter that is sought after for the
sake of wealth–but virtue is light and bears souls upwards. Truly these two,
heaviness and lightness, are opposed to each other. Therefore, if a man has
attached himself to the heaviness of matter, it is impossible for him to become
light. Since, then, we ought to tend to the things above, let us become poor in
the things that drag us down, so that we may sojourn in the upper regions.
The
Psalms show us the way: He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor, his
justice remaineth for ever and ever.
Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/08/1st-beatitude-poor-in-sprit.html
