Has not
God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the
kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? James 2:5
There’s
an obvious link between today’s Old Testament and Gospel reading about the
unsealing of the ears of the deaf – it’s about Our Lord fulfilling the Old
Testament as Messiah, the promised one who comes to help people hear the word
of God.
I
felt God lead me though to the reading that stands rather on its own – the
epistle of James Chapter 2 which speaks of the blessings of poverty. It seems
as if James’ church had rather forgotten what Jesus said about the poor since
the rich were getting the best seats in church!
At
any rate the apostle makes a striking point that it’s those who are poor according to the world…God chose to be rich in
faith.
What do we
make of this? Or for that matter of the blessing Jesus himself
announces upon the ‘poor in spirit’ in his Sermon on the Mount.
Seeing
all those refugees puts in your mind eye how faced with the need to flee what
would you take with you, or even, less emotively, faced as we often are with
short breaks what not to take! That sort of review touches on a key feature
of spiritual poverty, the call to detachment
which goes alongside confidence we should have as children of God in Our Father
to provide for us in all circumstances. God bless those many migrants who are
fellow Christians with such confidence and provision.
There’s
a school of Christian faith that speaks of abandonment
to providence. Jesus is said by St. Paul to have ‘emptied himself, taking the
form of a slave’ in his abandonment to God’s will. It is this sort of poverty
that’s in Christ himself that’s spurred on his Saints all through the ages. St
Francis of Assisi is the great example, casting even his clothes to one side to
belong wholly to the church as servant of God! There’s a story of how the Bishop of Assisi one day said to
Francis: ‘Your way of life without possessions of any kind seems to me very
harsh and difficult’. ‘My Lord’, Francis answered, ‘If we had possessions we
should need arms for their defence. They are a source of quarrels and lawsuits,
and are usually a great obstacle to the love of God and one’s neighbour. That
is why we have no desire for temporal goods’. There’s wisdom there! The
migrants on TV again speak of this!
The wealth
of the rich is their strong city we read in Proverbs 18:11-12, in their imagination it is like a high
wall…but humility goes before honour. The ‘high wall’ riches can literally
raise up can all too easily put worldly honour before humility. This ‘honour’ is the ultimate evil of materialism which
we are brain washed into day by day – the valuing of people by what they
possess rather than for who they are as those loved by God and bearing his
image! I am appalled that European
leaders can repel the needy on account of non-Christian faith, in contrast to
others who are reminding us Christ’s way is hospitality.
What does
it mean to be ‘poor in Spirit’? It means to have a true knowledge of God
for who he is and of ourselves as who we are. To know God in his infinite
grandeur is to know oneself as a nothing and a less than nothing through sin.
We all
want progress writes C.S.Lewis but
if you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking
back on the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the
most progressive. To be poor in spirit is to be progressive in that you go
further when you’re travelling light. When you repent of ‘seemingly little
sins’ and turn back from an alluring path you’re not regressing on your
spiritual journey but progressing. You’re seeing all sins are great and you’re moving forward in the knowledge of
God as the great God he is.
Where were
you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have
understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know!
Have you
commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its
place? Job
38:4,5,12
Words
from God provided through the poetry of the book of Job. If you’re ever feeling
self-satisfied pick up your Bible and turn to Job 38 – it puts you in your
place more than any other passage I know and moves progress for you in the
sense we’re examining!
What must
he be like who made the earth, who provides the dawn new every morning? Who
stretches out the stars above? Who can tell the greatness of the Lord?
From
this village we enjoy some splendid views, of the South Downs and Ashdown
Forest especially. What must he be like
who designed such grandeur?
If
he is the ground of all being we are as nothing
compared with him – and worse than nothing in our ingratitude for all he gives
us! Nothingness deserves nothing – this is the ground of humility.
When
James warns that being ‘rich in faith’ means poverty according to the world this must be at the heart of his concern
– that a true knowledge of God in his
infinite grandeur brings with it a recognition of one’s self as an utter
nothing!
If only we
were but ‘nothings’! Our capacity to do harm shows the opposite
even if it’s balanced by the capacity to do beautiful things too.
As
someone put it, our poverty is like that of a song compared to the singer. We
are like a song of the Lord – he is the singer, we are the song. How can the
‘song’ compare itself to the singer?
Yet
it is our privilege to be able to live in the praise of God! Here at the
Eucharist, the great thanksgiving sacrifice of the Church we can admit this
truth – all things come of God and of his
own do we give him… through, with and in Jesus Christ!
If
poverty of spirit is about detachment,
abandonment to providence and humility it is also a whole sphere where we find Christ in this world. In
Matthew 25 Our Lord’s picture of the Last Judgement portrays the poor as manifesting
his own hidden presence. I was hungry and
you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink God says
to the blessed. I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me…Truly
I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these you did it to me.
As
C.S.Lewis again wrote, next to the
Blessed Sacrament your neighbour should be to you the most sacred object on the
earth. We are to welcome Jesus in a moment in the Blessed Sacrament. God in
the material order, hidden in bread and wine. As we welcome him here, may he
open our spiritual eyes to see him elsewhere in the material order -
particularly in the run of our lives in the coming week - that we may encounter
him in the needy. The needy in body, mind and spirit - those who are enduring
personal ordeals and badly in need of attention - our attention, our time, our
money if needs be. Those who invite our action through the collection of
clothes, tents, pots and pans for the Calais refugees
God
free us to travel lighter in our Christian pilgrimage with deeper detachment
from material things, abandoned more and more to his purposes. The Lord deepen
our confidence in his provision and also our humility. We need both confidence
in him and humility before him to serve him and his world aright.
As
we own up more and more to our own spiritual need and poverty may we see Jesus
– Jesus on his throne in glory, Jesus in the sacrament of the altar and Jesus
in the hearts of the materially poor and the poor in spirit!
Blessed,
praised and hallowed be Our Lord Jesus Christ upon his throne of glory, in word
and sacrament and in our hearts now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.
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