My dear friends in Christ, one of the very first lessons I learned in high school in debating club – the club that we had at Regis – was to make sure that you keep your thoughts in order when you debate, so that you can make your points clearly, and anticipate whatever the person with whom you are debating, anticipate his or her objections so that you can give a proper response.
And many a times I did not do that…and it wasn’t pretty, I must confess.
As we’ve all grown older we realize that order matters. Keeping our financial affairs in order is the difference between a comfortable life or a disaster. Keeping our human relationships in order allows us to grow in friendship, also in prudence. And even in the things of faith – you know, in as we worship, we worship in order – our processions have a particular order. Our faith, as beautiful as it is, is quite complicated in the articles in which we believe.
And so there is an order. That is why we have a catechism.
Now all of this perhaps you take for granted. But I must confess, it did not cross my mind until recently that the Beatitudes have a particular order, for a particular reason. For we could look at the Beatitudes as just a collage of virtues, thinking that ‘well I mean peacemaking, righteousness, all the rest…as long as we do all of them we’re in good shape’. But allow me to suggest another way to look at them.
Perhaps the order really does matter. And perhaps the first of the Beatitudes is the most important, without which, if you and I do not live it, we could not fully live all the rest. Perhaps the first Beatitude is the doorway to everything else in the spiritual life.
And if that premise is correct, then we have a fundamental question to ask today: what does it mean to be poor in spirit, for those who are poor in spirit will have the Kingdom of Heaven? And how do you and I live it in our ordinary lives?
Perhaps, my friends, the catechism itself can help us to answer that question. So you know the catechism is the compendium of all that we believe and it’s broken up into four basic sections. And the last section is about the spiritual life, and about prayer, and its importance in your life and mine. And it’s interesting; in one of the very first articles in that section, the Church describes us – all of us – as beggars before God.
See, God from the beginning of creation has been offering His life to those whom He loves, which is all creation or humanity. From the prophets, and ultimately culminating in the Lord Jesus. And He offers His life because we, made in His image and likeness, are poor. We’re empty. We are literally beggars. For we, in ourselves, have nothing of eternal value. But it all comes from God.
And when we recognize that basic fact, then we become ripe and ready to receive the gifts He wishes to give you and me in ordinary life, whatever that gift may be that the need that you and I have in any given moment.
You see, the great temptation that we still struggle with since our first parents is to dare to believe that we are not empty ourselves. That we are not beggars before God. That we can take care of ourselves. We have all that we need. So God is the icing on the cake.
The first Beatitude tells us that God *is* the cake. And without Him, we will starve.
And there are many in our midst, and at times even in my life and yours, that we were starving. Because we forgot what it meant to be poor in spirit. In our relationships with each other and God we call the virtue ‘humility’. One manifestation of this stance of poverty before God is to recognize our gifts and talents, recognize our faults and failings, to live in the truth of the moment of who we are and to recognize the truth: that with God, we have hope, life, grace, peace, a destiny, a mission. And we will have glory. And He asks us to be co-workers with Him.
But we can’t do it without surrendering to Him. We can’t open our hands to Him and our hearts to Him if we close them. We need to surrender and Trust in the profound love God has for us, and that’s the cost of discipleship. (The) cost is to surrender into that love and allow Him to lead us even when we do not know where we may be going, and we may not like where He is asking us to go.
That, my friends, is poverty of spirit. And Jesus makes the audacious claim that for those who struggle to be poor in spirit, they will inherit the kingdom of God. Because God will gladly give it to them.
And you, my dear friends, who stood up just a few moments ago as ambassadors of Christ – first of all I am grateful that you underwent the formation and your hearts are on fire to be his ambassadors – that is, his messengers, his representatives. And just like an ambassador in our secular world literally represents the country that she or he come from, so to you.
And you have learned in your formation that to be an ambassador doesn’t mean you have to do extraordinary things. It’s to live your Christian Life authentically and to have the courage to be able to present your life as a gift from the Lord Jesus, so that you allow Jesus to shine through you – with your wife or husband, children, or grandchildren, co-workers, fellow parishioners, and all those whom you meet of good will.
Allow me to suggest my friends, regardless for everything you have learned in formation, the key lesson I want you never to forget is that if you wish to be an effective ambassador of Jesus Christ, you, like me, must always strive to be poor in spirit. So that what we offer our neighbor is not our thoughts, our opinions, our whatever it may be what we think they should have; but we offer a window into Jesus Christ. And He will do the rest.
How do you develop poverty of spirit? Allow me to give you homework this week, my friends. Let us use this coming week to ask ourselves these questions. Look yourself in the mirror and say, how many times have you fallen into the trap or I have fallen into the trap to think that ‘I don’t need to pray today?’ But that is lacking poverty of spirit.
How many times have you and I in our lives fallen into the trap to think ‘I am a success, look what I achieved today’ forgetting that we could achieve zero without the power and Grace of the Holy Spirit. See, that is failure of poverty in spirit.
And the reverse – do you and I each day, when we get on our knees to pray in the morning, in the evening, or when you’re in the car, or on the train going to work, or in the gym, or on the treadmill – wherever you spend that quiet time with Christ – do you or I intentionally ask for the grace to surrender and to recognize that everything is a gift from Him? To recognize the basic fact that with Him we have everything and without Him we are lost?
My friends, consider those questions and the others that will come up in your own heart as you pray over this great gift. For it seems to me, discipleship is building a house worthy of the calling we have received. But if the foundation is not built on true poverty of spirit, how can we actually expect that the house we build with God’s grace will one day be worthy to receive the kingdom of heaven?
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Bishop’s Sunday Mass: Bishop Frank J. Caggiano has begun celebrating Mass at St. Augustine Cathedral on Sundays at 8:30 am, and the faithful throughout the diocese are welcome to join him. For those who plan to attend in person, St. Augustine Cathedral is located at 399 Washington Avenue in Bridgeport. The live-stream will be available Sundays at 8:30 am on the St. Augustine Cathedral website (www.thecathedralparish.org), while the replay will be available on the Diocese YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/c/BridgeportDiocese/streams) once Mass concludes.
