12 days ‒ Emptying oneself of the spirit of the world - Day 5
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
O Holy Spirit, inspire me. God’s love, engulf me. Holy Mary, my Mother, guide me in the right ways, look at me, and together with Jesus, bless me. Keep me from all evil, from all delusions and all threats. Mary, The Spouse of the Holy Spirit, obtain for me the grace of being poor in spirit. Amen!
The Word of God
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3).
Meditation
When we left Eden, there appeared an empty space in us that could only be filled by God. Unfortunately, living in this world, we are looking for something else that can fill it in. The world presents its own offer and misleads us that by acquiring goods, either external or internal ones (being attached to our desires, expectations, and our way of thinking), we could achieve inner fulfilment. The spirit of the world lies to us and says that you can have anything in your life; you just need to put your needs at the very centre of your life and incessantly realize yourself, acquiring new things. This is the temptation of the devil who faced Jesus and said: “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Matt 4:9). That’s what the deception and lie of the world look like—to be happy you have to be rich; you have to have money and much goods. The problem arises when something goes wrong.
In the first place, being poor is a deliberate consent not to be a slave of the things I own. This is a way of freedom where I can settle for what is necessary and detach from unnecessary things. And I don’t have to worry about unnecessary things that I may lose. This is about giving up a consumer lifestyle where I always feel obliged to buy something. Yet, being poor is also something more.
Being poor doesn’t mean a lack of money. It is an internal attitude about relying on God in the shortages you experience and living in the awareness that I have everything in God. He really cares that our being poor becomes our richness! This is one of the paradoxes which the Gospel abounds in. Being poor is a remedy I get from God to cure me of my disease of relying only on myself. Being poor heals me from the false conviction that no one will help me and that I have to rely only on myself.
Without realizing that we are in the hands of God, who loves us, which we reflected on during the first day, we wouldn’t be able to swallow this bitter medicine. Therefore, Saint Paul says: “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Cor 4:7). We carry within us the treasure of God’s Love, although we are frail and very poor clay vessels. Actually, these situations of failure, suffering and hardship show me who I truly am. Painful situations that I experience reveal to me the truth about myself.
It is easy to love and trust God when everything goes as you want and there are no major problems. However, you may get into the illusion that, in the moment of crisis, painfully uncover your actual face. And it is not a problem that these situations happen. They were, they are, and they will be.
The litmus test of being poor is a constant state of worship. The poorer the soul, the more it lives in worship. And the other way round—the more the soul relies on oneself, the more it asks: why should I worship God?
When the hardship comes, who do I expect help from? Do I have a spontaneous impulse to come to God, “despite” my being poor, knowing that I am in His hands anyway? Dire situations provoke me to ask: Do I rely in everything in my life on God or rather on myself? Do I always trust in my mind in God’s love, believing that God will guide me through it since He is God, or am I nervously looking for solutions on my own, just to grasp anything? Or the other way round: how do I react to success and good luck? Do I attribute everything to God and praise Him or only to myself?
Mary’s poverty in Magnificat: “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior’” (Lk 1:46‒47). Mary’s attitude shows that poverty brings joy and introduces the attitude of worship. This is the approach where you don’t depend on yourself regarding your possessions but join up only with God. It results in the powerful attraction of the soul towards God.
The struggle of standing up to evil: what does it consist in? It consists in being totally into God, not into material goods or your own failings. My value doesn’t depend on my possessions or success in life. If someone praises me, I still have the same value in the eyes of God. If someone criticizes me, I still have the same value in the eyes of God. If I fail, I still have the same value in the eyes of God. At this point, there may come the temptation to get discouraged, which we should be careful of. It can be overcome by the attitude of poverty. My true value is in God. The spirit of the world says: you have to cope on your own. And the faith says: do what you can do, but most of all, trust God.
Spiritual reading
“If we would possess Wisdom: 1. We must either give up actually our worldly possessions as did the apostles, the disciples and the first Christians, and as religious do now ‒ this is the quickest, the best and the surest means to possess Wisdom ‒ or at least we must detach our heart from material things, and possess them as though not possessing them, (cf 1 Cor 7:30) not eager to acquire more or being anxious to retain any of them, and not complaining or worrying when they are lost. This is something very difficult to accomplish. 2. We must not follow the showy fashions of the world in our dress, our furniture or our dwellings. Neither must we indulge in sumptuous meals or other worldly habits and ways of living. ‘Be not conformed to this world.’ (Rom 12:2) Putting this into practice is more necessary than is generally thought.”
St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 197‒198
Homework
I will ask Mary to teach me to rely solely and exclusively on God.
Prayer of consecration
I am all Yours, and all that I have is Yours, O most loving Christ, through Mary, Your most holy Mother. Amen!