|
| |
|
POOR IN SPIRIT – A HOLE IN THE
SOUL?
By Mary Ann Archer, Spiritual Director
In reading over
the beatitudes this morning I wondered, as I have for years, what Jesus could mean by all
the ways he says people are blessed. As I share some thoughts that came to me, I
encourage you to see if these ideas resonate with you or not – a process we practice
in the spiritual direction group as we ‘talk across the circle’. If these
thoughts resonate with you – wonderful. If not, feel free to set them aside.
It came to me that all
of the ‘blessed’ qualities Jesus speaks about have to do with an open heart, a
hole in the soul, so to speak. Could being poor in spirit mean a stance
towards God that acknowledges one’s own spiritual poverty in front of God’s
overwhelming richness in spirit? Could being poor in spirit mean that we approach
God knowing that we are, even at our most uplifted, caring, loving, and connected, small
and needy in spirit compared to God? I’m not advocating a false humility, but
rather the idea that all of us have our own wonderful measure of Spirit, but none of us
has all the Spirit.
Perhaps being those who
mourn might mean that we always are longing to see, feel, and understand more and more of
God’s Spirit; and that we will be comforted, as we are filled up more and more in all
the mysterious ways that the Spirit works within us.
Could being meek mean
that, as we become more open to the Spirit, we long to ‘make things right’, we
‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’, but we see how small one person’s
efforts can be? While we long to ‘fix things’ - make things right, heal
hurts, overturn injustices, spread love to the unloved – we mourn our own smallness
and what small differences one person can make. Again we are called to make an
opening for God, both to inspire our hearts and to work with our actions.
Behaving mercifully
seems to be Jesus’ recommended mode for us. We need to be merciful first to
ourselves - remembering that God is always merciful towards both our inner and outer
failings. We are then called to reflect, as does a mirror, that blazing light of mercy
towards others. Perhaps continuing to gaze on the dazzling brightness of God’s
mercy towards us can help us become more and more ‘pure in spirit’,
burning away our misguided notions, prejudices, hurts, fears, hatreds, no-longer-valid
motivations, guilt, shame, and blaming.
Jesus also recommends
becoming ‘peacemakers’. Making an opening for God in our hearts (through
silence, prayer, reading, pondering, group work, and/or actions) can help us feel
God’s peace even towards those parts of ourselves we dislike and fear. Then
perhaps we can stretch out in peace to the ‘other’ - those persons who are not
like us and whom we night not even like - people of other religions, nations, political
views, life styles. It may be harder for us to extend peace towards these
‘others’, but again, that hole in the soul, that neediness before God can
help.
When we extend that
peace to our own previously ‘unlikable people’ we may be reviled for our
attitudes and actions. But this type of world, where ‘holey-souled people’
courageously open themselves to God’s Spirit and then to each other may actually be
the kingdom of heaven that Jesus preached so much about.
Against the current
climate of ‘religious certainty’ by many world religions, I recommend an
alternative –a hole in the soul -a neediness of spirit which, like a vacuum, must
open us to God’s love towards us, and then opens us to God’s call to embrace
surprising new ideas, attitudes, and people.
Perhaps we are called
to become ‘holey’!
|
|
