Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."  (Mt 5: 1). Why did Jesus make this the first of the ten beatitudes?  Perhaps because it is the foundation for all the others, for without a clear idea of God's generosity and our dependence on him, the other beatitudes are unreachable;  they flow from the acceptance of our basic emptiness.  When we fully realize that ALL is gift, then we are ready to face grief, to be merciful, to be righteous, to be pure of heart, to be peacemakers and even to suffer persecution. To fully integrate the beatitudes into our lives, we need to "BE brothers" (or sisters) as our Superior General, Br. Emili Turu,  put it in a recent interview.  The emphasis is on BEING, which cannot happen unless we are "mystics", contemplatives, that is people of prayer, even in the midst of our busyness.  Living the beatitudes, we become prophets; prophets are mystics, mystics are prophets...that is, people who bring the God dimension to all they do and to all whom they encounter, says Br. Emili (and many other spiritual writers). So, today let us focus on our basic poverty..."naked came we into this world, naked shall we leave it". The things we have, the talents we've developed, are here for our use to build up the Kingdom of God.  We've heard over and over again, "You can't take it with you," so by all means let us thank God for what we have and share it willingly and generously and thus grow gradually into the other beatitudes."Blessed are the poor in spirit."  Lord make me poor in spirit.
Bro. Rene