4th Sunday in O.T. (year A)

(Mt 5:1-12a)

Matthew 5:3 «Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven».

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Thus begins the first beatitude, the most important one, because it is placed first by Matthew. Let us first note the word 'blessed'. If we were to say to a poor person, 'blessed are you who are poor', we would be insulting them. We usually say, 'blessed are the rich'. Jesus' beatitudes are the exact opposite of what we think; they are words that radically overturn all earthly criteria. There is a truly subversive force in the beatitudes.

There is an imbalance of power between wealth and poverty, to the detriment of the poor, who are crushed by the greed and pride of the rich. In Jesus' message, poverty acquires a new dignity, unknown until then. Jesus came to restore dignity to humanity. In fact, for Jesus, it is necessary to free oneself from attachment to earthly goods in order to fully embrace his cause, which leads man to a higher and more fulfilled level of life. But this first level of material poverty is not enough. For Jesus, a further step is needed: to strip oneself of one's own way of thinking and seeing things, in order to take on that of God; it is necessary to place oneself on God's side and see things from his perspective.

There is a qualitative leap: from material poverty to inner poverty. Material poverty is not enough to inherit the kingdom, but must be rooted in the very heart of man. This is why Matthew says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit'. Literally, poor in spirit can mean lacking in spirit, but Jesus cannot proclaim someone who is lacking in spirit to be happy.

The expression poor in spirit comes from Isaiah 66:2, whose Hebrew text says: 'ānî ûnekēh rûaḥ, 'This is the one I will look upon: the one who is poor and contrite in spirit'. The term 'ānî (poor) is related to 'ānāw (humble). In the LXX, it is often rendered as ptōchòs, which indicates the poverty of the beggar, forced to lower himself, to bow down, that is, to humble himself in order to survive. This conception of poverty will establish itself as a positive value especially after the Babylonian exile. The poor come to designate the humble, pious, God-fearing man. The 'ānāwîm, who turn to God in prayer and with faith, are poor people who belong to the lowest social classes. Despised and oppressed, they place their trust and security in God. They look to him alone for protection and help, with an inner attitude of humility and filial dependence.

Therefore, blessed poverty does not refer to a social situation, but rather implies trust in divine protection; it primarily refers to a spiritual attitude towards God. The poor in spirit are those who consider themselves beggars before God, who know that they cannot force the coming of the kingdom of heaven, but that it must be God who grants it to them.

Blessedness is now; it does not need to wait for the end of time. The verb in the phrase 'the kingdom of heaven is theirs' is in the present tense. That is, the kingdom is already theirs. And the kingdom of God is wealth. It is the realisation of the new world. Already now. The kingdom of heaven is not simply the afterlife. You suffer here, but you will be fine in the afterlife. No, the kingdom of heaven is God reigning over his own. Jesus does not say that the kingdom of heaven 'will be' theirs, he does not make a promise for the future, but says that it 'is' theirs, in the present.

Another thing should also be noted: Jesus does not speak in the singular, but in the plural. Jesus came to change human society. For this reason, it is not so much the gesture of the individual that is needed, but rather a community that radically changes its way of acting. This is the importance of the Church as a community.

To summarise, the poor are indeed those who lack riches, but 'in spirit' is added to show that it is not poverty itself that is acceptable to God, but that poverty which involves a detachment of the heart from worldly things, because those who are attached to worldly things are not willing to share them with their brothers and sisters. The poor in spirit are naturally also those who bear their poverty with patience, and all those who do not place their happiness in the accumulation of treasures. Jesus thus destroys the Jewish idea of a messianic kingdom founded on earthly power, and shows how detachment from riches is the first condition for sharing in the kingdom of heaven.

I understand that these words are difficult to understand and to live by: may the Lord grant us this. All the other beatitudes spring from the first. All the other seven beatitudes are nothing more than variations on the theme of poverty.

For example: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted'. Here too there is the present beatitude: now you are blessed. Not because you are afflicted, but because you are comforted, just as the poor are blessed not because they are poor, but because the kingdom is theirs. The Lord comforts the afflicted. Comfort is a characteristic of God who does not leave the afflicted alone. The afflicted are those who suffer on earth because of human injustice. Every injustice always generates affliction. The greater the injustice, the greater the affliction.

It is interesting that blessedness is now in the present, but consolation is in the future. So what is there between the present and the future? There is the path to consolation. The positive meaning of history is that we will pass from affliction to consolation. On this path, the afflicted must live their affliction in holiness. Affliction is lived in holiness in only one way: by offering it to the Lord as a gift for the salvation of the world. Looking at Christ crucified, everyone can know who the truly afflicted are. Looking at Christ risen, everyone knows the greatness of God's consolations.

Let us look at it from another point of view. Have you ever seen a cheerful person being consoled? I never have! If he is cheerful, how can he be consoled? Divine bliss is a consolation for those who are afflicted, not for those who are cheerful. For there to be consolation, the person being consoled must be afflicted.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St. Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)

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Argentino Quintavalle

Argentino Quintavalle è studioso biblico ed esperto in Protestantesimo e Giudaismo. Autore del libro “Apocalisse - commento esegetico” (disponibile su Amazon) e specializzato in catechesi per protestanti che desiderano tornare nella Chiesa Cattolica.

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Familiarity at the human level makes it difficult to go beyond this in order to be open to the divine dimension. That this son of a carpenter was the Son of God was hard for them to believe. Jesus actually takes as an example the experience of the prophets of Israel, who in their own homeland were an object of contempt, and identifies himself with them (Pope Benedict)

La familiarità sul piano umano rende difficile andare al di là e aprirsi alla dimensione divina. Che questo Figlio di un falegname sia Figlio di Dio è difficile crederlo per loro. Gesù stesso porta come esempio l’esperienza dei profeti d’Israele, che proprio nella loro patria erano stati oggetto di disprezzo, e si identifica con essi (Papa Benedetto)

These two episodes — a healing and a resurrection — share one core: faith. The message is clear, and it can be summed up in one question: do we believe that Jesus can heal us and can raise us from the dead? The entire Gospel is written in the light of this faith: Jesus is risen, He has conquered death, and by his victory we too will rise again. This faith, which for the first Christians was sure, can tarnish and become uncertain… (Pope Francis)

The ability to be amazed at things around us promotes religious experience and makes the encounter with the Lord more fruitful. On the contrary, the inability to marvel makes us indifferent and widens the gap between the journey of faith and daily life (Pope Francis)

La capacità di stupirsi delle cose che ci circondano favorisce l’esperienza religiosa e rende fecondo l’incontro con il Signore. Al contrario, l’incapacità di stupirci rende indifferenti e allarga le distanze tra il cammino di fede e la vita di ogni giorno (Papa Francesco)

An ancient hermit says: “The Beatitudes are gifts of God and we must say a great ‘thank you’ to him for them and for the rewards that derive from them, namely the Kingdom of God in the century to come and consolation here; the fullness of every good and mercy on God’s part … once we have become images of Christ on earth” (Peter of Damascus) [Pope Benedict]

Afferma un antico eremita: «Le Beatitudini sono doni di Dio, e dobbiamo rendergli grandi grazie per esse e per le ricompense che ne derivano, cioè il Regno dei Cieli nel secolo futuro, la consolazione qui, la pienezza di ogni bene e misericordia da parte di Dio … una volta che si sia divenuti immagine del Cristo sulla terra» (Pietro di Damasco) [Papa Benedetto]

And quite often we too, beaten by the trials of life, have cried out to the Lord: “Why do you remain silent and do nothing for me?”. Especially when it seems we are sinking, because love or the project in which we had laid great hopes disappears (Pope Francis)

E tante volte anche noi, assaliti dalle prove della vita, abbiamo gridato al Signore: “Perché resti in silenzio e non fai nulla per me?”. Soprattutto quando ci sembra di affondare, perché l’amore o il progetto nel quale avevamo riposto grandi speranze svanisce (Papa Francesco)

The Kingdom of God grows here on earth, in the history of humanity, by virtue of an initial sowing, that is, of a foundation, which comes from God, and of a mysterious work of God himself (John Paul II)

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