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November 3, 2023Poor in Spirit, mournful, meek, seeking righteousness, merciful, clean of heart, and a peacemaker. These are the qualifications of a saint. They don’t sound terribly exciting, but they’re the exact opposite of the world wants us to desire.
The world tell us:
Why be poor in spirit when there are so many pleasures in life? If you can’t find someone to hook up with, there’s plenty of pornography to find for free. Are you stressed, anxious, overwhelmed? Go on vacation! Take some meds. Do yoga. You don’t have to feel down. There’s plenty of ways to lift your spirits.
Don’t mourn, mourning makes you sad. Don’t worry about death. If you work out and try the latest diet trends you won’t have to worry about death. Take these supplements, don’t drink tap water, go Vegan, then keto, then full freegan vegan. (That’s a Parks and Rec reference for those keeping score and paying attention) Mourning reminds us we’re going to die and no one in the world wants to think about death.
Meek? Do you mean poor? Who wants to be poor when you can have everything you want? If you work enough side hustles, get the right education, learn to negotiate well, take this course, sign up for this workshop, listen to this podcast you will learn how to get rich quick! Financial freedom is freedom. Who wants to be meek these days?
Seeking righteousness? Who determines what’s right and wrong? Do I have to pick a side? What if I find out I picked the wrong side? I can’t admit that I’m wrong. I think my only two options are to not care at all or to pick one political party and stubbornly support them no matter what. Those are my only options, right?
Merciful? I can get behind this as long as I’m not the one being offended or hurt.
Clean of heart? What does that even mean? I’m no prude. I’ll dress how I want, talk how I want, and do whatever I want. If you have a problem with that, then you’re the problem. Not me.
Peacemaker? How is that possible when I’ve cancelled all my enemies?
The world tricks us into desiring wealth, pleasure, power, and honor at all costs. The world manipulates us into isolating ourselves. The world wants to divorce us completely from God and the things of heaven.
If we want to be saints, then we need to desire the qualifications Jesus lays out.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” rejecting the worlds pleasures and training ourselves to seek what is lowly. “Blessed are those who mourn,” death and taxes are the only guarantees in life. We only get out of this world one way. To deny that fact and worse, ignore it, is a fool’s game. “Blessed are the meek,” there’s only one luggage rack on a hearse. We bring nothing from this world with us into the next, except the relationships we’ve formed. We waste precious time cultivating those relationships by chasing material things that will decay and be left behind when we die. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything. Seek the truth and stand up for it. Does that make us either a democrat or republican? No. We don’t worship donkeys or elephants, we worship the one true God who is the fullness of truth, beauty, and goodness. Seek the truth and stand up for it. “Blessed are the merciful,” I have another quote from scripture, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” “Blessed are the clean of heart,” chastity and purity are two different virtues, and neither are modeled well in mainstream media. We must not only teach these virtues to the world but we must teach by modeling them ourselves. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” if you’ve ever cancelled or blocked anyone in your life or on social media, tonight is the perfect night to be a peacemaker and unblock. Make peace.
The world has rejected the saints since Jesus. Saints follow these qualities as best they can and the world hates them for it. The world has hated the Catholic Church for centuries and will continue to hate us. We’re hated because we follow these virtues. We’re hated because we follow Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, but that’s ok, because “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
