“Stuff” is not bad, but blessed are the poor in spirit
To be fully alive, we must have a “setting.” We do not exist as personalities in our bodies alone; our personality is expressed and fulfilled through its extensions: creative work, relationships, home, family, traditions, culture. Our “stuff” is part of our self-expression.
But “stuff” can enslave. The things that compose our setting can become (deliberately or unconsciously) an encircling wall rather than an enlargement of personality. This is why the Church (wise with the Wisdom of the Spirit) upholds the right to property while preaching the virtue and value of poverty of spirit.
We are to be detached from things, though things are necessary. This detachment means not clinging to the good things God gives us to use as well as not running from the bad things that come our way. The goal is true poverty of spirit, not because “stuff” is bad but because true freedom is only to be had by those who are poor in spirit.
The poverty of the Holy Family is their complete independence from all that the world considers valuable and important. They had nothing. What little they were given, they accepted with gratitude. When they were asked to surrender it, they did so willingly and joyously. I think of the immediate flight into Egypt at the prompting of an angel. They were ready to let go of everything, even a sense of place, a sense of belonging, and flee to a foreign (and pagan) land, without questions, in the middle of the night. True poverty of spirit.
Most of us are not called to give everything away and live on charity – we are all spiritual mendicants, not actual ones! But it isn’t the occasional dramatic renunciations God looks for, but daily attention to His will in little things. If we are detached from things, detached even from our own ideas about how things will go, we can let go without despair or resentment, accepting all as the will of God.
We can maintain this detachment by remembering to be grateful each day for all that we have, accepting what is not good out of love and obedience. Then we begin to see things in His light, to discern His will in all things.
Every evening, we should thank Him for the gift of our life, for every gift of nature and grace, every situation and circumstance in our lives, every person He has placed in our lives. And then we should surrender all back to Him.
Blessed are they who are poor in spirit; theirs is the Kingdom of God.
