Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit

For me there is nothing more powerful then reading and meditating on the beatitudes. Today we read in the Gospel “The Beatitudes,” the beginning of the first of five discourses that Jesus presents in the Gospel of Matthew. The first discourse lasts for three full chapters. There is much food for thought in those three chapters normally called “The Sermon on the Mount” but it is significant that Jesus starts with the beatitudes. They are essential to the theme that Matthew presents throughout his Gospel. They are teachings that give us practical guidance as we seek to live a life faithful to the Gospel.

When I prepare for a homily I have at least fifty Biblical Commentary sources at home that I can use as well as the multitude of references that you find on the internet. Because I can get overwhelmed with all the various interpretations, plus the time element, I usually only use four or five sources. One that is my favorite that I know that will always give me food for thought is from “The Daily Bible Study Series” by William Barclay. He is a Protestant minister from Scotland who died in 1978 and the books were written in 1956. Usually, he has one, two or three pages of commentary on each passage or story in the Bible. For today’s reading he has 36 pages of commentary of which I’ve underline three fourths of it over the years because it has so much meat in it.

Instead of reflecting on all the beatitudes, there is plenty to talk about in the first one, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”


The Beatitudes are not simply statements; they are exclamations! In the original Greek there was no verb after blessed which means that the beatitudes are not pious hopes of what shall be – they are radical teachings of Jesus on what is. The blessedness which belongs to us is not a blessedness which is postponed to some future world of glory. It is a blessedness which exists here and now. The final fulfillment is when we meet God face to face, but the emphasis is that we have all these blessing right here and now. We are truly blessed with many blessings in life and we need to be grateful for them. Robert Schuller in his excellent book “The Be Happy Attitudes” gives some wonderful examples of how each of the beatitudes can play out in a positive way in our lives if you are interested in additional reading.

It is interesting that Matthew starts talking about happiness (blessed means happy) by saying “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The word used for poor is ptochos, which does not mean just poor. It means absolute and abject poverty, or a person so poor and helpless that they have to put their whole trust in God. So according to Barclay, the beginning of the first beatitude might read, “Blessed the person who has realized their own utter helplessness and who has put their whole trust in God.”
If a person has realized their own utter helplessness, and puts their whole trust in God, they will enter into their life realizing two things – that they must become completely detached from “things,” knowing that God alone can bring help, hope, strength, and happiness. The person who is poor in spirit realizes that things mean nothing, and that God means everything. The poverty which is blessed is the poverty of spirit, when a person realizes their own lack of resources to meet life, and finds their help and strength only in God.

We are blessed “For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” What is the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is talking about? It is the heaven here on earth – the here and now – as well as in heaven which we strive for in eternity. As the “Our Father” says, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Deacon Greg Beckel