The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 2
Second Day
FIRST BEATITUDE
To be poor in spirit. — Matt. v. 3.
WE come now to detail; and Jesus Christ ' begins thus : ‘ Blessed are the poor in spirit.’ He means here not only the poor by choice — those who have left all things to follow Him, and to whom He has promised a hundredfold in this world and life everlasting in the next — but all whose hearts are detached from earthly goods. He means both those who are bearing actual poverty without murmuring or impatience, and the rich who hold their possessions without the spirit of riches : — that is, without the love of display, the pride, the injustice, and the insatiable craving to get everything for themselves which constitute this spirit. Eternal happiness, under the majestic title of 'kingdom,’ belongs to all these — and for a special reason. The particular evil of poverty on earth is to make people contemptible, weak, and impotent; and hence happiness is promised in this magnificent form as the corresponding indemnification for this lowliness : — 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven?
At the word ' blessed ’ the heart swells with joy; when 'poverty ’ is named it contracts; but it expands afresh at the sound of 'kingdom' still more when it is the ' Kingdom of Heaven.’ For who would not suffer for the sake of such a kingdom : a realm to be enjoyed in company with God Himself, and inseparably from Him: — eternal, spiritual, abounding in all things, and whence all trouble is banished for ever?
O Lord, I offer Thee everything — I give up everything — that I may share in such a realm! May I only be sufficiently stripped of all other goods to hope for it! In heart and mind 1 deprive myself of them all; and when it shall be Thy will to deprive me actually, I submit to Thee.
All Christians are under this obligation; but the humble Religious must go further, and must actually rejoice in being despoiled of all things, dead to the world, and incapable of holding possessions. O happy deprivation, which gives God in return!