“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is the first of the Beatitudes that Matthew relates to us – Luke’s is the only other Gospel with Beatitudes and he modifies this to “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Many, if not most, commentators like Luke’s version because “poor in spirit” presents some interpretive problems – shouldn’t we be rich in spirit? “Blessed are the poor” just claims that the economically disadvantaged or the currently oppressed will be rewarded later. This can be an attractive sentiment but it doesn’t make a sound syllogism – there is no reason why your economic status should automatically convert into your heavenly status.
The most common interpretation for Matthew is that “poor” should be replaced with “humble” giving you “humble of spirit.” But poverty and humility are not the same, even if they are related. Many religious orders take vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, AND humility. If humility and poverty were synonyms you wouldn’t need both words.
Bryan Stevenson argues in Just Mercy that a way of understanding poverty is that it is the “absence of choices.” The poorer you are; the fewer choices you have; and simple reflection confirms that – fewer places to live, shop, see doctors, etc. Jesuit Father Greg Boyle makes a similar argument in Tattoos on the Heart. Consider for a moment that what we aspire to do through Catholic education is increase a student’s choices—this is a central way that we “enrich” them.
Trevor Noah in Born a Crime – a remarkable story of life in South Africa during apartheid – explains that as he began to have success: “For the first time in my life I had money, and it was the most liberating thing in the world. The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are; the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.”
If poverty is a “lack of choices,” then could the poor in spirit be those who can ONLY choose the things that lead them to the kingdom of heaven? This is a fascinating and curious paradox – the reason the poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of heaven is because they cannot do otherwise. Let’s try this paradox on what we will call the “poverty of power” or “blessed are the poor in intellect.”
In Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, a young man – like many adolescents – is convinced of his own power and immortality; he is intently and inappropriately competitive (he competes with others – not to be his best self); he is smart and even precocious, prone to letting his emotions control him. He is unable or unwilling to understand the consequences of his actions; he is extremely individualistic with little thought given to the community responsibility.
So, he is a more-or-less normal adolescent. He thinks at the beginning of his training, for example, that, "surely a wizard was powerful enough to do as he pleased." How many adolescents think that being an adult will mean that they can do whatever they want? Recast that sentence as “surely an adult can do as he or she pleases” and we adults recognize the absurdity of that.
The young wizard thinks only to use power for a limitless freedom. It takes him some time and much pain to learn that, "…the truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do...." Let that settle upon us for a minute – the wider your knowledge grows; the range of choices of what to do actually grows smaller – because you can only make the correct choice.
Pop culture fans will almost certainly recognize this in Doctor Strange’s actions in Avengers: Infinity War. Dr. Strange calculates that of 14 million possible outcomes only one leads to the possible destruction of the villain Thanos – and then Dr. Strange seemingly does the inexplicable in giving more power to Thanos and then gives up his own life. But, he knows there is ONLY ONE way possible to win – so he chooses it (even if incomprehensible to us); or, should we say, the way chooses him.
Oh, to have such “poverty of intellect” where the perfect thing, the “right” thing is always present to you! This is certainly why Jesus makes the choice he does, to die on a cross – his “poverty of intellect” means that since he knows everything that he can only choose the right thing.
So maybe this is how poverty of spirit functions – you choose it but, once you do, your other choices get fewer and fewer; you are gratified by doing the things you have to do and doing them as well as possible.
Once you see the naked, the thirsty, the hungry, the prisoner, the sick – then those who are poor of spirit actually do not have a choice – we should hope and pray for this paradoxical poverty of spirit – and I have to say that I witness this in so many teachers each day.
I’d like to think that the “poor of intellect” doesn’t have a choice either, but you could know the right thing and not do it – that’s why the poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom – they WILL do the right thing.
Let’s pray then, in this season and all seasons, for a poverty of spirit that will only allow us to do the right thing.
(Daniel McMahon Ph.D., is in his 23rd year as the principal of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, where he also teaches World Literature.)
