Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit

Blessed are the poor in spirit.*  If we are poor this way, God lives in us.  God is all we need, and we have all we need.  Satisfied, we rest content and glory in our littleness, since through it God is glorified.  

Today at Mass we heard the testimony of Job.  As we well know, Job had lost everything.  As we are less aware, Job was dwelling in that place of confidence in God, even in the midst of disaster.  

Job seemed to have nothing.  Having lost all that could be seen, Job faced the most fundamental choice.  Embracing his nothingness, his inability to help himself, Job expressed his assurance as he adored God.  

Sure of who God is, Job proclaimed, "I know my Redeemer lives."**  Even in the midst of what seems to be total loss, Job declared his unshaken faith in God.  

Today at Mass, Father Cyprian said that Job lived in spiritual poverty, just as did Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate today.  Both realized in darkness, we are blessed if we are poor in spirit.  

For months at the end of her life, Saint Therese of Lisieux related the darkness that mocked her, telling her after death it would be still darker.  Yet Therese, in her littleness, went on in faith in God.  

God calls us to embrace our littleness.  Therese went further, writing, "What pleases Him is that He sees me loving littleness and poverty."***  As we find ourselves poor, we can love how we must rely on Him.  

If we love how God made us, poor and little, we embrace the will of God.  If we welcome what others might see as only tragic events, we can ever more become the children trusting in God He made us to be.  

In the midst of the coronavirus, beset by fire, we can accept what our present circumstances have to teach us.  Like little children, we can trust that Our Father is loving us, since He is love.****  

* Matthew 5:3 

** Job 19:25 

*** "The Story Of A Soul," Saint Therese of Lisieux.   

**** 1 John 4:8,16 

Enjoying The Lyrid Meteor Shower Under Humbling Monastic Skies

Last night the Lyrid meteor shower was expected to peak around 10:30 p.m.  A little after 10 p.m., I headed out of my cell to see if I could spot any shooting stars.  As I was closing the gate to the garden of my cell, I looked up and saw a meteor streaking across the sky.  Given the narrow bit of sky that's in range of sight from that path between the rows of monastic cells, I figured something like, "Wow, if I saw one right away, in that small bit of sky, maybe there are a lot of them."  

I continued and went off the path, and in the direction of the driveway.  After a couple hundred feet, I stopped and looked up.  The sky was quite clear.  As I was standing there facing the firmament, I considered that we're tiny human beings, on only one planet, orbiting a relatively small star amidst hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, amongst hundreds of billions of galaxies.  Recalling our insignificance, the challenges we face are brought into perspective.

Witnessing the unfathomably large expanse above, I witnessed a meteor racing through the darkness.  As is the case the vast majority of the time, it streaked out and disappeared.  However, it called to mind a previous instance when I was watching a meteor shower and a dot suddenly appeared, not moving, but getting much brighter, and then suddenly winking out.  Back then I realized that what I had seen was a meteor heading right at me.

Recalling that memory of merciful deliverance from utter annihilation, once again I received several nourishing reminders.  Whatever we are presently enduring, it could be worse.  Right now the coronavirus threatens our physical health, is killing some of us, putting others of us in intensive care units, depriving us of financial income, and restricting us from traveling.  Yet, thanks be to God, a giant meteor has not hurtled into our atmosphere and wreaked widespread carnage.  Earlier this year there were multiple instances when very large meteors came relatively close to us but sped by with no physical impacts.

However, if we so choose, we can let these reminders of our littleness, fragility and precariousness have significant spiritual impacts upon us.  We can welcome these messengers from the wider realm of the universe so that they may teach us humility.  If they help us to be humble, then we can take a further step and turn toward God.  If we meditate on these matters, we can come to find that, in the midst of what we currently see as misfortune, we have limitless reason to thank, adore and praise God.  Amen.