Rags to Riches

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5.4

In his great essay, The Weight of Glory, CS Lewis says, “There are no ‘ordinary’ people.” Cultures and nations rise and fall but people, all people, will last forever. If Lewis is right – and I believe he is - then it is fair to say that all human beings, in all moments, at all times, are progressing down one of two paths: the path toward becoming, in his words, an “immortal horror” or an “everlasting splendor.”

But how do you know which path you are traversing? The path of corruption or the path of greatness?

Christ’s Sermon on the Mount offers a stunning outline of the path to spiritual greatness. It hallmarks, in chronological order, the characteristic virtues of those creatures that are progressing along this path…

The path begins with poverty – not necessarily literal poverty (though the two are often inextricably linked) - but poverty of spirit, that state of spiritual bankruptcy whereby an individual, that is, I come to recognize what is not only my lack of spiritual riches, but my absolute depravity of them. I realize I am destitute, not only of spiritual wealth, but of influence and honor; my abject poverty makes me powerless to achieve anything for myself. Instead I am in a condition which compels me to beg for alms, for charity, that is, love, agapos – the embodiment of which is Christ in the flesh.

Such poverty of spirit leads to a state of mourning. I mourn over my sin; an affliction I cannot, of myself, remove. Mourning leads, in turn, to meekness which is not only mildness of nature or disposition, but gentleness of spirit. In our culture, no doubt due to its connotation of passivity, meekness is seldom praised. However it is precisely this quality of spirit which produces a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness do so because they recognize their lack of the thing – in the same way that I hunger and thirst for food when my stomach is empty. Such people, because they are in tune with their own deficiencies, are, by necessity, apt to be merciful. Having been made dully aware of their own depravity, and consequently learned to look to God for the meeting of their needs, they are not motivated by a desire to use others. Thus they are not manipulative, but pure in heart.

Those who have – by Christ’s power – been set free from the compulsion to manipulate, control, and use others can, in turn, apply their freedom to making peace. They become peacemakers. And if, or – as likely happens – WHEN their efforts toward peacemaking fail, they are willing to be persecuted - to suffer insults and all manner of evils - for righteousness’s (that is, for Christ’s) sake.

In contrast, the inversion of this path highlights the qualities of those who are progressing toward a state of eternal corruption.

Rather than poverty, this path begins with a state of self-sufficiency akin to that which (presumably) possessed Eve in the moments before she succumbed to Satan’s lies. Those who are self-sufficient are often self-satisfied – they are, in the modern sense of the word, happy. They are getting what they want – that is, an endless measure of THEMSELVES.

Being self-sufficient or, as the expression goes, “full of themselves,” such people are often proud or superior. Rather than hungering or thirsting after righteousness, they often think they, themselves, are right. Consequently – how can it be otherwise? – they are unmerciful. For how can you exhibit mercy towards creatures who, at all times, fail to live up to your very high, very SELF-righteous standards?

Failing to demonstrate mercy toward others, such people often feel compelled to manipulate. They are highly skilled in the art of bending others’s wills to their own. Rather than making peace, they are makers of strife, contentious, quarrelsome. In the end, they are those who persecute, rather than those who are persecuted.

Ultimately, all human beings must arrive at one of two destinations. Those who go through life insisting on their own way and using others to get it must arrive at what is the height of spiritual bankruptcy, that is, damnation; whereas those who admit their weakness, surrender to God’s ways, and sacrifice themselves to serve others, must end in a state of spiritual riches. It is to them that Christ says," Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great” (Matt. 5.12).