Newspaper Columns by The Rev. Canon Bill Lewellis
Blessed are the Poor?
By Bill Lewellis
Express-Times Spiritual Journeys Column for Friday, Dec. 1, 2000
The Gospel according to Matthew contains nine beatitudes (5: 1-12): two sets of four, then one more.
Like me, you may once have heard the first set of four -- blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness -- as exhortations, i.e., be poor in spirit, mourn, be meek, do hunger and thirst for justice... and God will reward you.
I now hear these differently. They are about the dispossessed, the miserable, the walked on, the powerless, those who have no reason for hope in this world. The promise held out is that, in God's reality, there will be a reversal. When God rules -- your kingdom come, your will be done -- all this will change and things will be set right.
The second set of four addresses the good hearts and good works of those who try even now, in our so-called "real world," to reverse the conditions described in the first set of four.
They address the merciful, the pure in heart, peacemakers... those who know that in God's reality no one is poor in spirit, no one mourns, no one is stepped on, no one is denied the good things of God. They address those dedicated to restoring the good things people in the first set of four have not experienced because "the real world" has come between them and God's reality for them.
In the ninth beatitude Jesus speaks to you and me. We are told that, if we seek God's reality for those denied it, we too may end up in this world in the position of those lacking it.
I hear Jesus say in effect: Don't let others tell you what is real. Don't let anyone de-fine and re-duce reality for you. Don't allow anyone to imprison you in that most secure prison without walls, the prison you don't know you're in. Imagine the reality of God. Imagine what is really real. See things differently. Magnify the Lord. See God large in your life. Look deeply into your soul and find God's holiness within - and allow God within to transform you and the world through you.
Jesus challenges us to dream. As we pray, he draws the dream from deep within us. For to pray is to dream, to hope, to expect, to imagine. Whether worshiping with a community, reading alone, reflecting on the bible, considering a personal experience, a story or a movie, we can be at prayer.
"Only the contemplative," Thomas Merton used to say, only the pray-er "knows what the scoop is." Only the pray-er knows that the really real is God breaking into human history -- God breaking through our prejudices and preferred notions with discomforting questions about poor and powerless persons, about justice and peace, about personal and systemic transformation -- God breaking into human history so we might break out with new God given hearts to pursue God's reality, God's heart's desires.
Bill Lewellis, Communication Minister/Editor, Diocese of Bethlehem 333 Wyandotte Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015 -- 610-691-5655 x229
Be attentive. Be intelligent. Be reasonable. Be responsible. Be in love. And, if necessary, change. --Bernard Lonergan
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