I have thought about the first beatitude, it’s an indecency. Here it is:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3, 12
I don’t know what is taught in catechism today, but for me the “poor in spirit” are a well precise kind of people: the ignorant persons. The first beatitude is a praise of ignorance.
Does the catechism interpret the “poor of spirit” like “humble”? It’s worse! Here, humility means an only thing: total enslavement to God; prohibition to set questions; “to behead yourself” and to put every hope and responsibility in the Almighty. In short: to voluntarily stop thinking.
This is a perspective so distant from those of Saints-philosophers (Agostino, Thomas Aquinas etc.) who, with theirs continuous to ask and confess themselves, tested and tried the own themselves faith, who putted in crisis the own themselves religion and imposed her a renewal, who challenged the themselves own God with the Reason.
This monotheism is strong for this reason: it favors the insane need of sloth in human beings.
2 Comments
On what basis do you conclude that being “poor in spirit” is the same as being lazy? Was Jesus lazy, and do you think the Saint-philosophers were more diligent than Him? He would spend his time surrounded by crowds of people. He would heal thousands individually. He chose to be crucified. That is not sloth.
Were Jesus’ followers lazy? No! Some of them, after struggling and failing to get through the crowd to see Jesus, lowered their paralyzed friend through a roof (Luke 5:19). Another, Zacchaeus, humiliated himself by climbing a tree because he was too short to see over the crowds (Luke 9:3-4). No, Jesus did not reward laziness!
You contradict yourself again by saying that Christianity is to stop thinking. Did the Saint-philosophers stop thinking? Did the Apostle Paul stop thinking? Did Peter stop thinking after Jesus died? And even this reply, does this sound like the brainless response of someone who has stopped thinking?
Your accusations are baseless. You would do well to consider your words more carefully before you start telling the world (i.e., Digg).
Being poor in spirit probably means that someone finally has enough humility to accept that God has answers that they do not have. People spend all their lives thinking that they know better than God. It’s like a person with cancer who thinks they know better than their doctor. They think drinking plenty of water and getting exercise is all it takes to cure their cancer when the doctor insists that other treatments are necessary. It’s like a kid who keeps disobeying their parents, thinking they know better, only to find out years later that their mom and dad were right all along. That kind of humility is being poor in spirit.
Hi Adam!
First of all, I thank you for your important comment.
You say that my accusations are baseless, that I would to consider words more carefully…but I think that you don’t understand who and what I am really accusing! Perhaps, it’s guilt of my bad english?
When I talk about “ignorance”, I refer to those people (that are the majority of the believers!) who stop thinking to the important questions about their life. I refer to those people who believe in all that is said to them.
These people believe in the original sin when, if they thought with their own head, they would understand that children haven’t any sin!
These people believe in the soul’s resurrection after the mortal life. But if they really thought, they would understand that the “resurrection” doesn’t exist. It exists only for the zombie!
These people believe in the immaculate conception of Jesus by Mary. But if they really thought, they would understand that the only way to give birth to a child is through the sexual relation.
These people believe in miracles: Jesus has heal people, has turned water into wine, has walked on the water, etc. But this isn’t religion, this is magic! For these people, Jesus is like David Copperfield!
I could continue, but I am sure that you have understood the concept.
For me, these people are the “poor in spirit”.
Who are, instead, the rich in spirit?
In a few words: the rich in spirit are those people that don’t believe in something only because it’s written on a book.
If someone believe that what is written on the New Testament corresponds to truth, this one has to believe the same for what is written on the Old Testament: he has to believe in Adam and Eve, in the tried omicide of Isaac from Abraham on order of God, in the many maledictions to Jewish like this one:
You says:
I respond that a God that we have invented could not have answers that we don’t have.
Our points of view are so distant, but I hope that you understood mine.
Thanks again and best regards,
Giovanni