10-28-20 - The Poor, the Sad and the Passive?

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Now here’s a recruitment slogan: “Calling all who are poor, all who are sad, all who are passive – I’m going to change the world with you!” These may not be the qualities we associate with leadership and success… and maybe Jesus is inviting us to reconsider our criteria for leadership. The men and women who were his closest followers were not the cream of society’s crop – Galilean fishermen, tax collectors, women with “reputations.” And yet we honor them and know their names 2000 years later.

The first three “beatitudes” deal with emotional conditions:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are the grief-stricken, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.'

What does “poor in spirit” mean? I think of it as being at a low ebb, our spiritual energy sapped by fatigue or sadness, fear or disappointment, our faith less than robust. I suspect most of us have felt poor in spirit. But we, Jesus promises, will inherit the fullness of God’s spiritual realm, the Life of God.

Similarly, most of us know what it’s like to mourn; for some, it seems to go on forever. But Jesus says we will be comforted, which doesn’t end the mourning, but can shift it into a different key, so that we manage to sing a new song even in grief.

Meekness may be the one attribute here that isn’t as common to us. I think of “meek” as passive, not pushy, not forwarding one’s own agenda. We associate “meek” with being a doormat. But I have heard that “meek” may not be the best translation of the Greek. In French that word is rendered “debonair.” That gives a different slant. As an essay I found online says, “Gone was Casper Milk Toast. Instead, my mental images were of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or of Gene Kelly, singing in the rain. I would so much rather be debonair than meek! The debonair are people who move with grace through life. They have style. Blessed are the debonair!”

The writer goes on to say that the Greek word can be translated ‘gentleness.’ "The word can refer to a strong animal such as a horse, who is well-trained and gentle in spirit, in spite of its strength. It can also mean the quality of being teachable — modest, generous, humble and considerate. In other words, those who are blessed are those who have strength, and yet use it with gentleness.”

I don’t know if you’re feeling debonair today, but I hope you have a sense of your strength and your gentleness, and know that God can work through us best when we combine the two. Perhaps that’s what it means to “inherit the earth” – to be fully participating in God’s mission in strength and gentleness. And when grief and dispiritedness are upon us, we might pray for more of the gentle power of the Spirit to fill us, to pump up our tires (the word for spirit is pneuma,after all…), to transform our mourning into joy.

In making these feelings markers of discipleship, Jesus honors our emotional truth and invites us to bring all of who we are each day into the fullness of our God-Life. And he offers hope for us when we’re not feeling so strong, reminding us, “This is not the end of your story.” He is the end of our story, and he will lead us there, as we follow.

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