{"id":98553,"date":"2023-02-06T00:12:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T07:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=98553"},"modified":"2023-02-07T01:18:46","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T08:18:46","slug":"blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/02\/blessed-are-the-poor-in-spirit.html","title":{"rendered":"“Blessed are the poor in spirit”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
We\u2019ve attended the Kona Hawaii Temple before, but we weren\u2019t able to work in a session on this trip. Next best:\u00a0 We attended sacrament meeting in the very large Latter-day Saint chapel that stands just below the temple, roughly just behind where the person who took this photograph must have been standing.\u00a0 (Photograph from LDS Media Library.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Herewith, a brief set of preliminary notes toward a chapter in my projected book on the Beatitudes:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit,\u201d reads the first of the Beatitudes (in Matthew 5:3 of the King James Version), \u201cfor theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the way, please note that the phrase \u201cfor theirs is the kingdom of heaven\u201d also occurs at Matthew 5:10, which, by the traditional reckoning (with which I agree), is the last of the eight Beatitudes.\u00a0 It is significant, I think, that the Beatitudes begin and end with the promised reward of \u201cthe kingdom of heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice, too, that the phrase \u201cpoor in spirit\u201d seems to refer to a good thing, not to depression or self-deprecation but rather, perhaps, to a sense of humble dependence.\u00a0 To, as Gerhard Kittel\u2019s great (and massive) Theological Dictionary of the New Testament <\/em>puts it, \u201cthe self-awareness . . . of poverty of spirit and perhaps of longing for the [Holy Ghost]\u201d[i]<\/a><\/p>\n

Consider William Ernest Henley\u2019s justly famous poem \u201cInvictus,\u201d which apparently inspired Nelson Mandela during his long imprisonment under the South African apartheid regime and, accordingly, provided the title for Clint Eastwood\u2019s great 2009 film about Mandela, which starred Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon:<\/p>\n

\n
Out of the night that covers me,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Black as the pit from pole to pole,<\/div>\n
I thank whatever gods may be<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For my unconquerable soul.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In the fell clutch of circumstance<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have not winced nor cried aloud.<\/div>\n
Under the bludgeonings of chance<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My head is bloody, but unbowed.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Beyond this place of wrath and tears<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Looms but the Horror of the shade,<\/div>\n
And yet the menace of the years<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Finds and shall find me unafraid.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It matters not how strait the gate,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How charged with punishments the scroll,<\/div>\n
I am the master of my fate,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I am the captain of my soul.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is much to be said for the thought expressed in \u201cInvictus,\u201d for resolution and endurance and determination.\u00a0 But there is another important perspective that must be kept in mind:\u00a0 Elder Orson F. Whitney, who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> from 1906 to 1931, responded to Henley\u2019s famous poem with his own verse, which he titled \u201cThe Soul\u2019s Captain.\u201d\u00a0 He is responding, of course, to Henley\u2019s stirring declaration \u201cI am the captain of my soul\u201d:<\/p>\n

Art thou in truth?
\nThen what of him who bought thee with his blood?
\nWho plunged into devouring seas
\nAnd snatched thee from the flood<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who bore for all our fallen race
\nWhat none but him could bear\u2013
\nThe God who died that man might live
\nAnd endless glory share.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of what avail thy vaunted strength
\nApart from his vast might?
\nPray that his light may pierce the gloom
\nThat thou mayest see aright.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Men are as bubbles on the wave,
\nAs leaves upon the tree,
\nThou, captain of thy soul! Forsooth,
\nWho gave that place to thee?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Free will is thine\u2013free agency,
\nTo wield for right or wrong;
\nBut thou must answer unto him
\nTo whom all souls belong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bend to the dust that \u201chead unbowed\u201d,
\nSmall part of life\u2019s great whole,
\nAnd see in him and him alone,
\nThe captain of thy soul.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Surely, \u201cblessed are the poor in spirit\u201d is a warning against\u00a0hubris<\/em>, against undue pride and arrogance.<\/p>\n

But it is not enough merely to recognize that one is, in and of oneself, inadequate.\u00a0 There are plenty of ersatz<\/em> substitutes that would like to step in and fill a perceived spiritual void.\u00a0 Some of them are religious, but many are not.\u00a0 A great many of our contemporaries \u2014 and, let\u2019s be honest, we ourselves more often than we would like to admit \u2014 try to find solace or significance in material things, in the pleasures of food and sex, in power, in sheer speed, and\/or in the thoughtless, reckless pursuit of sensation.\u00a0 In the words of T. S. Eliot\u2019s \u201cFour Quartets,\u201d we are \u201cdistracted from distraction by distraction.\u201d\u00a0 (T. S. Eliot, \u201cBurnt Norton,\u201d iii.12).\u00a0 C. S. Lewis observed that,<\/p>\n

[I]f we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.[ii]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is instructive to compare to Matthew 5:3 the equivalent passage in the \u201cSermon at the Temple,\u201d as it is recorded at 3 Nephi 12:3:<\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me<\/em>, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 (emphasis mine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thought is very closely related, I think, to that expressed at the very end of the fourth century A.D. by St. Augustine, in the opening paragraph of his Confessions<\/em>.\u00a0 He is directly addressing God:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur heart is restless until it rests in thee.\u201d \u2014 Augustine[iii]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a>\u00a0 Bammel, \u201c\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2,\u201d in Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament<\/em>, 6:904, note 171.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 1-2.<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 Augustine, Confessions<\/em>, 1:1.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A front-on view of the Kona Hawaii Temple, which is due to close in October 2023 for a major renovation that will, among other things, substantially increase its size.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We had a good day today, trying to do things that were in accord with the sabbath.\u00a0 I have to say that some of the landscapes around Waikola and Mauna Lani here on the Big Island \u2014 palm trees and manicured golf courses and ancient lava flows and black sand beaches and the ocean \u2014 are just about as beautiful as I can conceive of on this planet.\u00a0 And the sunsets!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Waik\u014dloa, Hawai\u2019i Island, Hawai\u2019i<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

ETA:\u00a0 A commenter on this blog who goes by the moniker of \u201ctangata neneva\u201d called my attention to a good quotation:\u00a0 \u201cElder O Leslie Stone once taught: \u201cWhat is meant by \u201cpoor in spirit\u201d? Is it not humility, which renders us teachable and eager to learn? They who feel themselves spiritually poor approach God, asking him to supply their needs. They who have faith in him, learn his laws and try diligently to obey him.<\/i>\u201d (The Beatitudes, October 1974 General Conference.)\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Herewith, a brief set of preliminary notes toward a chapter in my projected book on the Beatitudes: \u00a0 \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit,\u201d reads the first of the Beatitudes (in Matthew 5:3 of the King James Version), \u201cfor theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d By the way, please note that the phrase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Blessed are the poor in spirit"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Herewith, a brief set of preliminary notes toward a chapter in my projected book on the Beatitudes:   \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit,"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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