[AI translation] I don't want to repeat everything I said in the last sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, but I must say again that these sayings should never be taken out of the context of the one who said them. This is not a general rule of life or wisdom for life, but about Jesus and the relationship with Him. So the verses we are reading should not be understood as saying that one must first become poor in order to be happy, or that one must first weep in order to be happy - no. It is that a disciple of Jesus, a person who belongs to Jesus, is happy even if he is poor, even if he is crying, even if he is in any kind of painful, unpleasant situation. I announced the other day that I would like to list the situations in which Jesus says his followers are happy.1) "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 5:3) There has been much debate between Bible readers and non-Bible readers about what this "spiritual poverty" means. It has even been used as a tasteless joke, saying: well, Jesus Himself says that following Him is a "matter" for the poor in spirit, that is, for simple-minded souls, for the spiritually inferior, for the slightly dull. Perhaps it goes without saying how much that is not what the term "poor in spirit" means. To understand better what it means, let us drop the word "spiritual," just as in Luke's Gospel, when it comes to the Sermon on the Mount, we do not find the word, but let it remain as it is: "poor". So happy are the poor. Yes, the poor. They are happy simply because they are spared all the temptations and perils of the economy. Because it does come with all sorts of temptations.
I knew a really poor widow. She brought up four children with many difficulties. There was serenity, peace, contentment in the house. It was a happy family. One day she got a four in the lottery. Eighty thousand forints fell into her lap. He was rich in one fell swoop. The demands began to grow. The easy money made the much-needed mother frivolous. She became addicted to drink. The money was so gone, there was hardly a trace left. Riches are a temptation! Especially spiritually. When one is rich, it is easy to think that he has no need of God and other people, that what he has is enough. With wealth comes power, with money comes authority and independence. You don't have to ask anybody for anything. You can help yourself. He is not dependent on anyone, neither God nor man. Wealth makes you arrogant, self-righteous. God becomes superfluous. The rich man feels powerful because of what he has, superior, above others, more than others, and so he easily becomes conceited, hard, merciless. Anyone lower than him is just a dark background, there to shine even more, to stand out. The rich man does not usually feel that his wealth is a gift of grace from the rich God to him to serve others, but as an individual achievement that makes him deservedly superior to others. That which makes him a superior man. Of course, the same temptation applies not only to material wealth, monetary wealth, but also to cultural wealth. For example, when one is blessed with great artistic gifts or great knowledge, and takes this wealth for granted, as a reason to see oneself as superior to others, rather than as a gift, a task that obliges one to do more service for others.
So the wealth against which Jesus calls the poor happy is not in fact a state of wealth, but of spirit. Spirituality, a certain attitude, a state of mind, which means that one's soul is full, that there is no room in it for God or for other people. So now we can understand the term "spiritual poverty". Not socially poor, not spiritually handicapped, but also a certain state of mind. The spiritual poor, who knows and feels that he is nothing and nobody in himself, even if he is a world-famous artist, or possesses fabulous wealth, or is a renowned scientist, is no different from others, because he himself is a beggar, a nobody, and is only who he is through God. I myself am a beggar, poor, but a beggar whom God has made worthy to keep his treasures with me, whether material, spiritual or spiritual. But those treasures are not mine, I did not produce them. They are from God, they belong to God. So why should I be proud, for I depend on God above all things. Do you see? So spiritual poverty is a certain spirit. The spirit that expects everything from God, that makes everything dependent on God, that leaves the supreme place in itself empty for God to rule in it. So: a man of great wealth can be poor in spirit, and a world-famous artist can be poor in spirit. The reverse is also true: a social pauper can be someone who is not spiritually poor at all, because he is enough for himself, because he has no need of God.
The biblical tax collector was such a spiritual poor, who really had no idea of himself, either before God or before men. He felt very much that he had nothing to boast of, and like a beggar - and he was not a beggar - he begged for mercy. Peter was such a spiritual pauper when, in possession of the richest fishing booty, he said to Jesus, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord" (Lk 5:8). (Exodus 33:15) And such was the spiritual poverty of the little old woman whose funeral the other day brought her relatives home in a strange, almost joyful, festive mood, which did not at all match the blackness of her mourning dress. This is how they spoke among themselves: we were seeing off a truly royal child. And that royal child was just a plain old aunt who could barely read and write, and yet who was a match for the most distinguished aristocrat. Not the daughter of a count or a minister, but the child of the King of Kings. It is a strange nobility, superfluous to all outward grandeur and glamour. But a nobility hidden from all who are blind to the heavenly horizons. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." They are the riches of God. It is a very special happiness, independent of any external situation, so much so that it even illuminates a funeral. Even for the mourners. Isn't that the real happiness? Of course it is, for no less a person than Jesus himself is good for it.
Jesus promises, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And here we come very close to the content of the second beatitude.
2) "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." (Mt 5,4) It is usual to reduce the meaning of this saying to those who weep for their sins, or to those who mourn under the weight of a sorrowful grief, or to those who take upon themselves the sorrows of the world, the sorrows of others, and weep with the weepers, as it were, in order to relieve the other. Well, I don't see any such reductionism. Jesus is simply talking about the weepers. It doesn't matter whether it is a life gone wrong, a marriage gone bad, a child gone bad, the death of a loved one, or the weight of our sins that makes us weep.
There is a lot of crying in this world. Secretly, inwardly, even more than meets the eye. And Jesus here usually opens his arms to these weeping people. He knocks on their hearts and says: there is consolation for you. But here let me emphasize again what must always be borne in mind in the Sermon on the Mount, namely that we should never separate such a saying from the One who says it: Jesus. Yes, there is a consolation for every weeping, for every sorrow, for every sadness, for every spiritual pain, but this consolation is Jesus Himself. So truly said someone the other day when we were talking about this verse. He told me about his sorrow and he went on to say, "I have brought it before the Lord and I have experienced His comfort. That is the secret of being comforted in weeping: to bring it before the Lord, to draw Jesus into it, to weep with your heart on Jesus' heart. If I don't bring him before the Lord, then the promise to "be comforted" is not valid. One can weep without being comforted. Paul calls this "sorrow according to the world", which "worketh death." (2 Cor 7:10) This is the sorrow in which I give no place to God, from which I exclude the Lord, and then such weeping can become a terrible calamity.
So not everyone who weeps is comforted. And if you still have not been comforted, do not blame God, but yourself for not letting Jesus into your sorrow! Because you are so full of your own sorrow that there is no room in you for Jesus, for comfort. In such sadness the soul, even the environment, falls into it.
Such was the weeping of Judas. Without consolation. Because his despair had turned him to the wrong place. First he fled to the high priestly council, but those men had no words of comfort for him. He was left alone. He sank into death. If Judas had fled to Jesus, if this poor man had let the King of grace into his bitter repentance, he too would have been comforted. Jesus would have been a comfort even to him.
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." But this is not simply to say that the pessimists, the melancholic, those who always see the dark side of everything, the despairing, the disappointed, the desperate, are automatically happy. No. Someone once said on his deathbed: the whole world and the whole of life is not worth a pipe of tobacco to me. But many poets and many philosophers say the same thing, but a little more nobly! They've had enough of it. It's all a meaningless mess. A miserable game, an adventure. I'd like to quit it, because it makes me sick, someone said the other day. Well, yes, such wailers and weepers can't be comforted until they let Jesus into their pain. But anyone who weeps for anything as one who belongs to Jesus, as one who is His disciple, whose sorrow Jesus is Lord over, can surely count on the promise, "I shall be comforted".
Jesus comforts not only Augustine, who weeps and confesses his sins to Him, but also the little child who in his evening prayer laments, "Lord Jesus, I have lost my baby, help me to find him! Yes, this child involves Jesus in his sorrow. That's the point, that's the point, to have Jesus in the sorrow for which we weep - then it's good. Then the consolation is there. Then it always turns out that even in that sorrow God has hidden something positive good for us. Have you ever noticed that most of the blessings and most of the good things from heaven are not given to us when our days are full of prosperity, joy and gladness, but in times of pain and trials, when we are crying? The tears became a vision before our eyes through which we could see much more deeply into heaven, and see the face of God the Father much more clearly than on other days. Oh, how right Jesus is! "Blessed are they that weep: for they shall be comforted." Fear not then to be sad, for for you, if you are Jesus', there is always consolation there too.
In conclusion, let me say one more time: this is not a recipe! It is not a question of being poor, of shedding bitter tears if you want to be happy. It is about Jesus. He is so great that whoever belongs to Him is happy in all the situations of this life. It is His presence, the experience of being with Him that makes you happy. This is true because He says. It is true when He says it. Stand before Him, ask Him to say, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" (Mt 5:3-4).
Amen
Date: 31 March 1963.