"Poverty is sometimes envisaged as a spiritual attitude: the attitude of a person who submits himself totally to God because he experienced his own impotence and poverty. This poverty is a poverty of heart. These poor are the ones whom the gospel of Matthew declares happy." (Etienne Carpenter, How to Read the Old Testament, p. 97).
This is the reason sometimes why the poor are usually the one closest to God. A poor person has nothing, so he or she has recourse to God for their needs. Sometimes, a rich person is too self-sufficient to even think about God.
There is a sweetness to being poor. In a sense, one has nothing to worry, no material riches to protect, no bodyguards to protect their lives. In a sense, they are more free: free from robbers, from criminals who desire their wealth.
The poor are free and happy: free to relish the air, smell the roses. One has sometimes to be poor to understand the poor. Usually, the one who had become rich from poverty are most generous! Why? It is because they have experienced how to be poor.
To be poor is a privilege to be closer to God, a privilege to ponder that at the end of the day, "Only God suffices, nothing matters." Everything else is vanity...
Reflection by Cynthia Abegail Bernardo
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