Now it is true that this doctrine is good and sound: but it does not fit this
CHAPTER 2: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit and Those Who Mourn
Now it is true that this doctrine is good and sound: but it does not fit this passage. Luke does not use the word spirit: only he speaks of the poor. And in fact the Hebrews in their language have the same word, by which they mean a person humbled and brought low. And why? For prosperity fills us with pride and presumption: and this is why we want to be seen and want to maintain our pretensions: and on the contrary we forget all haughtiness, when God has beaten us down by affliction. So much so that afflictions tame us, this is why the word can signify both poverty and humility. We see this with regard to the body. For if a man is robust, and in the prime of his years, and he does not know that it is an illness, he becomes high-spirited, it is only a question of jumping, we cannot hold him: but if he has an illness of two or three months, he will move painfully, he will be completely changed, and instead of before he had indulged in every kind of excess, and had given himself over to intemperance, that nothing he was difficult, he will hardly be able to swallow a piece after having chewed it: he will not be able to drag himself out of bed, where he was only running before. And as we see it happening to the body, so it is to the soul. For when we have all our wishes, it is certain that our desires overflow: they are like foam upon the sea: there is nothing that can hold them back. And in short, we are puffed up, we are like drunks, who no longer know what it is to be restrained. But on the other hand, when God has put us in shame before men, and everyone has had his turn at mocking us, when we will be defamed, when we will have hatred, envy, grudges set up against us, when there will be false accusations and slanders imposed on us, when we will be poor and miserable without aid or relief.
in short, we are exercised by every form of adversity: then we will learn that it is modesty, and we lower the head which was previously too high raised. But especially since many do not fail to always nourish their pride, even though God strikes them with heavy blows, and gives them enough opportunity to humble themselves: especially, I say, that there are many as incorrigible, this is why it was necessary for our Lord Jesus Christ to say this word of the spirit. As if he said, Those who are poor are blessed: even on condition that poverty has tamed them, and that it has so profited in them, that their spirit is impoverished, that is to say that they do not have a proud or self-confident spirit, as many have. Because they are continually champing at the bit. We see wild beasts, when they are chained, or in some iron cage, they will not change their rage. We will hold many bears, wolves, and lions prisoners: but if they always remain as they were. So it is with men, however tightly our Lord Jesus restrains them, if they refuse