and grind their teeth: and then their pride overflows more than ever: and God
CHAPTER 2: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit and Those Who Mourn
and grind their teeth: and then their pride overflows more than ever: and God must also press them on the other side, so that we see the venom from which they die, which will come out. Not that this amends them: but they are made worse, and they must burst all restraint, and show their diabolical rage against God. This (say) is what we see in many. Is poverty of no use to them? No: but on the contrary, it is to make their condemnation before God still heavier. For they act contrary even to nature. It is no wonder if the great ones of this world, and "they who are so prized, and to whom we applaud, who have everything their heart desires, who are rich, who have their table well stocked, and brief, who have all desirable things: if these forget themselves, let them be intoxicated in their ease, and consequently let them glorify themselves and be puffed up with pride: but when a man is poor, that everyone is angry with him, that he bears many defamations, and that in short, he languishes in this world, and is as if half dead, if still he does not stop always taking pleasure and glorying in himself, that he always remains hard and stiff-necked, does he not fight against nature? So outward poverty is not enough. For there are many poor people who are not humiliated for this reason: but resist God as much as possible. Let us therefore note that poverty must penetrate our hearts, and that it must purge us of all pride and arrogance, and that we know that we are nothing. He therefore who is poor in his own estimation, that is to say who of his own free will humbles himself and attributes nothing to himself, and does not make himself believe in this or that, but is content to be stripped of worldly supports, this is the person Christ calls blessed. We now see what is the substance of these words, and we also see the benefit we must draw from them. Now we will ask if, on the contrary, those who are rich in spirit are cursed. And it is very certain that our Lord Jesus Christ intended the contrast to be understood. It is true that then afterwards he will say that blessed are those who are persecuted: and this does not mean, however, that it is necessary for all to be persecuted, otherwise we would have to be like these hypocrites who flatter themselves: but when he says, Blessed are those who are persecuted: it is because we do not flee from this persecution, when it pleases God that we should endure it, that we will be unjustly afflicted, that we bear everything in patience. But as for this passage, it is very certain that Jesus Christ wanted to make a comparison between the riches of spirit, that is to say this proud self-confidence where men deceive themselves when everything prospers with them, and between poverty of spirit, that is to say this humility, when man by affliction is truly brought low so as to no longer glorify himself, and to have nothing left except to resort to God.