Poor in spirit – 15 February 2013

We are into Lent now.  I thought we might look in a contemplative way at the Beatitudes.  There are rather more Beatitudes than we have weeks in Lent, so I might be a little selective.  However, there is no doubt about the first Beatitude:  Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

A classic Zen story illustrates the opposite, not being poor in spirit:  A young seeker was keen to become the student of a certain Zen master.  The master invited him to his house for an interview.  The student described his spiritual experiences thus far, his past teachers, all he had learned until now, his pet philosophies and his goals in life.  The master listened silently and started to pour a cup of tea. He poured and poured, and when the cup was overflowing he kept on pouring.  Eventually the student said, Stop pouring, the cup is full!  The teacher said, Yes, and so are you.  How can I possibly teach you?

In Christian Meditation we are poor in spirit.  We are deliberately setting aside for now whatever it is we have going for us, which in some cases including myself isn’t much anyway.  But this is not Uriah Heep  ’umbleness.  It is a simple realism which understands, among much else, that on this holy ground our achievements, our thoughts and philosophies, our plans and intentions, our worthiest qualities, are inappropriate. 

There is a nice story about a valiant pilgrim who finally came to Rome.  His bicycle and his tracksuit were covered with emblems of where he had been.  He was told about a Christian recluse, a hermit, who lived in a room nearby, so he went to visit her.  “Why do you just sit here all the time,” he asked, “why are you not up and about and doing things?  “I am not sitting,” she said, “I am on a journey.”  Contemplatives know that on this journey it’s good to travel light.

Sometimes we may wonder whether our times of meditation are just a sort of tokenism.  If we were serious and consistent, our whole life would be that of a recluse, surely.  But that is to miss the point.  By grace, by the Spirit of God, simply to choose to be still and silent, realizing that everywhere is the presence of God, to focus our minds and hearts by the help of the mantra, to be in a consenting attitude through storms of distraction and doubt – consenting to grace and to love and to mercy – simply that, we find, begins to pervade life and the ways we think and believe, our attitudes and our fears.  Far from tokenism, this discipline is an effective freedom.  Far from any kind of anaesthetic, it puts us back in the world rooted, belonging and believing – and poor in spirit.