Read Luke 6:1-20
"Looking at his disciples, he said: 'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God’”
Luke 6:20
The word for ‘blessed’ in Hebrew is ‘ashrei’ which literally translated would read ‘O the blessedness, the happiness of, the good fortune of ...’. In Greek the word is makarios which literally means ‘filled with bliss’. We will be meditating on the beatitudes when we visit the beautiful octagonal church on the Mount of Beatitudes.
The anawim - the poor - literally means those who are bowed down, those who possess nothing. The version of this Beatitude in the Gospel of Matthew reads ‘How blessed are the poor in spirit: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs' (Matt. 5:3). The word ‘spirit’ can be translated as ‘breath’. So we can paraphrase this beatitude as ‘How blessed are those who are conscious of the fact that they depend on God for everything as much as they depend of the air they breathe’. The poor in the spirit put their trust in the Lord alone and their strength is found in receiving His grace. The Fathers of the Church interpreted this beatitude synonymously with humility which is nothing less than the truth of who we are in front of God and how much we really need Him.
Lord I ask You to give me the grace to humble myself in Your Presence in daily prayer. I have been created to depend on You and saved to live by Your grace. But in my pride, I often ‘crowd You out of my life’. But I once again declare: Lord, I am not self-sufficient. I need You. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit now and every day of my life.