Number 194 - October 1999

Poorness of spirit in prayer

Father FINET

Saint Matthew wrote: "Blessed are the poor in spirit". Bless are those whose heart is poor.

The poor man is a beggar, weak and bent under. That is a physical attitude, but it also has a religious meaning: it is an attitude of the soul. The poor man is he who seeks God, who needs God, who is hungry and thirsty for God.

No authentic spiritual life can be constructed without a poor man's soul. Blessed are those who are aware of their misery and their weakness: that is spiritual poorness. That is the fundamental requirement of all Christianity.

The Holy Spirit demolishes all our plans in order to re-construct us better, and in this way. So, poorness is a fundamental element of all spiritual progress. We mustn't have a soul which is pleased with itself.

Let us remember the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee says: Lord, I do everything Lord, I obey in everything. Lord, I keep to all the rules of the Law he is very pleased with himself.

And then, over there, at the back of the Temple is the publican. Poor bloke ! Lord, I don't know how to love You. I'm a wretch
Jesus tells us that it is the publican whose prayer is heard, not the Pharisee. It's not a question at all of material poverty but of spiritual poorness which is much more serious. The Pharisee is very happy with himself because he keeps the rules. He places himself right at the front in the Temple. But the publican is right at the back, and he says:
"Me, I'm a poor bloke". From a spiritual point of view, it is he whose prayer is heard. Don't forget this parable !

Very often one laments about one's poorness; but in reality it's a great richness. We must turn our values upside down. There's a whole inner work to be done by repeating with psalm 39: "I am a poor man and a beggar: the Lord takes care of me".

We must discover our spiritual poorness. Our inability to pray often makes us discover our incapacity either to pray or to save ourselves. Let us take up the attitude of the beggar, who hopes for everything, freely, from the immense love of God. Difficulty in prayer obliges us to live like the beggar. To pray is to expose one's poverty in the sight of God. But not only must we discover our poverty, we must accept it.

God is waiting for us there, for example, in our health problems. You often find people who have persistent headaches. I must banish above all the idea that I will be of use in the apostolate insofar as my health is good. On the contrary, I can be sorely tried in my health and have a great apostolic radiation. We must believe that our apostolic radiation does not depend on our possibilities of action. In other words we must accept all this misery, this poverty just as God sends it to us today, without the resentment of pride, without discouragement and without sadness. Joy must radiate everywhere in my life as an apostle. The acceptation of my failures is painful but it is a time of maturing. The more one feels oneself to be poor the more one counts for God. We mustn't revolt or refuse to accept ourselves. We can do nothing by ourselves; the Son receives everything from His Father, but He must open up, dig deep and empty Himself of Himself through His poverty.

What is our spiritual itinerary when we enter into life ? We think we are going to have a beautiful spiritual radiation over many souls, but we soon become aware of our powerlessness and we are tempted by discouragement. But instead of remaining indefinitely in this discouragement we go to make a retreat. We start again, with firmer resolutions and a greater radiation. Soon that breaks down and we feel a deep crisis rising up in the very heart of one's home: was I really meant for marriage ? Haven't I made a mistake? Was I really made for this woman? For this husband? And, in the case of a priest: was I made for the priesthood? For celibacy? One goes through terrible crises deep in one's heart. This is extremely frequent in the advancement of souls. One arrives at a critical point in one's life. That is where the Lord awaits us. Maturation and purification. What am I doing in this house? Should I leave? Should I start life again? And the feeling of our misery begins to wear out our shell of pride and to dig a space in us. That makes us more capable of receiving. For as long as we were counting on ourselves we were closed to the action of God. The hard blows dig into us through the grace of God. As long as we are encumbered by our successes we are unable to be filled by the Lord. Our accounts show more and more of a deficit and we become insolvent in God's eyes.

Discover that one is weak and a sinner
This or the other failure, difficulty, incapacity to pray, all these incapacities help us discover our own poverty which God alone can fill. The greater was our generosity on starting out, the more distressing will be this realization of our poverty. We started out in life with superb and sublime ideas which depended too much on ourselves. The discovery tears us apart because we have to leave all we had been building. Little by little, also I discover the taste of poverty. Everything is turned upside down today ­ that's very good. That is then the first beatitude is expressed in our souls. It's at that moment that God is waiting for us, when we experience the emptiness of our hearts and our prayer in this way reaches at last its true dimension, that is to say supplication. It is hard to discover that one is weak and a sinner. We would like to close our eyes on this itinerary which we all have to do, and which helps us little by little to reach our spiritual coming of age. We have come of age when after a defeat we say: "Lord, deliver me of the danger of myself. I'm a poor sinner, help me". That is the prayer of the poor man: "Lord, take care of me. Lord have pity on my cowardice, on my powerlessness. Lord, look on my misery". That is what the Lord is waiting for from us in prayer.