BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT.

What is to be understood by the poor in spirit.

— He who exalts himself shall be abased.

— Mysteries hidden from the learned and the prudent.

— INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS: Pride and humility.

— The mission of the intelligent man on Earth.

What is to be understood by the poor in spirit.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

(Saint Matthew, chapter V, v. 3.)

Incredulity has mocked this maxim: Blessed are the poor in spirit, as it has mocked many other things it does not understand.

By poor in spirit Jesus does not mean those lacking in intelligence, but the humble, so much so that he says the kingdom of Heaven is for these and not for the proud.

Men of learning and of spirit, in the world's estimation, generally form so high an opinion of themselves and of their superiority that they regard divine things as unworthy of meriting their attention. Concentrating their gaze upon themselves, they cannot raise it up to God.

This tendency, to believe themselves superior to everything, very often leads them to deny that which, being above them, would depreciate them, to deny even the Divinity. Or, if they condescend to admit it, they contest one of its most beautiful attributes: the providential action over the things of this world, persuaded that they themselves are sufficient to govern it well.

Taking the intelligence they possess as the measure of universal intelligence, and judging themselves capable of understanding everything, they cannot believe in the possibility of what they do not understand. They regard the sentences they pronounce as beyond appeal.

If they refuse to admit the invisible world and an extra-human power, it is not that this is beyond their reach; it is that pride revolts within them at the idea of a thing above which they cannot place themselves and that would make them descend from the pedestal on which they contemplate themselves. Hence they have only scornful smiles for all that does not belong to the visible and tangible world; 7 they attribute to themselves spirit and learning in such great abundance that they cannot believe in things which, according to their thinking, are good only for simple folk, considering as poor in spirit those who take them seriously.

Nevertheless, say what they may, they will be forced to enter, like the others, into that invisible world they deride. It is there that their eyes will be opened and they will recognize the error into which they have fallen.

But God, who is just, cannot receive in the same manner one who failed to recognize his majesty and another who humbly submitted to his laws, nor apportion to them in equal parts.

In saying that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to the simple, Jesus meant that to no one is entrance into that kingdom granted without simplicity of heart and humility of spirit; that the ignorant person possessing these qualities will be preferred to the learned one who believes more in himself than in God.

In all circumstances, Jesus places humility in the category of the virtues that bring one near to God, and pride among the vices that draw the creature away from him, and this for a very natural reason: that humility is an act of submission to God, whereas pride is revolt against him.

It is better, then, for the man, for the happiness of his future, to be poor in spirit, as the world understands it, and rich in moral qualities. He who exalts himself shall be abased.

On that occasion, the disciples approached Jesus and asked him:

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven? — Jesus, calling a child to him, placed him in their midst and answered: Verily I say unto you, that, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven. — He, therefore, who humbles himself and becomes small as this child shall be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, — and he who receives in my name a child, such as I have just said, it is myself that he receives. (Saint Matthew, chapter XVIII, vv. 1 to 5.)

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her two sons and worshipped him, giving to understand that she wished to ask him something. — He said to her: What do you want? Command, she said, that these two sons of mine may have a seat in your kingdom, one at your right and the other at your left. — But Jesus answered her: You do not know what you ask; can you both drink the cup that I am going to drink? They answered: We can. — Jesus replied to them:

It is certain that you will drink the cup that I shall drink; but, as for your sitting at my right or at my left, it is not for me to grant it to you; that will be for those for whom my Father has prepared it.

— Hearing this, the ten other apostles were filled with indignation against the two brothers. — Jesus, calling them near to him, said to them: You know that the princes of the nations dominate them and that the great treat them with lordship. — So it must not be among you; on the contrary, he who wishes to become the greatest, let him be your servant; — and he who wishes to be the first among you, let him be your slave; — just as the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life for the redemption of many. (Saint Matthew, chapter XX, vv. 20 to 28.)

Jesus entered on a Sabbath day into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to take his meal there. Those who were there observed him. — Then, noticing that the guests were choosing the first places, he proposed to them a parable, saying: — When you are invited to a wedding, do not take the first place, lest it happen that, there being among the guests a person more considered than you, he who has invited you come to say to you: give your place to this one, and you find yourselves constrained to occupy, full of shame, the last place. — When you are invited, go and place yourselves in the last place, so that, when he who invited you arrives, he may say to you: my friend, come further up. This then will be for you a cause of glory, before all who are with you at the table; — for everyone who exalts himself shall be abased and everyone who abases himself shall be exalted. (Saint Luke, chapter XIV, vv. 1 and 7 to 11.)

These maxims flow from the principle of humility that Jesus never ceases to present as the essential condition of the happiness promised to the elect of the Lord, and which he formulated thus: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.”

He takes a child as the type of simplicity of heart and says: The greatest in the kingdom of Heaven will be he who humbles himself and makes himself small as a child, that is, who entertains no pretension to superiority or to infallibility.

The same fundamental idea presents itself to us in this other maxim: “Let him who wishes to become the greatest be your servant,” and in this other: “He who humbles himself shall be exalted and he who exalts himself shall be abased.”

Spiritism sanctions the theory by example, showing us in the position of the great in the world of the Spirits those who were small on Earth; and very small, very often, those who on Earth were the greatest and the most powerful.

It is that the former, on dying, carried away with them that which makes true greatness in Heaven and which is never lost: the virtues, whereas the others had to leave here what constituted their earthly greatness and which is not carried into the other life: riches, titles, glory, nobility of birth; 6 possessing nothing more than that, they arrive in the other world deprived of everything, like shipwrecked persons who have lost everything, even their very clothes. They have kept only pride, which makes their new position the more humiliating, for they see placed above them and resplendent with glory those whom they trampled upon on Earth.

Spiritism points out to us another application of the same principle in the successive incarnations, by means of which those who, in one existence, occupied the highest positions, descend, in the following existence, to the lowest conditions, provided that pride and ambition have dominated them.

Seek not, then, on Earth, the first places, nor to place yourselves above others, if you do not wish to be obliged to descend. Seek, on the contrary, the humblest and most modest place, for God will know how to give you a higher one in Heaven, if you deserve it. Mysteries hidden from the learned and the prudent.

Jesus then spoke these words: I render thee thanks, my Father, Lord of Heaven and of Earth, for having hidden these things from the learned and the prudent and for having revealed them to the simple and to the little ones. (Saint Matthew, chapter XI, v. 25.)

It may seem singular that Jesus should render thanks to God for having revealed these things to the simple and to the little ones, who are the poor in spirit, and for having hidden them from the learned and the prudent, more apt, in appearance, to understand them. It is that one must understand that the former are the humble, are those who humble themselves before God and do not consider themselves superior to everyone else. The latter are the proud, vain of their worldly learning, who judge themselves prudent because they deny and treat God as an equal, when they do not refuse to admit him, for, in antiquity, learned was synonymous with wise. That is why God leaves to them the investigation of the secrets of Earth and reveals those of Heaven to the simple and the humble who prostrate themselves before him.

The same happens today with the great truths that Spiritism has revealed. Some unbelievers are astonished that the Spirits make so few efforts to convince them; 2 the reason is that these latter attend preferably to those who seek, in good faith and with humility, the light, rather than to those who suppose themselves in possession of all light and imagine, perhaps, that God ought to count himself very happy to draw them to himself, by proving to them his existence.

The power of God is manifested in the smallest things, as in the greatest;

He does not put the light under a bushel, for he pours it forth in waves everywhere, in such a way that only the blind do not see it.

To these God does not wish to open the eyes by force, since it pleases them to keep them closed. Their turn will come, but it is necessary that, beforehand, they feel the anguish of the darkness and recognize that it is the Divinity and not chance that wounds their pride.

To overcome incredulity, God employs the most suitable means, according to the individuals; 7 it is not for incredulity to prescribe to him what he must do, nor does it fall to it to say: If you wish to convince me, you must proceed in this or that manner, on such an occasion and not on such another, because that occasion is the one that most suits me.

Let the unbelievers not be astonished, then, that neither God, nor the Spirits, who are the executors of his will, submit to their demands. Let them inquire of themselves what they would say if the lowest of their servants took it into his head to prescribe to them whatever it might be.

God imposes conditions and does not accept those they would impose on him. He listens, kindly, to those who address themselves to Him humbly, and not to those who judge themselves to be more than He.

It will be asked: could not God touch them personally, by means of resounding manifestations, before which the most obstinate unbelievers would bow down? It is beyond all doubt that he could; but then, what merit would they have, and, moreover, of what use would it be?

Are not creatures seen every day who do not yield even to evidence, going so far as to say: Even if I saw it, I would not believe it, because I know it is impossible?

If these thus refuse to recognize the truth, it is that they do not yet bring the spirit ripe to understand it, nor the heart to feel it.

Pride is the cataract that clouds their vision. Of what avail is it to present the light to a blind man? It is necessary that, beforehand, the cause of the ailment be destroyed in him. Hence it comes that God, a skilled physician, first corrects pride.

He does not leave to abandonment those of his children who find themselves lost, for he knows that sooner or later their eyes will be opened. He wishes, however, that this happen of their own accord, when, vanquished by the torments of incredulity, they come of themselves to throw themselves into his arms and ask his pardon, like prodigal sons. INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS.

Pride and humility.

May the peace of the Lord be with you, my dear friends! I come here to encourage you to follow the good path.

To the poor Spirits who once inhabited the Earth, God has conferred the mission of enlightening you. Blessed be He, for the grace he grants us: that of being able to aid your improvement.

May the Holy Spirit illumine me and help me make my word comprehensible, granting me the favor of putting it within reach of all! Oh! you, the incarnate, who find yourselves in trial and seek the light, may the will of God come to my aid to make it shine before your eyes!

Humility is a virtue much forgotten among you. Very few are the examples of it that have been given you. Yet, without humility, can you be charitable toward your neighbor?! Oh! No, for this sentiment levels men, telling them that all are brothers, that they ought to help one another, and it leads them to good.

Without humility, you merely adorn yourselves with virtues you do not possess, as if you wore a garment to conceal the deformities of your body.

Remember him who saved us; remember his humility, which made him so great, placing him above all the prophets.

Pride is the terrible adversary of humility.

If the Christ promised the kingdom of Heaven to the poorest, it is because the great ones of the Earth imagine that titles and riches are rewards conferred on their merits and consider themselves of a purer essence than that of the poor. They judge that their titles and riches are owed to them, wherefore, when God takes them away, they accuse him of injustice.

Oh! derision and blindness! For, then, does God distinguish you by your bodies? Is the envelope of the poor not the same as that of the rich? Did the Creator make two species of men? All that God does is great and wise; never attribute to him the ideas that your proud brains engender.

O rich man! While you sleep beneath gilded roofs, sheltered from the cold, are you unaware that there lie upon the straw thousands of brothers of yours, who are worth as much as you? Is the wretched one who goes hungry not your equal? On hearing this, I know well, your pride revolts. You will agree to give him alms, but to clasp his hand fraternally, never.

“What! you will say: I, of noble blood, a great one of the Earth, equal to this wretch covered in rags?! Vain utopia of pseudo-philosophers! If we were equal, why would God have placed him so low and me so high?”

It is true that your garments are not alike; but strip yourselves both: what difference will there be between you? Nobility of blood, you will say; chemistry, however, has yet discovered no difference between the blood of a great lord and that of a commoner; between that of the master and that of the slave.

Who assures you that you too have not already been wretched and unfortunate like him? That you too have not begged for alms? That you will not beg for it one day from that very one whom today you despise?

Are riches eternal? Do they not disappear when the body is extinguished, the perishable envelope of your Spirit?

Ah! cast upon yourself a little humility! Set your eyes, at last, upon the reality of the things of this world, upon what gives occasion to greatness and to abasement in the other; remember that death will not spare you, as it spares no man; that your titles will not preserve you from its blow; that it may strike you tomorrow, today, at any hour. If you bury yourself in your pride, oh! how then I lament for you, for very worthy of compassion you will be.

Proud ones! What were you before you were noble and powerful? Perhaps you were below the lowest of your servants. Bow down, therefore, your haughty brows, which God can make stoop, just at the moment when you raise them most.

In the divine balance, all men are equal; only the virtues distinguish them in the eyes of God.

All Spirits are of the same essence and all bodies formed of like substance. Your titles and your names in no way modify them. They will remain in the tomb and will in no way contribute to your enjoying the felicity of the elect; 19 these, in charity and in humility, have their titles of nobility.

Poor creature! you are a mother, your children suffer; they feel cold, they are hungry, and you go, bowed beneath the weight of your cross, to humble yourself, to obtain for them a piece of bread! Oh! I bow down before you. How nobly holy you are and how great in my eyes! Wait and pray; happiness is not yet of this world. To the poor oppressed who trust in him therein, God grants the kingdom of Heaven.

And you, maiden, poor child cast into labor, into privations, why these sad thoughts? Why do you weep? Direct to God, pious and serene, your gaze: he gives food to the little birds; have confidence in him: he will not abandon you. The noise of the festivities, of the pleasures of the world, makes your heart beat; you too would wish to adorn your hair with flowers and mingle with the fortunate of the Earth. You say to yourself that, like those women you see passing, carefree and smiling, you too could be rich. Oh! be silent, child! If you knew how many tears and unspeakable sorrows are hidden beneath those embroidered dresses, how many sobs are stifled by the sounds of that noisy orchestra, you would prefer your humble retreat and your poverty. Keep yourself pure in the eyes of God, if you do not wish your guardian angel to return to his bosom, covering his countenance with his white wings and leaving you to your remorse, without guide, without support, in this world, where you would remain lost, awaiting punishment in the other.

All you who suffer injustices from men, be indulgent toward the faults of your brothers, considering that you too are not exempt from faults; this is charity, but it is equally humility.

If you suffer from calumnies, bow your head beneath that trial. What do the calumnies of the world matter to you? If your conduct is pure, can God not compensate you for them?

To bear with courage the humiliations of men is to be humble and to recognize that God alone is great and powerful.

Oh! my God, will it be necessary for the Christ to return a second time to the Earth to teach men your laws, which they forget? Will he have to drive out anew from the temple the merchants who defile your house, the house that is solely of prayer?

And, who knows? O men! whether you would not renounce him as of old, were God to grant you that grace! You would call him a blasphemer, because he would humble the pride of the modern Pharisees. It is quite possible that you would make him traverse anew the way of Golgotha.

When Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the commandments of God, the people of Israel, left to themselves, abandoned the true God. Men and women gave the gold and the jewels they possessed, so that an idol might be built which they set about to worship. You others, civilized men, imitate them; 28 the Christ bequeathed to you his doctrine; he gave you the example of all the virtues and you abandoned everything, examples and precepts; 29 contributing to this with your passions, you made a God after your own fashion: according to some, terrible and bloodthirsty; according to others, indifferent to the interests of the world. The God you fabricated is still the golden calf that each one adapts to his tastes and to his ideas.

Awake, my brothers, my friends. May the voice of the Spirits echo in your hearts; 31 be generous and charitable, without ostentation, that is, do good with humility; 32 let each one proceed little by little to the demolition of the altars that all have raised to pride, 33 in a word: be true Christians and you will have the kingdom of truth.

Do not continue to doubt the goodness of God, when he gives you so many proofs of it.

We come to prepare the ways so that the prophecies may be fulfilled.

When the Lord gives you a more resounding manifestation of his clemency, may the celestial envoy find you already forming one great family; may your hearts, meek and humble, be worthy of hearing the divine word he comes to bring you; may the elect one find in his path only the palms that you have laid there, returning to good, to charity, to fraternity, 37 then, your world will become the earthly paradise.

But, if you remain insensible to the voice of the Spirits sent to purify and renew your civilized society, rich in sciences, but, nevertheless, so poor in good sentiments, ah! then there will remain to us nothing but to weep and to lament for your lot.

But, no, thus it shall not be. Return to God, your father, and all of us who shall have contributed to the fulfillment of his will shall intone the canticle of thanksgiving, thanking him for his inexhaustible goodness and glorifying him for all the ages of ages. So be it. — (LACORDAIRE. Constantine, 1863.)

Men, why do you complain of the calamities that you yourselves have heaped upon your own heads? You have despised the holy and divine morality of the Christ; be not astonished, then, that the cup of iniquity has overflowed on all sides.

Malaise becomes general. Whom to blame, but yourselves who incessantly seek to crush one another? You cannot be happy without mutual benevolence; but how can benevolence coexist with pride?

Pride, behold the source of all your ills; 4 apply yourselves, therefore, to destroying it, if you do not wish to perpetuate its disastrous consequences. A single means is offered you for this, but an infallible one: to take as the invariable rule of your conduct the law of the Christ, a law that you have rejected or falsified in its interpretation.

Why should you hold in greater esteem that which shines and charms the eyes, than that which touches the heart? Why do you make of vice in opulence an object of your flatteries while you disdain true merit in obscurity? Let a rich debauchee present himself anywhere, lost in body and soul, and all doors open to him, all attentions are for him, while to the man of good who lives by his labor, all scarcely deign to greet him with an air of protection.

When the consideration shown to others is measured by the gold they possess or by the name they bear, what interest can they have in correcting themselves of their defects?

The reverse would happen if general opinion lashed gilded vice as much as vice in rags; but pride shows itself indulgent toward all that flatters it.

An age of cupidity and of money, you say. Doubtless; but why have you allowed material needs to overcome good sense and reason? Why should each one wish to raise himself above his brother? From this fact society today suffers the consequences.

Do not forget that such a state of things is always a sure sign of moral decadence.

When pride reaches the extreme, one has an indication of an approaching fall, for God never fails to chastise the haughty. If at times he consents that they rise, it is to give them time for reflection and for amendment, under the blows that from time to time he deals to their pride to warn them. But, instead of humbling themselves, they revolt. Then, the measure being full, God abases them completely and the more horrible is their fall, the higher they have risen.

Poor human race, whose egoism has corrupted all the paths, take courage anew, in spite of everything. In his infinite mercy, God sends you a powerful remedy for your ills, an unexpected succor for your misery. Open your eyes to the light: here are the souls of those who no longer live on Earth and who come to call you to the fulfillment of the real duties; 12 they will tell you, with the authority of experience, how the vanities and the grandeurs of your transient existence are paltry beside eternity; 13 they will tell you that, there, the greatest is he who has been the humblest among the little ones of this world; 14 that he who most loved his brothers will also be the most loved in Heaven; 15 that the powerful of the Earth, if they abused their authority, will see themselves reduced to obeying their servants; 16 that, finally, humility and charity, sisters who always walk hand in hand, are the most efficacious means of obtaining grace before the Eternal. — (ADOLPHE, bishop of Algiers, Marmande, 1862.) The mission of the intelligent man on Earth.

Be not made proud by what you know, for that knowledge has very narrow limits in the world in which you dwell.

Let us suppose you are summits of intelligence on this planet: you have no right to grow vain. If God, in his designs, made you be born in an environment where you were able to develop your intelligence, it is that he wishes you to use it for the good of all, it is a mission that he gives you, putting into your hands the instrument with which you can develop, in your turn, the backward intelligences and lead them to him.

Does not the nature of the instrument indicate the use to which it is to be put? Does not the hoe that the gardener hands to his helper show the latter that it falls to him to dig the earth? What would you say if that helper, instead of working, raised the hoe to strike his master? You would say it is horrible and that he deserves to be expelled. Well then: does not the same happen with him who uses his intelligence to destroy the idea of God and of Providence among his brothers? Does he not raise against his master the hoe that was entrusted to him to clear the ground? Has he a right to the promised wage? Does he not deserve, on the contrary, to be expelled from the garden? He will be, doubt it not, and he will pass through miserable existences filled with humiliations until he bows down before him to whom he owes everything.

Intelligence is rich in merits for the future, but on condition of being well employed. If all the men who possess it used it in conformity with the will of God, easy would be, for the Spirits, the task of making Humanity advance. Unfortunately, many make it an instrument of pride and of perdition against themselves.

Man abuses intelligence as he does all his other faculties and, nevertheless, teachings are not lacking to him that warn him that a powerful hand can withdraw what it granted him. — (FERDINAND, protector Spirit, Bordeaux, 1862.)