Living Monstrance

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3)  Jesus tells us something incredible here: we can own the kingdom of heaven!  Not just see it or experience it, but actually own it.  How?  Well, He tells us we only have to be poor in spirit.  Pretty simple.  So what does this mean?

When I was in grad school I had the privilege of being a teaching assistant for one of the professors in the engineering department.  I helped him teach freshman engineering students.  Now, I have to say, that I loved it.  I enjoy teaching.  I put a lot of work into it, especially when I had the chance to work directly with the students.  Office hours for extra help, reviewing homework and teaching labs with the students.  It was a lot of late nights and extra work outside my own studies, but I loved it and the students.

After the semester was over, my professor wrote a letter to the head of the engineering department.  He was so pleased with what I had done, and he wrote, “Jerome is by far the best TA I have ever had at the university.”  I was very pleased and flattered, of course, but I was shocked.  Why was the professor so happy?  Why was he so moved to write such a strong statement?

Because the students were his.  The class was his.

Whenever I did anything for them, I was also doing it for him.

“Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me to eat: I was thirsty and you gave me to drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in: naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.”  “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:34-36,40)

Whenever I get too attached to anyone or anything, whenever I want too much closeness or too much distance from what God has given me, I try to remember:

He is His, not mine.  She is His, not mine.  It is His, not mine.  I am His, not my own.

This is poverty of spirit.  St. Francis of Assisi could call the sun his brother and the birds his sisters because he understood that everything and everyone is God’s.  When we remember this, God can give us Himself.

It’s then that we own the kingdom.