the ‘blessed’ poor

12Jan09

My uncle is in the process of becoming a Cistercian monk.  It is a lengthy journey, full of long periods of silence and contemplation over a period of years.  During this time, the vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty are considered. 

In his final days of the process, he met with the Abbott and made confession.  As he tells it, my uncle poured his heart out in confession, admitting to the most private and vulnerable of thoughts and actions-those things he’d shamefully and fearfully held so close to his heart. Through tears and pain he laid bare his soul, holding nothing back.  When he was done, he knew he’d risked everything: his future at the monastery, in the spiritual community he’d grown to love and identify with so strongly.  He was out of alternatives: he no longer had a life outside the monastery; he’d dispossessed himself of all his material belongings.  This was it: the breaking point.

The Abbott observed his brokenness and gently reminded him that Jesus proclaimed “blessed are the poor.”  Instructed the Abbott, “You now know, dear man, what it means to be truly poor.”  And with open arms, he welcomed my uncle into the community.

I mention this story for two reasons: 1) can we with such utter abandon lay bare our faults to the world in confession and vulnerability?, 2) can we (the church) truly embrace the poor (the broken, the sinful, the undesirable)?  

Can we pray to become truly poor?

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