Moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ also says in the same sense, that the
CHAPTER 2: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit and Those Who Mourn
Moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ also says in the same sense, that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor. of spirit. In which it means that we must not be captivated by appearances: but always look at the end and the outcome. When the philosophers, who prize virtue above all else, wanted to show that afflictions do not make a man miserable, they had to have imagined a man hardened, as if he were an anvil, which the hammer could never soften. Now it was only a frivolous imagination and mere insensibility, when all is said: and even if there were some who had a good reputation before men, and who were considered very virtuous and constant, if there was only a kind of frenzy in them: for they were all full of rebellion against God. Their principle was, Well, I'm a mortal man, I have to endure it: I can't avoid that, so I have to go through it. Because they proposed necessity as their maxim: And what would be gained from resisting? I must therefore submit to what I cannot escape. This is (says) their patience, which is otherwise a fury, when one continues to be always rebellious against God. This is their constancy, which is rather a stubbornness. Because if they had little, they would have liked to retreat: but they had to sit down, especially since they had this opinion that everything was governed. by some blind destiny. Now then all such teaching was nothing but vanity: but our Lord Jesus Christ shows that it does not lead us into empty speculations which have no effect at all: but on the contrary, that it gives us a good foundation, on which if we lean, we will never be shaken: and how much that all the storms and whirlwinds of the world arise, and that it seems that heaven and earth must mix together, however much our blessedness will remain secure, provided that we look to the Kingdom of heaven. This is therefore what we have to remember here: namely, that in order to enjoy this happiness of which the Son of God speaks to us, we must first learn that the world is only a passage: that it is not our rest, that it is not here that we must seek our life: but that it suits us to press farther on, and raise our sights to the celestial heritage. And so, all those who are attached to this world, those who depend on their common opinion, and those who want to enjoy their happiness here, it is impossible for them to know that this doctrine is valid: so much so that they will always contradict this teaching. It is true that the faithful will not fail to have great struggles within themselves, when they think, How is it possible that I am very happy, and yet that I am condemned to be miserable? For this is what poverty of spirit entails: it is knowing that man is as though brought to despair, and that he is plunged into an abyss until God provides. Now there are severe inward conflicts here. For it does not seem that it is proper, that we can be happy, and yet we must be in