Dear Friends,
The ninth step in our meditations on the First Beatitude comes from Valentin Tomberg’s Thy Kingdom Come, which Tomberg wrote towards the end of his life, and recently republished by Angelico Press. (For the first of these meditations, and their background motivation, see here; for the second meditation see here; for the third see here; for the fourth see here; for the fifth see here; for the sixth see here; for the seventh see here; and for the eighth see here).
Blessed are the poor in spirit
From the perspective of mankind’s spiritual history, the Sermon on the Mount is the counterpart to the temptation by the serpent in paradise, for it promises freedom with God, just as the temptation in paradise promised freedom without God. It stands, therefore, in complete opposition to the natural evolution of the serpent. The serpent promised a self-sufficient state obviating any need for a God “on high”—insinuating that, in such a state, man’s knowledge and power will suffice (that is, they will be “rich”). In contrast to this, the First Beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount proclaims, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That is, blessed are those who regard as poor any knowledge or power without God—for they shall partake in the divine-archetypal, creative work of God.