Fides et Ratio

The Sixth Door: Learning to See God Clearly

Excellent. Using Anton Morgenroth, C.S.Sp., The Sermon on the Mount as the primary scholarly source, here is Episode 7, clearly labeled as such in the title, same tone and structure, about 3 minutes, catechetically solid, spiritually demanding, and fully consonant with the tradition you are building.

Exposition

As we come to the sixth door of the Kingdom, Jesus speaks not about action, nor even desire, but vision. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This promise reaches farther than moral cleanliness. It speaks of the capacity to perceive reality as God reveals it.

Anton Morgenroth, in The Sermon on the Mount, insists that purity of heart is fundamentally about unity. A pure heart is not divided. It does not seek God while secretly serving other masters. Morgenroth draws heavily on Scripture to show that impurity is not limited to external sin, but includes inner fragmentation, self-deception, and disordered loves that cloud spiritual sight.

He reminds us that Scripture consistently links vision and holiness. To see God is to know Him, and to know Him requires likeness. As St John says, we shall see Him as He is, because we shall be like Him 1 Jn 3:2. Purity of heart, then, is not a condition imposed from outside, but a transformation from within, whereby the heart is gradually conformed to the heart of Christ.

Morgenroth situates this Beatitude within the larger drama of salvation history. He notes that sin always distorts perception. From Eden onward, humanity has struggled not only with disobedience, but with blindness. The pure heart is the healed heart. It sees clearly because it no longer resists the truth. This is why Jesus links purity not with severity, but with mercy and obedience. Only a heart surrendered to God can receive light without fear.

The Catechism confirms this deeper meaning. Purity of heart enables us to see according to God, to perceive the human body, our neighbor, and creation itself in the light of charity §2519. This Beatitude therefore has moral, sacramental, and contemplative dimensions. It touches how we live, how we love, and how we pray.

Morgenroth is especially strong in warning against a false purity that seeks control rather than conversion. A heart obsessed with its own perfection becomes opaque. True purity is humble. It allows God to reveal what must be healed. It is willing to be taught, corrected, and cleansed by grace. This is why Christ constantly pairs purity with childlikeness and trust.

And the promise remains astonishing. They shall see God. Not only at the end of time, but even now, in glimpses. In the sacraments. In prayer. In the faces of others. As the heart becomes less divided, reality becomes more transparent. God’s presence is no longer hidden behind fear, resentment, or illusion.

Exhortation

This Beatitude invites us to examine not just what we do, but what we allow to shape our inner vision. Lent is a privileged time to ask where our hearts are divided, where attachments blur our sight, and where God is asking for greater simplicity.

Action Item

Choose one concrete practice of interior simplicity this week. It may be silence, custody of the eyes, or a deliberate renunciation of something that scatters your attention. Offer it not as self-improvement, but as an opening for God’s light.

Unity, single mindedness. Purity, integrity of product, pure wool, pure olive oil, one eye, right intention. Mother Teresa, why spend time in adoration, she had purity of heart, she sees Christ. Certain to see Christ in the poor from her own experience of Christ. Do I give to poor with Christ or philanthropy? Note eat apple to fit in pants, ore to follow Christ. Purity of mind/ heart with single lens focus,

As this door closes, vision has been clarified. The heart, no longer divided, begins to see as God sees. But this vision is never meant to remain private. To see God rightly is to begin acting as His children in the world. In the next episode, we will open the Seventh Door of the Kingdom: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

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EPISODE 4 – Isaiah 24: When the World Comes Apart

How to Read Isaiah 24 (Reader Orientation)

Isaiah 24 often unsettles first-time readers because it sounds cosmic, catastrophic, and final. The key to reading it well is to recognize what kind of language Isaiah is using and why.

Isaiah 24 uses de-creation language. The prophet describes the world unraveling in terms that echo Genesis in reverse. This is not meant to provide a literal timetable of end-time events. It is a way of telling the truth about what happens when moral order collapses.

Rather than focusing on specific disasters, the reader should attend to cause and effect. Isaiah portrays a world destabilized because truth has been violated. When covenant faithfulness erodes, the social and natural order begins to fracture. Moral disorder produces cosmic instability.

This chapter is therefore not fear-mongering. It is truth-telling. Isaiah is naming the consequences of treating truth as optional. The intensity of the imagery matches the seriousness of the diagnosis.

Isaiah 24 should also be read within its larger context. It follows the judgment of the nations in Isaiah 13-23 and prepares the way for the hope that follows in Isaiah 25-27. The chapter does not stand alone. It exposes what must be confronted before healing can occur.

Reading Isaiah 24 well requires restraint. The goal is not to decode every image, but to grasp the central claim: when a people abandon truth, the world they inhabit becomes unstable. Judgment names that reality so that restoration can eventually take place.

Exposition

Isaiah 24 is one of the most unsettling chapters in the book, and it is meant to be. The language is severe because the truth it names is severe.

Here Isaiah describes what can only be called de-creation. The earth is laid waste and scattered. Order gives way to instability. Joy dries up. Cities empty. This is not random catastrophe. Isaiah is very clear about the cause. “The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants,” he says, “for they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the everlasting covenant” (Isaiah 24:5).

[This chapter is not fear-mongering, and it is not a prediction chart. It is truth-telling. Isaiah is showing what happens when truth itself is treated as optional. When moral order collapses, social order cannot hold. When covenant faithfulness is abandoned, the world people build together begins to fracture.]

The imagery is cosmic because the consequences are comprehensive. Isaiah speaks of the earth reeling like a drunkard and swaying like a hut (Isaiah 24:19–20). He is not offering a timetable. He is naming instability. A world without truth cannot stand upright.

What is striking is that Isaiah never blames God for the collapse. The cause is human infidelity. Judgment here is not arbitrary punishment. It is exposure. It reveals what has already been hollowed out by falsehood. Moral collapse precedes social collapse. What looks sudden has been forming for a long time.

And yet, even here, Isaiah does not let chaos have the final word. In the midst of this unmaking, he affirms that God still reigns (Isaiah 24:23). Sovereignty is not lost even when structures fall. Judgment clears away what cannot endure, but it does not erase God’s purpose.

Isaiah 24 stands where it does for a reason. It follows the judgment of the nations and prepares the way for what comes next. Before death can be swallowed up, death must be named. Before healing can begin, the diagnosis must be spoken aloud.

This chapter asks a question that reaches beyond Isaiah’s time and into every age:

What happens to a world when truth is treated as optional?

Isaiah’s answer is sobering. But it is also merciful. Because truth told, even painfully, is the only ground on which restoration can ever stand.

Key Scripture Anchors (Isaiah 24)

These verses support the themes without requiring verse-by-verse explanation:

Scholarly Sources (for Show Notes)

Primary Scholarly Framework

Canonical Orientation

Anchor: Isaiah 24

exposition:

Scholarship support (quiet, internal):

Exhortation:

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The Fifth Door: Mercy

Scripture Focus

Exposition

Ecclesial Reception

Spiritual Application

Exhortation

Action Item

Mercy makes righteousness visible. Righteousness owed to God and man. Corporal and spiritual works of mercy job title of mother. Teaches what spiritual hunger, naked in the natural, leads to the idea of nakedness spiritual. Justice achieved in a self-reflective way. Fulcrum. Mercy brings righteousness into concrete form. Drink to the thirsty.

Teaser for the Next Door

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EPISODE 3 Judgment of the Nations: No Exemptions

Anchor: Isaiah 13-23 (survey, not detail)

As Isaiah moves beyond Babylon, judgment does not narrow. It widens.

From Isaiah 13 through 23, the prophet speaks against a series of nations. But the purpose is not to catalog enemies or to rank guilt. The purpose is to establish a single, uncomfortable truth: there are no exemptions from moral accountability.

Israel is not privileged against judgment. The nations are not judged instead of Israel. Isaiah refuses both distortions. Instead, he shows that God judges impartially, because truth itself is impartial.

This section makes that clear. God declares that His purpose extends beyond one people or one empire. “This is the plan planned for the whole earth,” Isaiah says, “and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations” (Isaiah 14:26). Judgment is not selective enforcement. It is the application of reality.

At the same time, Isaiah makes another claim that corrects our instincts. Judgment is not opposed to salvation. In several places, the prophet shows judgment producing repentance. After the collapse of false supports, people “look to their Maker” (Isaiah 17:7). When illusions fall, truth becomes visible again.

This is why Isaiah can speak of nations like Egypt being struck and then healed (Isaiah 19:22). Judgment exposes what is false so that what is real can be restored. Even former enemies are not written off. They are called to account because they are called to life.

Isaiah is not celebrating the downfall of others. He is dismantling the idea that anyone stands outside moral reality. Power does not grant immunity. History does not excuse injustice. And belonging to God’s people does not cancel accountability.

This is also why Isaiah refuses to let us reduce these chapters to ancient geopolitics. The pattern repeats because the human temptation repeats. Wherever truth is ignored, judgment follows. Wherever judgment is received, restoration becomes possible.

So, this widening judgment prepares us for what comes next. If accountability truly applies to all, then hope can also be offered to all. Universal redemption only makes sense because judgment is universal first.

The question Isaiah leaves us with here is not whether the nations were judged long ago. The question is whether we believe that truth still applies without exceptions.

Very timely with the state of the world, with perhaps judgment on its way. Have bigger picture, first step to redemption. Feels like chaos worldwide, makes me yearn for deeper connection to Christ, righteous tied to stability. Fear of the Lord leads to joy in obeying His commands.

Sacred Scripture

Isaiah 13 – 23 is not meant to be read as a checklist of nations or a timeline of geopolitical events. It is a patterned theological argument.

Rather than asking, “Which nation is this about?” the listener/reader should ask, “What does this reveal about how judgment works?” Isaiah presents a series of oracles to show that moral accountability applies universally, not selectively. Power, wealth, history, and religious identity do not grant exemptions from truth.

These chapters should be read with three guiding principles in mind:

Reading these chapters this way allows the reader to avoid reductionism, despair, or triumphalism, and to see how Isaiah is preparing the ground for the hope that will follow.

Scholarly Sources

Exposition:

Key guardrail:

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The Fourth Door: Hungering for What Is True

Beatitude

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6

Exposition

As we step through the fourth door of the Kingdom, the language of the Beatitudes turns decisively toward desire. Poverty of spirit named our dependence. Mourning taught us how consolation is received. Now Christ asks something more searching: what do you actually want?

Matthew’s choice of words is deliberate. Hunger and thirst are not metaphors for polite interest or moral aspiration. They name a bodily urgency, a need without which life cannot continue. This Beatitude therefore describes not a rule to be followed but a longing that orders everything else.

Here Matthew’s theology is essential. As Peter Ellis demonstrates in Matthew: His Mind and His Message, righteousness in this Gospel is never merely private moral correctness. It names fidelity to God’s will as revealed and embodied by Jesus, especially within the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes function programmatically. They establish the interior orientation of the disciple before Jesus unfolds specific commands. To hunger for righteousness is to desire a life brought into living conformity with God’s reign, verified not by intention alone but by hearing and doing the word Matthew 7:24–27.

This is why Matthew repeatedly pairs righteousness with obedience. Not everyone who calls Jesus “Lord” enters the Kingdom, but the one who does the will of the Father Matthew 7:21. Desire, in Matthew, must become enacted truth.

The Catechism receives this teaching ecclesially. The Beatitudes “depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity” and they “express the vocation of the faithful” by revealing the desires that must be purified and reordered §1717. Hungering for righteousness, then, is not self-driven striving. It is consent to let God reshape what we love so that our desires mirror Christ’s own.

Jacques Philippe stands firmly within this tradition. He insists that this Beatitude is first about conversion, not activism. Before we seek justice outside ourselves, we must allow truth to penetrate illusion within us. Philippe notes that we often want righteousness abstractly while resisting the truth that would reorder our own hearts. The hunger Christ blesses is a hunger to be made right, to be freed from self-deception, and to let God establish His order within us.

And yet the promise is gentle. “They shall be satisfied.” This is not total fulfillment here and now, but sufficiency. God gives enough light for the next step, enough grace for fidelity today. Philippe emphasizes that God feeds desire gradually, deepening it rather than exhausting it, so that the soul learns to live from truth rather than control.

This door teaches us that holiness begins not with answers, but with an honest hunger, a refusal to settle for substitutes, and a willingness to let God name what is lacking.

Exhortation

During Lent, this Beatitude invites us to examine what we truly hunger for, not what we say we want, but what our time, attention, and emotional energy reveal. God does not shame disordered desire. He heals it. But only if we allow the truth to surface.

Action Item

This week, set aside one quiet moment and ask God a single question without explanation or defense: What do You want me to desire more purely? Do not rush to resolve it. Let the hunger be named.

Hunger & thirst, natural order. Good things and bad things to hunger & thirst. Body reaps consequence, cirrhosis liver, obesity, if wrongly ordered.

Like a good parent, train to their hunger and thirst to good things. He tells us to hunger for righteousness. If we seek that, we will be satisfied. It’s enough to engage appetite for rightly ordered spiritual life. Many people long for exterior righteousness to themselves, but do not correct disorder within. Intellect either controls or is subservient to appetite. If we do not righteous and cirrhosis liver seek I tout first, train ourselves to now find. Worse can’t control interior will need exterior control and demand it.

As this door closes, desire has been clarified but not yet disciplined. The next door will ask what happens when that desire is placed under gentleness, when strength is no longer asserted but surrendered.

Next episode we can open The Fifth Door: Meekness, where Matthew’s vision of kingship and Philippe’s teaching on surrendered strength meet beautifully.

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EPISODE 2 Babylon as Archetype, Not Villain

Anchor: Isaiah 13 (selectively)

As Isaiah turns to the judgment of the nations, he begins, and will later return, with Babylon. The opening line makes this explicit: “The oracle concerning Babylon” (Isaiah 13:1). That placement is deliberate, and it matters.

Babylon is not singled out because it is uniquely wicked. It is singled out because it represents something every age recognizes: power divorced from obedience. In Isaiah 13, the language of the Day of the LORD is applied first not to Israel, but to Babylon itself (Isaiah 13:6-13). Judgment begins where the illusion of permanence is strongest.

Historically, Babylon was a real empire with real armies, wealth, and cultural influence. Isaiah does not deny that reality. But he looks deeper. In Isaiah 14, the prophet moves from the city to its ruler, exposing the inner logic of pride that says, “I will ascend to heaven… I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). What is judged here is not only a regime, but a way of thinking that confuses dominance with legitimacy and endurance with righteousness.

That assumption is precisely what judgment exposes.

Judgment does not fall first on the weakest nations, but on the strongest illusion. Babylon believes itself untouchable. Its structures appear enduring. Its power seems self-sustaining. Yet Isaiah already anticipates its collapse when he declares, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon” (Isaiah 21:9), long before history confirms it.

Isaiah is dismantling historical reductionism before it can take hold. These oracles are not merely about ancient geopolitics. They reveal a recurring pattern: whenever power detaches itself from obedience, it becomes unstable, no matter how solid it appears.

This is why Babylon frames this entire section. The judgment that opens in Isaiah 13 finds its echo at the close of the unit, where Isaiah speaks again of God’s decisive action against the forces that oppose His order (Isaiah 27:1). Babylon is not just a villain of the past. It is an archetype that teaches us how judgment works.

As Isaiah moves outward from Babylon to the nations, the scope widens, but the logic remains the same. Strength does not exempt us from truth. Stability does not equal righteousness. And what looks secure may already be failing beneath the surface.

So, the question Isaiah presses on us here is not whether Babylon fell long ago. The question is closer and more uncomfortable:

Where do we confuse stability with righteousness?

That question prepares us for what comes next, as judgment widens beyond Babylon, not to destroy indiscriminately, but to reveal what can actually endure.

Scripture

Scholarly Sources

Exposition:

Scholarship light reference (not heavy quoting):

Exhortation:

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The Third Door

Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is often misunderstood. It is not weakness or passivity. In the Gospel, meekness is strength that comes from humility and trust in God.

Jacques Philippe explains that meekness grows directly from poverty of spirit. When we no longer try to be our own source of worth, we stop needing to dominate, control, or defend ourselves. Poverty of spirit means receiving everything from God as gift, not as possession. When we accept that, the heart becomes peaceful. From that peace comes meekness.

Philippe draws on St Thérèse of Lisieux. She says true littleness is not taking ownership of God’s gifts, but recognizing they are his. Our goodness is not our property. It is grace. When this sinks in, pride and comparison lose their power. We do not have to prove ourselves. We simply belong to God.

Jesus gives us the key when he says, Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. The Catechism teaches that the Beatitudes reveal the heart of Christ and invite us into his dispositions (§1717). Meekness, then, is sharing the inner life of Jesus. It is not something we manufacture. It is the fruit of knowing we are loved.

Philippe warns of a danger. We can use even spiritual gifts to build the ego. We begin to seek admiration rather than God. Meekness untangles this knot. Our value does not come from self-affirmation. It comes from being sons and daughters of the Father. The only real riches are his love and his word to us: All that is mine is yours.

This explains the promise. The meek will inherit the earth. An inheritance is not seized. It is received. The meek do not grasp or force. They receive the world from the Father’s hand. Their gentleness is not weakness. It is freedom.

Meekness is urgently needed now. Our culture confuses loudness with strength. Philippe reminds us that God communicates himself most easily to the humble and poor in spirit. When the heart is emptied of pride, there is space for God, and for others.

Exhortation

Action item for this week

God is Just, meekness covers a multitude of sins, that punishment due to us.

Desire to have own way is from a rebellious spirit, often. Anger builds on anger flames fire of wrath. Sweet meekness of spirit yields because in control of appetite.

Appetite wants to rage, meekness binds it, interior centering, takes focus off what think is deserved, already have much, reminded. Kingdon of God ia t disposal. Required a meekness before it to obtain it.

Teaser for the next episode

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Second Door

Today we walk through the second door. Jesus says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be consoled. At first hearing, this Beatitude sounds like a contradiction. How can mourning possibly be called blessed

Jacques Philippe helps us by saying that Jesus is not glorifying sadness itself. He is revealing what God does with sadness when we place it in his hands. Scripture promises that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes with the morning, and that God’s consolations delight the soul. The Beatitude is a promise that no suffering placed in God’s heart is ever wasted.

Philippe points out that mourning is part of love. We mourn because we care. We grieve losses, sin, injustice, disappointment, our own weakness, and the pain of others. The danger is not mourning. The danger is trying to escape sorrow by hardening the heart or distracting ourselves. Jesus does not tell us to silence tears. He tells us where to bring them.

The Catechism says that the Beatitudes sustain hope in the midst of tribulation and proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, even in the midst of persecution and suffering (CCC §

1728). This means consolation is not psychological optimism. It is the work of God in the soul. Philippe writes that God is the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. He himself comes into the places where we hurt, not merely to remove pain, but to fill it with his presence.

A key insight in these pages is that we often look for consolation from people, situations, or success, and become discouraged when they do not satisfy. Philippe says that the true source of consolation is God alone. When we allow ourselves to be his children, we learn to say with the psalm, My tears have become my bread, yet the Lord will command his steadfast love for me. God wants to console us not from afar, but from within the heart.

Then Philippe takes us one step further. The consolation we receive is not meant to stay in us. He says that Christians are called to become consolers of those who suffer. The world is full of hearts in need of comfort today. Saint Paul says that God consoles us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. That is part of our baptismal mission.

So, this second door is very tender. Jesus does not promise that we will never mourn. He promises that no tear united to him will be meaningless. He also entrusts us with a mission. Consoled by God, we are sent to bring a quiet hope to others.

Exhortation

Action item for this week

No shortage of sorrows and those who need consolation. Beautiful in Catholic world, does not remove suffering fills those with Himself. End up with terrible things because only remove suffering, get mercy killing and abortion.

Scott Adams lived out his dying publicly. Before Christ, over time, Christians became a source of consolation, bearing suffering while being consoled, this is the Chistian life. Saw him transition.

https://fidesetratio.us/blessed-conchita-wife-mother-mystic-ii/

We have opportunity to console Christ in His Divine Humanity during His earthly sojourn. The indifference towards our Lord and it wounds Him in truly human way. Women, mother, grandmother, with our love prayers assist in consoling our blessed Lord.

Authentic human man, body & blood.

Simply removal of suffering is sufficient, error.

Europeans traveling to countries with mercy killing, devastation of loved ones getting the ashes. Suffering and consolation go together. Left emotional chasm of consolation. Poor people who get this.

Humility, first door, poverty of spirit, we are not in control. All we have to offer is our poverty.

Teaser for the next episode

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Governing Thesis

The necessity of both judgment and redemption – neither makes sense without the other.

Everything below serves this claim.

Macro-Arc for Isaiah 13-27

(Judgment opening the door for joy; judgment clearing the path for joy)

Before we enter some of the most intense chapters in Isaiah, we need to reset how we hear the word judgment.

In our time, judgment is often treated as something either arbitrary or irrelevant. If all moral claims are relative, then no judgment can really matter. But Isaiah will not allow us that comfort. Scripture insists that truth matters, and that it is worth the cost to seek it, live by it, and be corrected by it.

Isaiah is not describing judgment as divine anger flaring out of control. He is describing judgment the way a physician describes a diagnosis. Judgment names what is real. It tells the truth about what is broken so that healing is even possible. Without diagnosis, there is no cure. Without truth, there is no restoration.

Historically, Isaiah speaks into real events: covenant unfaithfulness, social injustice, and the collapse that follows when a people abandon the truth that sustains them. This is not abstract theology, and it is not merely end-times speculation. These judgments unfold in history, through nations, leaders, and systems that believed themselves secure.

But Isaiah also widens the lens. Judgment does not stop with Judah. It expands outward, encompassing the nations and, eventually, the whole earth. That widening is not cruelty; it is consistency. If truth is real, it applies to everyone. If moral order exists, it cannot be confined to one people or one era.

Here is the governing truth that will carry us through this section of Isaiah: judgment and redemption belong together; neither makes sense without the other. Judgment clears what is diseased so that life can emerge. Redemption restores what judgment has exposed. If we remove judgment, redemption becomes sentimental. If we remove redemption, judgment becomes despair.

The chapters ahead will feel severe, especially the language of collapse and unmaking. But Isaiah does not leave us there. This section moves deliberately from exposure to healing, from diagnosis to life. It does not end in darkness. It ends in hope that is earned, not imagined.

Isaiah insists on something our culture resists: there is no such thing as a private sin. What we choose, tolerate, or ignore always shapes the world we share. Judgment names that reality not to crush us, but to save us from lies that cannot sustain life.

So, as we begin this portion of Isaiah, we do so soberly but not fearfully. Truth is demanding, but it is also merciful. And it is only by telling the truth that joy becomes possible at all.

Anchor: Transition from Isaiah 1 & 6 → 13-27

Key takeaway:

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First Door

Today we begin with the first Door. Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. We often hear those words, but they can sound frightening. No one wants to feel poor, weak, or inadequate. Yet Jacques Philippe insists that the poverty Jesus speaks of is not misery. It is the path into freedom and joy.

To be poor in spirit means not relying on ourselves, our plans, or our goodness, but receiving everything from God as a gift. Philippe says that this poverty is happiness because it makes us totally dependent upon God, and more completely attached to him. The goal of life is not to glorify ourselves or to be satisfied with ourselves, but to glorify the infinite mercy of God. That is a very different view of life than the one our culture gives us.

He draws deeply from St Thérèse of Lisieux. Thérèse said the key is to rejoice in our littleness and accept our limitations without fear. When God sees us accepting our smallness, his mercy rushes toward us. God is not asking us to be impressive. He is asking us to be his children. Philippe comments that the real mistake is to pretend that we have created our own treasure, as if we made ourselves spiritually rich by our efforts. True wealth is to receive everything as gift from the Father.

Here the Catechism is very clear. It says that the Beatitudes reveal the face of Christ and describe the love of God in action in our lives, and that they respond to the natural desire for happiness that God has placed in every human heart (CCC §1717). They are not an added burden. They are how the human heart finally breathes.

This Beatitude therefore answers one of the deepest sufferings of our time. Many people feel exhausted from trying to be enough. Poverty of spirit tells us that we do not have to save ourselves. We are not the source. God is. Once we stop constantly looking in the mirror to check whether we are successful or worthy, as Philippe puts it, we make space for God to pour real joy into our lives.

So, to be poor in spirit is not to despise ourselves. It is to anchor our confidence not in what we do, but in who God is. The poorer we are in ourselves, the richer we become in the gifts of God. That is why Jesus begins here. This is the first door, and every other Beatitude grows from it.

Exhortation

Action item for this week

Teaser for the next episode

Honesty in poverty, know that need. If not in need materially, poverty takes illusion.

Poverty of the spirit, know what lack. The one who knows what he needs God want to give everything to the soul.

When naked, anything looks good, when hungry, anything tastes good.

Poorness, poverty, connected to humility, humble of means, essential before the divinity. Know God loves us as His children, longs to give us good things, recognize our destitution without God, want opens into what God wants to provide. Even the smallest thing deeply appreciated.

Jesus does not lead us into gloom. He leads us into a love that heals sorrow itself. In the next episode we will walk through the second door: Blessed are those who mourn.

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