Day 327: Poverty of Heart (2544-2557)

• It’s Day 327!!

• God desires this transformation of our interior selves, our ETHOS

• POVERTY OF HEART

• “I WANT TO SEE GOD”

• They go hand in hand

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we praise your name and give you thanks. Thank you so much. Help us. Help us to have poverty of spirit. Help us to be poor in spirit. Help us to have a poverty of heart. And Lord God, help us to say we have no possessions, except for you. Let you be the only possession that we claim, the only possession that we rejoice in. Lord God, help us. Help us not only to see you. Help us to desire to see you. Let you be the greatest treasure of our lives, that we desire nothing more than to be in your presence, that we desire nothing more than to belong to you that we desire nothing more than to behold you, face to face. Lord God, transform our hearts and give us these gifts, poverty of heart, and the desire to see you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Who is the goal?

• God Himself is the goal

• This is about learning who God is so we can possess God and be possessed by God

• It is not just so that we can follow rules

• It is so we can be like Him and that we can dwell with Him for Eternity

• Here is what the good life is

• It is to say YES to the Lord with EVERYTHING YOU HAVE

• Paragraph 2544 says, “Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone and bids them ‘renounce all that [they have]’ for his sake and that of the Gospel. Shortly before his passion he gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem who, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on. The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.”

• Remember what Jesus said about how hard it is for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven

• We can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless we renounce all of our goods

• This is necessary

• In this world, we have to have goods to a certain degree

• BUT…

• We need to be able to use them without counting them as ours

• We need to see ourselves as stewards

• Even if you find yourself in a place of abundance, you still need to find yourself with a poverty of heart

• God has blessed you in an incredible way so that He can bless others through you

• Why?

• Because you have this poverty of heart that desires to tell God that you are not just  receptacle

• So that you can tell God that you are a vessel so that He can pour into you and you can let those gifts and blessings roll through you and bring life to others

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike give an example of the Holy Land of the Sea of Galilee VS the Dead Sea…

• The water that flows into the Sea of Galilee from the Golan Heights then flows into the Jordan River

• The water that flows into the Dead Sea stops there, it doesn’t have an exit

• When it comes to God’s blessings, if we just simple receive them and hoard them for ourselves, that will end in death

• BUT…

• If we are the Sea of Galilee and allow God’s blessings to flow into our lives and then to be the vessel through which God’s blessings can flow into us and then into others

• God has blessed many many people who have seen that blessing as an opportunity to become a blessing to others

• Paragraph 2547 says, “The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods. ‘Let the proud seek and love earthly kingdoms, but blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.’ Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow. Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God.”

• God desires us to bless our neighbor

• IN FACT…

• God COMMANDS us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves

• Many people who have been given incredible blessings have the opportunity to be a blessing to the people around them

• That is the call for all of us

• Whether we have been given intellectual goods, spiritual goods, or material goods

• We are called to be a blessing 

• We are called to have that poverty of heart

• We are called to desire to see God

• Paragraph 2549 says, “It remains for the holy people to struggle, with grace from on high, to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ’s faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power.”

• This is your task

• This is your call

• We have to continue to struggle

• We have to continue to mortify ourselves

• We have to continue to die to ourselves

• That is what mortify means

• To die to our cravings

• To die to that part of us that wants to grasp onto things and to be able to tell God that we can allow these things to be taken from us

• I can even give them away with God’s grace so I cannot be seduced by pleasure or power

• “God, I want to see your face. God, let me see your face. God, show me your glory.”

• That is the destiny God wants for you

• That is why we have this life in Christ

• That is why He has given us the Holy Spirit so that we can actually, one day see Him

• I hope that day comes for you

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT…