Blessed Are the Needy

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Surely, everyone who has ever memorized the beatitudes remembers the first of them all. This is well, for indeed this beatitude is first not only as a matter of order, in the sense that it stands at the beginning or head of the list, but in the sense that it defines the entire sermon of Christ on the kingdom of heaven. These opening verses of the sermon describe for us the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The citizens...