On this Sunday, the liturgy offers us the splendid passage from Matthew's Beatitudes.

The passage begins with poverty of spirit and concludes with the blessedness of those who are persecuted, that is, those who want to live the Gospel and love to the full.

For Francis and Clare of Assisi, humility of heart and interior and exterior poverty were the keystone of all the other beatitudes, the identikit of Jesus and of every disciple who wants to walk in his footsteps.

There is an enchanting passage on poverty in the «Sacrum Commercium» (an allegorical operetta by an unknown author) contained in the Sources, which we quote here.

«Thus, enamoured of your beauty, the Son of the Most High Father united himself closely to you alone in the world and knew you to be most faithful in all things.

Even before He came to earth from the splendour of His homeland, You prepared for Him a worthy dwelling, a throne on which to sit and a bedchamber where to rest, that is, the most poor Virgin, from whom He was born to shine upon this world.

You hastened to meet Him as soon as He was born, so that He might find in You, and not in softness, a place that was pleasing to Him.

He was laid, says the evangelist, in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.

In the same way, without ever separating yourself from him, you always accompanied him, so much so that throughout his life, when he appeared on earth and lived among men, while the foxes had their dens and the birds of the sky had their nests, he had nowhere to lay his head.

And later, when he, who had once opened the mouths of the prophets, opened his mouth to teach, he first wanted to praise you, he first exalted you with the words: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven» (FF 1977).

Francis then, in his Admonitions, among other things, exalts the pure heart, precisely the poor heart, when he says:

«Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Truly pure in heart are those who despise earthly things and seek heavenly things, and never cease to worship and see the Lord God, alive and true, with a pure heart and soul» (FF 165).

Chiara echoes this in her Testament:

«If we live according to the aforementioned way of life, we will leave a noble example to others and, through a very short period of effort, we will earn the prize of eternal bliss» (FF 2830).

«Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven» (Mt 5:3)

4th Sunday in O.T.  A  (Mt 5:12a)