In the first of the Beatitudes from today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” It is a fitting proclamation for today’s solemnity of All Saints, since the saints, more than any other men and women, are the ones who know and who exhibit true poverty of spirit.
The saints are not poor in spirit because they are men and women who have mediocre gifts and talents; on the contrary, the witness of the tradition shows that many saints are extraordinarily talented. Rather, they are poor in spirit because they know that everything they are and everything they do is a gift from God. Because the saints live out of this knowledge of God’s gift in Christ Jesus, the saints, more than any other men and women, allow the light and brilliance of God’s love to shine forth through their lives.
Looking at the example of the saints, we can ask ourselves whether we live with the kind of existential transparency and poverty of spirit that allows God’s light to shine through us as it ought. Today, let us ask the Lord to transform us to live with a greater openness and poverty before Him, so that we might be better witnesses of His love in the world.