"“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours." (Luke 6 : 20)

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours." (Luke 6 : 20)

The Bible is full of many pronouncements of blessedness.  For example: Blessed are those who trust in the Lord; Blessed are those who are invited to the supper of the Lamb.  Among those pronounced blessed in the Sermon on the Mount are those who are materially poor and depend solely on God for everything.  They are happy here and now and will be so forever because they possess God.

I see two choices here:  To be rich in the world or to be rich in faith.  I have tasted the former.   Lord, make me rich in faith.  I want to taste your kingdom here and now.  I want to possess it forever.

Blessed John Henry Newman has an interesting thing to say about wealth:

"All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth; and by wealth they measure respectability. . . . It is a homage resulting from a profound faith . . . that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second. . . . Notoriety, or the making of a noise in the world - it may be called "newspaper fame" - has come to be considered a great good in itself, and a ground of veneration."