Midweek Faith Lift
November 4, 2026
The Beatitudes-“Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
October 26, 2026
Imagine two musical instruments resting side by side – a violin and a cello. Each has its own tone, range, and character. When a note is played on the violin, the nearby cello may begin to resonate through sympathetic vibration. The cello does not become the violin or reproduce its sound in precisely the same way. Yet something within it responds. Empathy works much like this. Another person's joy can awaken our joy. Their sorrow can stir our compassion. Their uncertainty may connect with memories of our own difficult seasons. We resonate because we share the experience of being human, yet we retain our individuality. We can feel compassion without becoming overwhelmed by another's emotions or assuming responsibility for directing their life. The violin and cello remain distinct instruments, each expressing its own beautiful sound. Together, they can create a harmony neither could produce alone. Spirit expresses uniquely through every individual, while the same infinite Life connects us all. Empathy allows us to hear another person's music while remaining faithful to our own.
"When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union." - Krishna
"Deep within the heart of the earth and the marrow of our bones is a compass that quivers to the power of love. That's the grand unifying force that Einstein went to his grave still searching for. I believe it is love in its many forms: kindness, passion, connection, empathy, generosity, forgiveness, and the guts to tell the truth. Love is a force."
- Elizabeth Lesser, Marrow, p. 306
"As we release our judgments and grasping, we relax the posture that obstructs the flow of good into our life, and we align with the natural order of a spiritual Universe. By kindness, empathy, and a generous heart, we open avenues through which love can flow."
- Scott Awbrey, Spiritual Passages
And for some humor
My friend told me that I have no empathy for anyone. I just don’t understand why she feels that way.
And with that, we engage once again with the Beatitudes, which are truly all about compassion. A quick refresher about the Beatitudes and why empathy is such a powerful place to begin, especially the first one, is in order. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” If we remember way back to September 27, we started our exploration of the Beatitudes with the understanding that the whole of these teachings contained the essence of the message of Jesus. And the focus of these teachings was to help us cultivate the right “mental state” (consciousness) from which all else follows to empower our lives to unfold in harmony with the Universe, with Divine love.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” is our first instruction and Emmet Fox goes to great lengths to explain that this, and all biblical teachings are best understood metaphysically. Bread for instance is understood to be both physical and spiritual sustenance and prosperity is best understood as “success in prayer,” unrelated to material wealth but more about our consciousness. When we hear the word poor, to the western ear, this sound like failure and poverty. We are conditioned to feel “blessed” when we have all that we need and more; then we are blessed, not when we are poor and in poverty. But that is not the message of Jesus, which has confused many over the centuries!
When Jesus says Blessed, the Aramaic understanding of this word is anchored to a deeper process of “finding our home in the breath.” We have our own small breath, naphsha, which is contained in the ruha, or much larger breath of Spirit or God. The word “blessed” connects to ripeness, so when Jesus says “blessed are you” the meaning is more “ripe are you” who are more connected to spirit than to yourself. That is when you are blessed. This is from the Aramaic as translated and explained by Neil Douglas-Klotz, in Aramaic Jesus: Book of Days.
The word poor, in Aramaic is meskina, which means “just holding on,” in contrast to clinging. We do live in this world and we need to use the material things of this world, but we are blessed when we are just holding on, not grasping or clinging, or hoarding. The understanding of this in Aramaic is that we are blessed when we are just holding on to our small self, or breath, our naphsha and allowing that self to be absorbed in the larger breath, ruha, that is God or Spirit. The message is that less self means more soul, more ruha and to clear out the inner clutter that clings to that which is transient. When we are in this consciousness, then we experience the higher consciousness which is the Kingdom of Heaven; then we have the capacity for true empathy and compassion and joy and we resonate with others and God.
Here is what Emmet Fox says about what it means to be “poor in Spirit” on p. 21 of The Sermon on the Mount:
To be poor in spirit means to have emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will, and what is just as important, to have renounced all preconceived opinions in the wholehearted search for God. It means to be willing to set aside your present habits of thought, your present views and prejudices, your present way of life if necessary; to jettison, in fact, anything and everything that stands in the way of your finding God.
That, my friends, is a really tall order! Not one that we even recognize at times. For sure, I am not always aware when personal self-will is my driving force, other than the fact that it usually does not turn out very well! DUH!! The other indicator for me is that I am unsatisfied or unhappy with the outcome or results of my efforts. When that happens, I typically wanted the other person to be in a space, emotional energy, or awareness that is not the reality for them in that moment. And I have not emptied myself, as noted above. When I am able to empty myself and really see the other person, and where they really are, then I am able to empathize and have compassion for where they are and let it be. That is radical acceptance: simple, but not easy. That is to be poor in spirit.
When we can let go of our attachments and not cling to that which we feel “defines who we are,” then we are truly no longer holding on and we can find room in our hearts for the “ruha” or breath of God. We recognize that ruha is who we really are! We are the naphsha, or small self, but we are much more than that, we are the very breath of God. It is then that we can truly pray for the highest and best good for all, without attachment to outcomes and cultivate curiosity rather than cling to control. It is then we can resonate with the suffering of others and realize that they suffer just as we do. We have empathy.
In the time of Jesus, it was his followers, those who had nothing and no material wealth or power who were open to this message, not the Rabbis or the elites of the Jewish religion. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain by embracing this energy of Spirit or God. It could show them how to live together in love and peace. Likewise, in our modern times, like the Rabbis, we cling to our degrees, our education, our accomplishments to define us and give us a sense of worth and worthiness. The title “Rev.” meant a lot to me! I even put it on my license plate and I asked folks to call me Rev. Deb because I had worked so long and hard to get to that title! None of those things are wrong or bad for us. What trips us up is the false belief that unless we have them, we are not worthy or if we lose them, we are no longer worthy of love and belonging. My head says this is true, but in my heart, I still cling!
In our world today, empathy, compassion and being “poor in Spirit” are not part of the what is valued and held up as worthy, even among those who call themselves Christian. We have lived through an era where the mantra has been “Greed is good,” and we are living with the outcomes of that false belief. These have not been very good outcomes for the planet or for us. It is easy to condemn the “other” for their erroneous beliefs, but pause and realize that takes us out of the energy of the first beatitude. We start clinging to our beliefs as the “correct” ones and we are right back in it again, unable to truly see and listen to the bigger voice of “ruha” or Spirit. Gratitude is a good antidote for this!
There are two scriptures from the letters of Paul which affirm the teachings of this first beatitude:
“Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” - Romans 12:15
“And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” - 1 Corinthians 12-26
And finally, a message from Neil Douglas-Klotz, that says this about ripeness;
Perhaps life is calling you to Yeshua’s tonic, which may initially feel like poison to your sense of who you think you are. Can you trust that if you just stop for a moment, or a day, your ruha-soul will renew you?
And so it is,
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb