Blessed are the Poor, but who are they?

I'm definitely no expert in this area, but we often hear about the poor and how we ought to help them. I just wanted to offer a few thoughts on this.

First I want to say I don't think people should be classified as a category. It seems very permanent. Sometimes we lump poor people into a group and thinking of them as a collective. Or we see an individual as a poor person. I don't usually agree with political correctness as I think it has gone much too far, but a good point is not to categorize people in a one-dimensional way. Instead of saying "he's a poor person", it's better to say he is someone who is poor. Why do I say that? Because he could be poor at the moment, maybe he's hard on his luck, maybe he lost his job or has a substance abuse problem, who knows? But his poverty should not define who he is as a person. Beyond the financial poverty, he is a human being with an intellect, emotions, and aspirations, etc.

Also, just calling someone a poor person can tend to categorize them along with all the other poor people in the world. Rather than a specific circumstance this person finds himself, it becomes his collective identity and we start to think everyone who is poor is identical in almost every way.

Another trend I have noticed in the church is to refer to places like the Global South as being poor. This is a terrible way of thinking as it implies that everyone in the south of the globe has no choice but to be poor, and thus we must be their guardians and financial supporters or else there is nothing they can do.

I tend to take the approach that we all came here after thousands of generations. To get here, our ancestors had to carve out an existence. Often this happened in extremely difficult and grueling circumstances. We have endured famines, disasters, disease outbreaks, etc. and yet here we are to tell our story. Everyone has come from such a lineage. Therefore, we cannot think of entire groups of people as being completely incompetent and unable to make their own life. I think almost anyone can make something of themselves with the right kind of help, love, and support.

But an even bigger question is "who is poor?" It might seem easy to classify anyone with little money as being poor. But one thing I have come across many times in spiritual writings is the pre-eminence of spiritual matters over temporal ones. As people living in a secular world, we tend to focus on the material, the immediate, the visible, and less on the immaterial and invisible.

The poorest person is the one who has the least connection with God, ultimately. Our goal as human beings is to enter into communion with God. Many saints had no money at all, many had little food and would fast for extended periods of time, yet because of their closeness and love of God, they were the richest people on Earth. If we think primarily in terms of spiritual matters, then things become a lot more clear.

So I think we need to change our attitude about poverty, in my opinion. Spiritual poverty is the greatest kind. When it comes to financial poverty, we cannot save the world on our own. I don't think God has designed us that way. Instead, he asks us to care for those around us and to do what we can to bring about the Kingdom of God. I think all too often people get caught up in the concept of saving the world and they start to believe they can actually do so. People donate money to distant charities while neglecting those around them. But this isn't how we are built.

I'm not saying we shouldn't donate to far off causes, but I think we need to humanize people and focus on those around us. Plus, we must realize that spiritual poverty is much worse than material poverty. With that point of view, we help the "poor" a lot more by growing in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ and spreading the joy that comes with it, than by only throwing money at things.