433 part ii: meditations for more solemn feasts In vain, therefore, will you call out and pray: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears” (1 Sam 3:9), when you refuse to welcome the admonitions of others. In vain you will beseech: “Your will be done with me” (cf. Mt 6:10; 26:42; Lk 22:42), when you are so oversensitive that you are not able to hear with good grace, or at least patiently, one word said by someone to bring about your improvement. But what shall result from this attitude, only time will tell. [f.138v] FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS Before Holy Communion 1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). Consider that the Heavenly Wisdom put this beatitude first, for no other reason than to show that as compared to the others it pleases Him best. For He wanted, as St. Basil says: “to be born to a poor Mother in a poor stable, and being wrapped in cheap swaddling clothes, to be laid in a manger.”207 As to clarify that poverty does not consist in possessing nothing, Jesus said that blessed are “the poor in spirit.” He indicated thus that someone is also poor and enjoys the beatitude of poverty who, possessing many things, is not emotionally attached to them, regards them as transitory and entrusted to him for distribution, and generously gives them out to the needy. You, however, follow in the footsteps of the apostles who, traversing various countries of the world, were told to abstain from using even a walking staff and a traveling bag. In practic207 Cf. Lk 2:7. This quote was not found in the general index for the works of St. Basil the Great under the word “poverty” (paupertas), nor was it indicated in his comments on Lk 2:7 or Mt 5:3. However, a similar idea was expressed in his homily on humility: Cf. Basilius Magnus, Homiliæ et sermones: Homilia XX — De Humilitate, in: PG, vol. 31, Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, Paris 1857, p. 535 (n. 161): “imitantes Dominum, qui de coelo in extremam humilitatemdescendit … Infans cum esset, statim in spelunca, et ne in lecto quidem, sed in praesepi jacuit.”
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