“In Conversation, the disciple who is truly poor in spirit always leaves the other person with the feeling, ‘My life has been enriched by talking with you.’ This is neither false modesty nor phony humility. His or her life has been enriched and graced. He is not all exhaust and no intake. She does not impose herself on others. He listens well because he knows he has so much to learn from others. Her spiritual poverty enables her to enter the world of the other even when she cannot identify with that world: i.e., the drug culture, the gay world. The poor in spirit are the most nonjudgmental of peoples; they get along well with sinners
The poor man and woman of the gospel have made peace with their flawed existence. They are aware of their lack of wholeness, their brokenness, the simple fact that they don’t have it all together. While they do no excuse their sin, they are humbly aware that sin is precisely what has caused them to throw themselves at the mercy of the Father. They do not pretend to be anything but what they are: sinners saved by grace.” –Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
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