Blessed are the Poor

Jesus calls the poor blessed.  Why?  Essentially because in poverty Truth finds a home. Poverty has no other claim than Truth, so Truth emerges in the poor.  Cardinal Ratzinger wrotes: "The Platonic Socrates underscores the connection between truth and defenselessness, truth and poverty, especially in the Apology and the Crito. Socrates is credible because in taking the part of 'the god' he gets neither rank nor possession, but, on the contrary, is thrust into poverty and, finally, into the role of the accused.  Poverty is the truly divine form in which truth appears: in its poverty it can demand obedience without alienation."  From, "Interreligious Dialogue" in Communio (Spring 1998).