Joy, however, isn’t exactly the emotion that Christians are expected to experience during Advent. It’s a season for looking forward, rather than backward. We aren’t awaiting the coming of a Sweet Baby Jesus in the manger. The event we are anticipating is not Jesus’ first coming, but rather His second coming.
St. Paul says, while we do happen to live on this earth, we really belong in heaven. By the way, CS Lewis says it another way, “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” Regardless, we Christians look to heaven for Jesus to come again and take us with him. When Jesus comes back he will raise us up from the dead and change our mortal bodies into immortal bodies just like his.
Poor in Spirit is a odd term that gets misused by people with social or political agendas. The best way to understand the term, Poor in Spirit, isn’t as an indicator of quantity, but rather of awareness of dependency. Someone in poor health needs the help of doctors and caregivers. Someone truly poor in wealth, not only has little, but has so little that they could not survive without the resources and grace of a community… whether civil, familial or religious.