Vatican City, Feb 5, 2020 / 09:20 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that a focus on achieving fame or having a perfect image in the eyes of the world denies God’s call to poverty of spirit and is a tiring and lonely endeavor.

The “poor in spirit” referenced by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount are not those who lack economic means, but those “who are and feel poor, beggars, in the depths of their being,” the pope explained Feb. 5.