A reading from the gospel according to Matthew 5:1-12A
1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 He began to teach them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
12A Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
Reflection: The Beatitudes
It is very clear in the gospel reading above that being blessed does not always mean being materially blessed. In fact the first beatitude specifically mentioned being “poor in spirit”. Of course, this is not to exclude the rich from God’s blessings. Everyone is a child of God and therefore, the beatitude is for everyone.
Without trying to exhaustively explain them, let us endeavor to look at them one by one.
1. Poverty in spirit
Poverty should not only be viewed in terms of lack of material wealth. You may be rich but in the eyes of God, you are poor. In reality, everything is owned by God. Therefore, to be poor in spirit means to realize that before God, we are nothing and have nothing except sin and that makes us unworthy. The sooner we realize that we really do not own anything and that we depend only on the generosity or grace of God, the more blessed we are.
2.Mourning
Sorrow, pain, grief, loss, disappointment – all these break our heart and we cry, we mourn, we sigh for relief or comfort. No man, not even Jesus, is immune to the harsh effect of sin which is to take away our joy. We cannot ignore or escape them. Let us instead accept them and offer them as part of the supreme sacrifice of Jesus for the redemption of this world.
3. Meekness
Meekness is the attitude of being gentle especially in a hostile environment. It is the exercise of self-restraint when you have reason to get mad and shout or fight back. It is synonymous to being kind, calm, and magnanimous. It is not equal to weakness but understanding to someone who is weak.
4. Hunger and thirst for righteousness
We live in a society where the forces of darkness seem to overpower the light. There is too much evil in this world. People kill each other. There is oppression, corruption and moral decay in all sectors of our community. So we cry out, where is righteousness? There is a kind of longing for the righteousness of God. This is our hunger and thirst that only Jesus can satisfy.
5. Merciful
To be merciful means to be willing to give help to the needy at all times. Moreover, when we are merciful, we forgive the people who hurt us. We give them second or more chances to repent and to realize their mistake with the hope that they will change. We do not condemn nor retaliate but instead, we pray for them. We develop patience with people’s irritating habits and show respect to their different opinions and choices.
6. Cleanness of heart
Purity of heart means to be blameless in who we are. It is a requirement to see God face to face. If we are impure, it means we have evil thoughts, undesirable desires, ill motives, and unforgiven sins. We need the fire of God to refine us so that we can become white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).
7. Peacemaking
We become peacemakers when we bring warring people or even communities to the negotiating table and reconcile them with one another without sacrificing justice. When we work to promote harmony among people, that is peacemaking. When we proclaim the word of God and tell people to repent, we are emulating Jesus, the prince of peace who came to reconcile the rebellious people to God.
8. Enduring insults and persecution
The suffering and crucifixion of Jesus was a direct result of His peacemaking activities – proclamation of the Kingdom of God and telling people especially the authorities to seek righteousness. He endured insults and betrayal but He did not waver in the pursuit of His mission. Likewise, when we continue the work of Jesus, we expect the same experience but it should not hinder us in our work as servants in the vineyard of Christ.
A follower of Jesus who embodies the characters as listed above should rejoice and be glad for he will receive his just reward in heaven. As we celebrate All Saints Day, let us remember the people who already received the crown of eternal life because while they were on earth, they were the poster children of the Beatitudes. May their exemplary life encourage us to live the same virtues of the Beatitudes.
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The Sermon on the Mount starts with the teachings of Jesus on the eight Beatitudes, a list of inner attitudes that differentiate a true disciple from a non-disciple. In truth, no one is righteous to deserve being called blessed. That the state of being blessed flows only from the grace of God and therefore, the right to inherit the Kingdom of God also comes only from Him and not from our own effort. Yet, as a disciple, we must be open to the ever-flowing grace of the Lord. This means we must endeavor with the help of the Holy Spirit to live or practice these beatitudes.
All the eight beatitudes starts with a declaration of blessedness. To be blessed means to be holy, to be held in reverence and to have found favor with God. When Jesus says, “Blessed are you…”, it means we are already blessed when we are poor in spirit, when we are mournful, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, clean of heart, when we work for peace and when we are persecuted because of Him. It means we are made holy by these attitudes and that the blessings are here and we can already experience them although the rewards may come later. Thus, Jesus is telling us never to lose sight of the greatest blessing, eternal life although we are enjoying His blessings today.
This is not to say that being poor or mournful is good or to go hungry is okay. Let us take note that the gospel is called good news. Thus the gospel passage is good news to those who are poor or mournful or hungry. It means that having God in our life is more than enough and anyone who trust in Him will be happy and satisfied. Jesus is therefore telling us that if you want to be happy now and forever, follow the beatitudes.
Indeed the beatitudes are very challenging. Who would like to be persecuted or hungry? What the world does not recognize or look up to, Jesus made them important. He gave the beatitudes as our roadmap to His Kingdom. He is calling us to totally depend on our Father in heaven, to endure persecution on account of Him and to hunger for righteousness. Thus the beatitudes become our sure path to holiness or blessedness. Jesus is challenging us today to follow this path.
