Monday, June 6, 2016

Matthew 5: 1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The Latin root of blessed  is benedicere. In Greek it is eulogein. The original meaning of both is to speak (dicere) well of (bene) or to praise. From the Latin we get the word bless and from the Greek we get the word eulogy. Beatitude stems from the Latin beatitudinem meaning “state of blessedness”.

Today’s reading is one of Jesus’ most famous sermons, the Sermon on the Mount. In it Jesus lists out those who find favor with God. We have the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for the Lord, those who are merciful, of clean heart, peacemakers, and the persecuted. These are not speaking of individual people. They are speaking about the traits of a Christian, a little Christ. As Christians we are not called to be one of these. We are called to be all of these.

We are to mourn for those who turn from God. We are to mourn for those who willfully separate themselves from God’s love and choose Hell over eternity with God. We are to mourn for the godless and the corrupt. We are to mourn the atrocities done to God’s people or in God’s name. We are to mourn things like persecution of any people, Christian or other, child sacrifice, like abortion, and we are to mourn for those who choose not to hear the voice of the Lord, the atheists.

We are to be meek. Meekness is not weakness. To be meek is to be gentle, nonaggressive, loving. To be meek is to be humble.

We are called to hunger and thirst for the Lord. We are to crave him even more than the air we breathe.

We are called to be merciful. Mercy shall be received in the same measure as it is given. If I want God’s mercy in its fullest I have to give mercy in my fullest. Between mercy and justice mercy is always the better of the two. God’s justice dictates my eternal punishment in Hell for my sins. God’s mercy forgives those sins and creates in me a new creature.

We are called to be of clean heart, that is, without sin. We need to be pure in all that we think, say, and do. A fallen human nature makes this extremely hard for all of us to do. But, in God’s great mercy, he gives us a way to wipe the slate clean, to be forgiven for our sins. When we sin we must repent and seek forgiveness. God loves the repentant man for he will be blessed by God.

You can learn a lot about a man from his friends and more from his mother. A good way to judge the character of a man is to look to those who oppose him, his enemies. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the Lord. You should be hated by men with evil intent. If you are blessed by those with evil in their hearts you will be cursed by God.

Tempus fugit memento mori – time flies, remember death. Our time on this planet is short. Eternity is forever. As Christians we are called to live the good life. We are called to live uprightly in the light. We are called to live a life that can be spoken well of. If we make the beatitudes part of who we are and not just something to be done we will have lived that good life and will find favor with God when we stand before him at the end of time.