When I have asked people to identify the central message of Christianity, they will say loving God and neighbor, or following the ten commandments. Rarely does anyone’s first response refer to the beatitudes.
The thou-shalts and shalt-nots of the commandments are familiar. We know what it means to keep the Sabbath holy, honor parents, refrain from stealing, killing, lying, committing adultery, and coveting what others have. These actions break and erode the relationships that bind us together as people of God.
Discerning what it means to be poor in spirit, sorrowful, merciful, pure of heart, peacemaking requires more reflection. The beatitudes expand what the commandments to love God and neighbor ask of us. They challenge us to saintly living.
- How do you describe what the beatitudes ask of a Christian?
- Who do you regard as blessed in our world today?
- What paths to holiness bless people that follow them?
Matthew’s gospel features the beatitudes as the striking beginning of Jesus’ sermon on the mount — eight sayings that surprise our assumptions about whom God blesses.
As the gospel for celebrating All Saints Day, the beatitudes suggest the many ways Christians through the centuries have embodied these sayings. They challenge us who belong to the communion of saints today to live in ways quite the reverse of profit-motivated values.
The first beatitude asks that the saint be poor in spirit. It directs all of us to recognize the experience of the economically poor and to enter into the difficult condition of the poor, their powerlessness to influence social systems that keep them poor. The saint lives the “preferential option for the poor,” one of the principles of Catholic social teaching.
The second beatitude calls us to accompany people in tragedy and sorrow, to be their comfort.
The third beatitude asks saints to be meek. It promises the whole earth to those with little. This beatitude has caused problems historically in certain types of Christian spirituality. “Meek” has sometimes meant “weak.” Meekness in this beatitude actively recognizes the injustice in which we can find ourselves, does not deny wrongs, and keeps working to make changes that will contribute to healing. The meek saint is not passive.
The fourth beatitude challenges us to act from a deep spiritual realization that all is not well in the world, not all have enough to survive let alone thrive. The saint that has an appetite for justice knows it demands action.
Saints are merciful and will receive mercy, the fifth beatitude promises.
The challenge to be pure of heart has caused problems when people interpret it to refer only to sexual issues, such as moral purity, sexual restraint, refraining from impure thoughts and acts, staying away from occasions of sin (movies, books, TV). It becomes the “sexth” beatitude rather than a challenge to see God in our lives, to be single-minded in our intention to act with love toward all neighbors. The sincere of heart live a deep interior life in communion with God.
The seventh and eighth beatitudes call blessed not those with big salaries and no worries but those who work for peace and bear persecution. They challenge us to join in the work of bringing the reign of God to Earth.
- Which beatitude has special significance for you? Why is it significant?
- How can a person ‘catch the spirit of Jesus?’
- Describe a recent example in which you have experienced someone acting in the spirit of the beatitudes.
The apostle Paul addresses all the baptized as saints in his letters. All are children of God who belong to the communion of saints. We live in communion with Holy Mystery (God). We are inside of God’s life and God is inside of our lives.
“See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God,” Sunday’s second reading from 1 John proclaims. “What we shall become has not yet come to light!” We have only just begun. A saint is a person in progress, not a finished product. This feast’s recipe for continuing transformation is:
• one part attending intentionally to the presence of Love in one’s life (prayer);
• one part acting in the spirit of love and justice with all our neighbors (action);
• one part choosing hope that we shall be like Jesus and see him as he is (1 John);
• one part studying and reflecting on the deep message of Jesus (the beatitudes).
• Stir together until the parts all blend in communion.
- What experiences in your life have been sources of communion with God? With your neighbors? With yourself? With Earth?
- Whose insights or convictions do you carry with you?
