Ordinary Time - Week 06c
Beatitudes
(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)A huge crowd of people from many different places has gathered around Our Lord. They are hoping to hear from him his saving doctrine which will give meaning to their lives. Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down his disciples came to him. And He opened his mouth and taught them. It is an opportunity Our Lord uses to give an in-depth picture of the true disciple. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who mourn.
It is not difficult for us to imagine the impression Our Lord's words must have made on his hearers. Many of them would have been disconcerted and some of them even disappointed. Jesus had just expressed in precise terms the new spirit He had come to bring on earth. It was in the most real sense a revolutionary spirit, a spirit which involved a complete change from the usual and generally accepted human values, such as those of the Pharisees who saw earthly happiness as God's blessing and reward, and who looked on unhappiness and misfortune as God's punishment. In general, ancient man, even among the People of Israel, had sought as his chief good wealth, pleasure and power, and being held in high regard by others. He considered all these things as the acme of well-being, the fount of all happiness. Jesus here proposes a totally different way. He exalts and blesses poverty, meekness, mercy, purity and humility.
Even in our day people tend to be disconcerted by this admittedly startling contrast. They see on the one hand the tribulation that the way of the Beatitudes must necessarily bring with it, and on the other hand the genuine happiness that Jesus promises. The essential idea that Jesus wanted to impress on his listeners was this: only serving God brings happiness to man. In the midst of poverty, of pain and a sense of having been forsaken, the true servant of God can say with Saint Paul, "My joy overflows in the midst of all my tribulations." And on the other hand a man can be desperately unhappy even though he lives surrounded by opulence and possesses all earthly goods.
The people who listened to Our Lord well understood that those Beatitudes were not intended to establish different categories of people, that they did not promise salvation to particular groups of society, but that they unequivocally laid down the religious dispositions and moral conduct that Jesus demands of all those who want to follow him. That is to say, the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, do not point to headings that differentiate people from each other, but are like different aspects of the demands for sanctity directed to everyone who wants to be Christ's disciple.
The Beatitudes, taken as a whole, point to the same ideal - sanctity. Today, as we listen again to our Lord's words calling for such far-reaching reform, let us revive our desire for holiness as the axis around which our whole life revolves. Because Our Lord Jesus Christ preached the good news to all without distinction.