For the next few days, we are going to explore the Sermon on the Mount. It is the longest series of teachings by Jesus in the Bible. We will start with the Beatitudes, which means supreme blessedness. Before we start I want us to go back to the old testament, to the book of 1 Samuel 16:7
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Throughout history, we have championed people on how they look rather than how they behave. Many people look up to selfless people, but not many want to become them. We often choose to be like the movie stars, social media influencers, models and singers, who are often picked based on how they look rather than on the content of their heart.
When we read the Beatitudes, we read them through the context of the person who wrote them-Jesus.
Here is a breakdown of the beatitudes which I found on https://www.jesuschristsavior.net/
THE BEATITUDES
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Poor in spirit” means to be humble. Humility is the realization that all your gifts and blessings come from the grace of God. To have poverty of spirit means to be completely empty and open to the Word of God. When we are an empty cup and devoid of pride, we are humble. Humility brings an openness and an inner peace, allowing one to do the will of God. He who humbles himself is able to accept our frail nature, to repent, and to allow the grace of God to lead us to conversion.
It is pride, the opposite of humility, that brings misery. For pride brings anger and the seeking of revenge, especially when one is offended. If every man were humble and poor in spirit, there would be no war!
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
If we are humble and appreciate that all of our gifts and blessings come from God, we grow in love and gratitude for Jesus Christ our Savior. But this can only produce mourning and regret over our own sins and the sins of this world, for we have hurt the one who has been so good to us. One also mourns for the suffering of others.
St. Gregory describes another reason to mourn: the more one ascends in meditation of Divine Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and then realize the poverty of human nature, man can only be left in sorrow. When one contemplates that we were made in the image and likeness of God and lived in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, and compare that to our present state after the Fall, one can only mourn our present condition. But the sentence continues that they shall be comforted, by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and hopefully one day in the Kingdom of Heaven. Pray for the Fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22) – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Mourning in this context is called a blessing, because mourning our fallen nature creates in us a desire to improve ourselves and to do what is right!
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa saw the Beatitudes as arranged like so many steps, so as to facilitate the ascent from one to another. For example, a humble person comes to be meek, or becomes gentle and kind, and exhibits a docility of spirit, even in the face of adversity and hardship. Jesus was “meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29). A person that is meek is one that exhibits self-control. St. Augustine advises us to be meek in the face of the Lord, and not resist but be obedient to him. St. Paul calls for the obedience of faith in the beginning and end of his Letter to the Romans (1:5, 16:25-27). Obedience and submission to the will of God are certainly not in vogue these days, but they will bring one peace in this world and in the next.
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Justice and righteousness in the New Covenant indicate the fulfillment of God’s will in your heart and soul. It is not mere observance of the law (Matthew 5:20), but rather an expression of brotherly love (I John 3:10). A continuous desire for justice and moral perfection will lead one to a fulfillment of that desire – a transition and conversion to holiness. This is true for all the virtues – if you hunger and thirst for temperance, you will head towards the goal you have in mind. St. Augustine called the Beatitudes the ideal for every Christian life! In his discourse on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, he noted the correspondence of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and their necessity in fulfilling the Beatitudes. For example, one must have the gift of fortitude so one may be courageous in seeking social justice.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Mercy is the loving disposition towards those who suffer distress. Love, compassion, and forgiveness towards a family member or neighbor will bring peace in your relationships. We say in the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. As we are merciful to others, we pray our Heavenly Father will be merciful to us! Jesus reminds us that as “you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Jesus on the Cross extends his mercy to the repentant thief: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). St. James is quite direct in his Letter when he writes: “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). The following are ways to be merciful to others as well as to be obedient in faith to Christ our Savior.
The Corporal Works of Mercy
1 Feed the Hungry
2 Give drink to the thirsty
3 Clothe the naked
4 Shelter the homeless
5 Comfort the imprisoned
6 Visit the sick
7 Bury the dead
The Spiritual Works of Mercy
1 Admonish sinners
2 Instruct the uninformed
3 Counsel the doubtful
4 Comfort the sorrowful
5 Be patient with those in error
6 Forgive offenses
7 Pray for the living and the dead
“Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”
Pope John Paul II wrote that the Beatitudes in a sense are a self-portrait of Christ! Moses (Exodus 33:20), John 1:18, and Paul (I Timothy 6:16) all say that no one can see God here on earth. God is hidden. But Jesus says the pure of heart shall see God! To be pure of heart means to be free of all selfish intentions and self-seeking desires. What a beautiful goal! How many times have any of us performed an act perfectly free of any personal gain? Such an act is pure love. An act of pure and selfless giving brings happiness to all.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
Jesus gives us peace – “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Peace is a Fruit of the Spirit. Peacemakers not only live peaceful lives but also try to bring peace and friendship to others, and to preserve peace between God and man. But one cannot give another what one does not possess oneself. Prayer will bring peace into your heart. The Lord wants you first to be filled with the blessings of peace and then to pass it on to those who have need of it. By imitating God’s love of man, the peacemakers become children of God.
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The biblical passage continues: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). Jesus said many times that those who follow Him will be persecuted. “If they persecute me, they will persecute you” (John 15:20-21). Saul persecuted the early Church in Jerusalem before his Conversion. St. Peter advised “Whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name” (I Peter 4:16). The Woman who brought forth the male child destined to rule all nations with an iron rod was persecuted in Revelation 12.
Stephen, Peter and Paul, nearly all of the Apostles, and many Christians in the Roman era suffered martyrdom. Oppressive governments and endless conflicts in the last one hundred years, such as World Wars I and II, and the Middle East wars in Iraq and Syria have seen their share of martyrs, such as Maximilian Kolbe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Latin American martyrs, and Middle East Christians. St. Maximilian Kolbe offered his life in place of a stranger at the Auschwitz death camps on August 14, 1941. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor who was hanged on April 9, 1945 for condemning the leadership of Hitler in Nazi Germany. The Latin American Martyrs include the 38 martyrs of La Cristiada, the Cristero War in Mexico from 1926 to 1929. Another Latin martyr was Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, who was assassinated while saying Mass at Divine Providence Hospital on March 24, 1980 for speaking out against government human rights violations.
Middle Eastern Christians have suffered severe persecution since the crisis in Iraq and Syria. At least 58 Christians were slaughtered during Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Eastern Catholic Church in Baghdad on October 31, 2010. In July 2014 the terrorist Islamic State marked remaining Christian homes in Mosul with the Arabic letter Noon – for Nazarene, Nasrani, or Nasara – and advised residents that they had 24 hours to leave, convert to Islam, or die. Sixty thousand Christians in Mosul were displaced from their homes, and over one million Christians have fled Iraq since the Iraq War began in 2003. The present turmoil in Syria has resulted in over 700,000 Christian refugees escaping to Jordan, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries. But the Lord promised those that suffer for his sake will be rewarded with the Kingdom of Heaven!
The Sermon on the Mount
1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
The Beatitudes
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Thank you for taking the time to put this together for us Mike. I pray that the spirit of knowledge and understanding may be upon us all as we read them, not just today, but each day; until we begin to live our lives that way. God bless🙏🏾