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Reflection #545
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THE BEATITUDES Posted: 14th February 2008
Proposition to conduct a prayer meeting with the Gospel (about one hour) "FEBRUARY 2008 THE BEATITUDES (MT 5: 1-11) 1.The Gospel text Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they win be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 2.Introduction to understand the text - Jesus saw the crowds who was following him and went up on a mountain. In the Bible the mountain represents the holy place to meet God: Moses met God on the Mount Sinai (Ex 19:3), the prophet Eliah on the Mount Oreb (lKing 19:9); - out of the crowds came the disciples, those who had chosen Jesus as their Master and their Guide; to these people Jesus shows the way to the beatitudes, the way of true Life; - only those who listen and act according to His words will be able to understand the meaning of the Beatitudes. 3 Some clues to help the leader of the meeting Being "blessed". To be blessed is not merely to be "happy". The word in Greek, makarios, translated as "blessed" or "happy" is not referring to an emotional state of being. In the Bible the word is used of God, for example "Blessed be the Lord", and when the blessing come from God it has meaning more like fortunate, being complete, or being in God's favor. Ultimately, being blessed means you are a part of the people of God. So you can be blessed, but not always feel good! The Beatitudes reverse our expectation of who we would think is bl ssed. In fact beatitudes would have sounded just as surprising to Jesus' hearers as they do to us today. They really do turn upside-down our cultural understanding of what the "good life" is about. These blessing seem to come to those who know they are lost and have no merit to stand on before God. It's still all about grace! Among the nine beatitudes, we chose two of them. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Poverty is the condition of lacking economic access to fundamental human needs and it is generally considered to be undesirable because of the pain and suffering that may accompany it. Poor people are deprived of the basic needs for a minimum standard of well-being and life. On the other hand poverty of spirit is a very specific, desirable and essential attitude that we should have before God if we want to know Him. That is why Jesus said that He came to "preach good news to the poor" (Lk 4: 18). Indeed the good news is the Gospel. Poverty of spirit is the abiding awareness that we are poor before God. The poor in spirit are those who, rich or poor, recognize that all they have (their skills, their gifts, their intelligence...) comes from God, that they are dependent on God for everything. St. Paul indeed asks us: "What do you have that you did not receive?" (I Cor 4: 7). Poor in Spirit means acknowledging God's ownership of everything and that we are responsible to be good stewards of those things with which we have be blessed. To be poor in spirit is to be humble; to realize that we have no merit to stand on our own two feet before God. The poor in spirit realize their lack of resources and merit and therefore unreservedly depend on God's help and salvation. God is not a jealous master of His own riches, He is not a mean father; but He gives Himself unreservedly to his children. Indeed St. Peter said: "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God…casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." (1 Pt 5: 6). That's way Jesus said in the chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew: "do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". So we are proud of heart when we are concerned about accumulate wealth (money, power, success...); we are poor in spirit when we are looking for God, our treasure. For all things of earth and heaven, compared with God, are nothing. Nothing is so essential as God. Like Jesus Christ "who though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Cor 8: 9) we are blessed when we share what we have, when we do not accumulate wealth and are not greedy for wealth. So we can say... Blessed are those who do not wish to be richer than others, to be important or stronger or more powerful than the others. Blessed are those who do not look down on others, who do not look for the highest honour in their life. Blessed are those who give up all these things.. .because their only riches is God. They trust in Him, they believe in Him, they put their life in His hands. . Jesus said: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at fthe birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. :Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life....So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Mt 6: 25- 33) To be poor in spirit means to relate to God as a child who depends on his father for any need in his life, without demanding but begging. We should not worry about getting merit for God, but to acknowledge and receive with empty hands His love for us. As Jesus taught us: "Father... give us today our daily bread." Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. We all long for peace, we all declare that we want peace, also the most powerful people of the Earth. Looking at the ancient and modern history of mankind we can see that states waged wars in the name of peace. The word "peace" has been distorted to wage war, the opposite of peace! What is Jesus thinking about when he talks about peace, when he says "blessed are the peacemakers"? After his resurrection Jesus greets his disciples saying: "peace be with you" (John 20: 19). Before his Passion he had said to his disciples: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives," (John 14: 27). So the world gives peace and God gives peace in two different ways. The risen Jesus is a wounded Jesus, who bears the marks of nail in his hands: the peace of Jesus is the fruit of a constant struggle against evil. Jesus was not passive in the face of evil. So Jesus' Peace is not a passive withdrawal from life, but it is a daily battle which is not fought against men or human powers but against the enemy of God and man, Satan and in this battle we receive strength from God. It is the function of evil to divide: to alienate people from each other and to create injustice and rancour. We can also choose to close our eyes and being indifferent to what is going on around us, or to use violence to fight injustice At the time of Jesus, Palestine (his own land) was occupied by a foreign army, the Romans. There were people who would have liked to use the violence to drive out the Romans, and there were also people who took advantage of the situation cooperating with them, i.e. collecting taxes. Jesus rejected both of these solutions and suggested His own way to peace. Jesus asks us to build peace through reconciliation, not through the power of violence. In front of our enemies, of those who do wrong things to us, Jesus asks us to love them: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven" (Mt 5: 44) and not to return evil with evil: "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also..." (Mt 5: 39). So Christians "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" as saint Paul said in the First letter to the Romans (Ro 18: 21). Those who want to build peace through hatred, revenge or claim do not act in the name of God. Only those who build peace according to Jesus' way will be called the son of God, like Jesus, who has won over Evil giving up his life for us. 4.Points for the Personal Meditation * We are indeed poor in spirit and God is our only treasure: how does this change the way we look at ourselves? * What does it mean "building peace" in our families, villages, working/studying places? Article Source: Bishop's House |