Sunday Meditation: The Beatitudes

Today we come to Jesus’ greatest sermon.

 

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."

~Mt 5:1-12

The first part of the sermon are the Beatitudes, eight keys to happiness.  Bishop Barron’s homily explains them well.

 

Let’s look at the first and third since they are similar but promise two very different things. 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.”

To be poor in spirit and to be meek are nearly synonymous, are they not?  And yet one promises heaven, and the other promises land.  How are we to understand this land?  Pope Benedict XVI explains it.

 

“The Israelites spent forty years in the desert to arrive at the Promised Land. After they were taken captive to Babylon they waited seventy years to return to their own land. Land is always associated with right worship. Moses’ original demand of Pharaoh was to let the Israelites leave Egypt so they could worship in their own way. The Israelites were exiled to Babylon because they had abandoned right worship for idolatry. So yes, the promise of land is literal in the Old Covenant, connected with faithfulness to God’s covenant. The land is, as Benedict calls it, “a space for obedience, a realm of openness to God, that was to be freed from the abomination of idolatry.” The idea of land was gradually broadened. The Samaritan woman inquires of Jesus: “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus replies, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father . . . . But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (Jn. 4:20-22) The king who rules “from sea to sea” promises a universal place of worship and obedience to God. Thus the land is no longer a piece of earth, but the whole earth, and that is Christ’s Church. Does the beatitude then refer to the land in a physical or a spiritual sense? Again—both, the one and the other.” (Jesus of Nazareth: From Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, pp 80-81)

Of all eight beatitudes, the third is the only one that is not beyond this world.  And yet it is!