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

 

 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.  Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

For they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

For they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

For they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

For they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

For they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

 

- Matthew 5:1-10 

 

On Saturday we read that Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."  They immediately left their nets and followed Him.  Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets.  He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.  And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.  Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.  Great multitudes followed Him -- from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.   

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.  Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: . . .  My study Bible comments here that in the Old Testament, only a select few were chosen to hear God directly (see Exodus 19:3-13).  Here, God Incarnate speaks to the multitudes face to face.  Throughout the Bible, and therefore with Jesus in the Gospels, the mountain is a place where divine action enters human history, the place where God reveals God to human beings (Matthew 17:1, Genesis 22:2; Exodus 3:1, 19:2, 1 Kings 18:20).  To be seated is the traditional Jewish position for teaching with authority, my study Bible explains.  There are some early Christian preachers (for an example, St. John Chrysostom) who sat while the people stood.  Matthew says that Jesus opened his mouth to emphasize that this teaching is directed "one way," that Jesus is speaking with authority (Matthew 7:29), and the disciples are there not to discuss or debate, but rather to listen (see Luke 6:47-48, John 14:23-24).

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  To be blessed in this context does not indicate a conventional, worldly sense of material blessing.  My study Bible comments that the blessedness of the Beatitudes indicates heavenly, spiritual exaltation, rather than earthly happiness of prosperity.  In Hebrew, to be "poor" means both the materially poor, and also the faithful among God's people.  The poor in spirit are those who have the heart of the poor, the same attitude as the poor, and are totally dependent upon God.  

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."  Those who mourn are those who sorrow over the sufferings of this life (Matthew 9:23), the sufferings of others (John 11:35), the state of the world (Luke 19:41), and their own sins (Luke 7:36-38), my study Bible says.  All of these are comforted by the power of God, both in this world and in the age to come.  

 

 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."  My study Bible explains that meekness is an attitude of being content with both honor and dishonor.  It is an imitation of Christ, who said, "Learn from Me, for I am gentle [meek] and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29).  The meek, it says, are God-controlled and have mastery over their passions, particularly anger.  Meekness is not, therefore, a passive weakness, but rather strength which is directed and under control.  The earth which will be inherited by the meek is not power or possession in this world, but rather the new earth, which is everlasting (Revelation 21:1).  

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who see the presence of God and God's Kingdom as the most essential thing in life.  As my study Bible puts it, they have a desperate craving for what is right before God, which is comparable to a starving person's craving for food (see Matthew 6:33). 

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."  Mercy is love which is set in motion and expressed in action, according to my study Bible.  This is similar to hearing and doing Christ's commandments, given in the spirit of the compassion of God.  My study Bible says that God's mercy in taking our sufferings on Himself in order to grant His Kingdom sets us free from captivity to the evil one.  In view of God's mercy to all, we are in turn to be merciful to all.  

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  In the context of Scripture, "pure" here means to be unmixed with anything else.  Therefore, the pure in heart, my study Bible explains, are those completely devoted to the worship and service of God, and accept no compromises.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, those who achieve this kind of purity practice all virtue, have no conscious evil in themselves, and live in temperance.  To be pure in this sense is to be of one essence from inside to out, such as a natural pearl of pure nacre.  This level of spirituality is attained by few, my study Bible says, but all may strive for it.  When the soul's only desire is God, and a person's will holds to this desire, it explains, then that person will indeed see God everywhere.  (See also Romans 14:14.)

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."  As Christ is the source of peace, my study Bible explains, He found no price sufficient for peace other than shedding His own blood.  In so doing, He reveals Himself to us as the Reconciler, the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6; Ephesians 2:14-16).  Moreover, it says, the Holy Spirit gives peace to those who imitate Christ.  Therefore, peacemakers also share God's peace with others around them; they imitate Christ's sacrificial love and they participate in Christ's work.  By God's grace, peacemakers become sons of God themselves ("sons of God" meaning heirs, and therefore including all children of God, with no distinction of gender).

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  My study Bible says that children of God are those who uphold truth, refuse to compromise with the ways of the world, and give themselves to no other (Matthew 6:24, 33; see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  Like Christ Himself, these will be persecuted for righteousness' sake (see John 15:28-30).  Christ's kingdom is the crown which awaits the righteous.  

Today's reading begins the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7), in which Jesus introduces the kind of life those who seek the Kingdom of God must lead.  Another title for Christ's homily, as suggested by my study Bible, might be "The Righteousness of the Kingdom."  The Sermon on the Mount contains several sections; today's reading begins the first, called the Beatitudes (or "blessings").  Here in today's reading, and continuing in tomorrow's, Jesus describes the joys of true discipleship, the blessed way of life.  My study Bible comments that the people of God await the rewards Jesus promises in this section.  So who are the people of God?   In a modern world, it seems increasingly difficult to appreciate the blessedness of which Christ preaches in the Sermon on the Mount.  Our spectacle-oriented life, as succored through media, and especially through images which suggest what "real life" and "the good life" are all about, does not give us an accompanying sense of what it means to be blessed in the ways of which Christ speaks here.  If anything, what all too often accompanies the images we get as consumers of media is an associated anxiety over what we might have that others don't (and vice versa), or trying to catch up with the things we think we need.  All too often, what is left out of this picture of life that we consume daily are the intangibles, and the sense of emptiness or isolation such a focus can produce is cured only through a willingness to find His way -- a focus on something of an entirely different nature, something that is linked to our souls, and to the humility and values which Christ teaches.  So let us look at these blessings which we're taught in today's reading, and focus on them.  What does it mean to be poor in spirit, to have the mind of the poor -- or, in other words, to become totally dependent upon God for our lives and our sense of ourselves?  Suppose we were to cultivate such an aspect of the self deliberately as identity?  What is it to mourn the things that afflict the world, our own sins and those of others?  Suppose we were to see loss of this kind of blessedness, and the things that are destructive to such values, as a severe affliction to our whole world (which includes ourselves)?  To be meek is to put our desires in harness first to the love of God, to understand that we serve something with our choices, and to take a look at the world and make the choice for ourselves that it is God's love we want to serve with our lives:  this is what it is to be the meek who shall inherit the earth.  To hunger and thirst for righteousness is something more than a simple formula for what might be called "social justice," whittled down to a simple slogan that benefits someone.  To hunger and thirst for righteousness is the willingness to live God's righteousness, to seek that light which shines in the soul, to see the icon of God which we're meant to be and live that way in our relationships to sense of ourselves, our communities, and the world.  To be merciful is to learn that simple earthly justice does not satisfy the fullness of what true justice is, for true justice knows the heart, and what possible choices mean, which paths we might seek down the road, which only God's love knows for certain.  The pure in heart are those for whom this kind of devotion is everything, a lifetime study, a work that begins with humility and the willingness and discipline to cast out what makes them stumble internally, even to struggle with temptation, including things that sound good but fail to deliver that in truth.  To be a peacemaker is the capacity to rise above a simple sense of material justice, to serve a greater good than an infantile version of "good versus evil" which fails to understand complexities and depths of human life, and fails to work for that which nurtures abundant life (John 10:10).  Finally, to be persecuted for righteousness' sake is to be willing to risk the hatred or envy of others for the sake of the love of God, the ways that God calls upon us to live.  These are the intangible, beautiful, blessed things of Christ which the Beatitudes introduce to us here in this start to the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus expounds on what it is to live the life to which He calls all of us.  Let us remember His mercy and His love, for these are the things that truly make life blessed and worth living.  We have been given the tools of intelligence and creativity, as human beings we are capable of so much -- but without the blessedness of which Christ speaks those things are so frequently turned to destructive ends and means toward toil and suffering, even if seemingly well-intentioned.  Let us, then, seek first this blessedness of Christ's Kingdom to feed the deep needs which even a whole world can't fill.