Dear Parishioners,
The word “beatitude” (which comes from the Latin beatitudo which means “blessedness” or true happiness or receiving God’s favor) is translated from the Greek word makarios used 50 times in the New Testament. In the eight beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount in today’s gospel (Matthew 5:1-12), Jesus announces that God’s blessings will be realized in the future, in heaven, after the hardships and sufferings of this life—except for the first and the last beatitudes which promise God’s favor here on earth now (present tense). Let’s look at #1: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs IS the kingdom of heaven. Why do the poor in spirit experience blessedness now?
Before we consider an answer, let’s review fundamental human nature. Planted deep within the soul of every human person is a natural desire for happiness. This desire accounts for every human action you and I take (determining our future), and determines the course of human history. God creates each human soul with this longing for happiness to draw us to Himself, who is the only One who can completely satisfy this deep desire for happiness. In fact, all of creation is a physical analogy of this reality. Just as God created our bodies and the physical world so that you and I would recognize our complete dependence on receiving Creation’s gifts (oxygen to breath, water to drink, food to eat), so He created our souls for us to recognize that our true happiness is completely dependent on receiving the free gift of His love. God has clearly revealed Himself to his people, most fully in the incarnation of His Son Jesus Christ, so that we may become “part of” God Himself, “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), so that we may “know, love, and serve God in this world and be happy (“beatitude”) with him forever in the next.”
Here’s where the world (and you and I, when we follow the world) goes terribly wrong: when we pursue the false happiness of money, pleasure, and fame instead of receiving the free gift of God’s grace and his boundless love, all kinds of suffering follows. We can forget that we are dependent on God for true happiness. And this leads us back to why the first Beatitude can be realized NOW, in the present world: because it is a beatitude of dependence. Since “poor” people are especially dependent on others (actually, we all are dependent on others), another way of stating this beatitude is “blessed are those who are (dependent) in spirit”; in other words, dependent on God for true happiness. Basically, this summarizes the entire Bible and the relationship between God and man. “But to all who received him (Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God (John 1:12).”
Thank you to all who prayed for my pilgrimage to the Holy Land—your prayers were effective! Since many have been asking, I will be giving a pastorate presentation with photos in February on my trip to the Holy Land. Here’s one taken from the Mount of the Beatitudes, looking out over the Sea of Galilee.
Fr. Jim
