Monday in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, June 12, 2023

Matthew 5, 1-12

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. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The Old Testament contains many “beatitudes”, sayings that begin with the word we translate into English as “blessed” and usually understand in the supernatural sense.  For instance, Psalm 1, 1: “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence”, and,  Psalm 31, 1-2: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” There are many others besides.  We can read these as telling us what particular behavior God prefers and will reward.  We can also read them as statements defining the true lover of God.

The Lord’s Beatitudes recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew can be read in this way as well.  The true Christian is “poor in spirit”.  He is blessed in this poorness  of spirit rather than wretched, and to him belongs the Kingdom of heaven.  He is poor on spirit in that he has followed the words of Christ: “If you will be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me” (Matthew 19, 21); or, in the sense of Psalm 51, 19: “A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise.”  We can understand “poor in spirit” in both senses: the one whose heart in contrite and humble, realizing that his salvation comes from God alone, gives up his previous life in order to follow Christ.  We can understand this very literally, with St. Matthew as our example; or, for those called to remain in the world, in the words of St. Paul: “The time is short. It remains, that they who have wives be as if they had none:  And they that weep, as though they wept not: and those who rejoice, as if they rejoiced not: and those who buy as if they possessed not: And those that use this world, as if they used it not” (1 Corinthians 7, 29-31).

Similarly, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.”  The true Christian mourns for his sins and is meek, though resolute, as Moses was called “a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth” (Numbers 12, 3) and yet followed God’s commands, leading the Hebrews to the Promised Land despite all their rebellions.  The Christian, mourning his sins and behaving with meekness, will be comforted and will inherit the land — a place in heaven.  The Christian is also blessed in his “hunger and thirst for righteousness”, and in the world to come for he will be “satisfied”. The Christian is a merciful person, and so he “will be shown mercy”. The Christian is one who is “clean of heart”, which makes him capable of seeing God. This is true cleanness, not achieved by multiple daily washings of the hands as the Pharisees demanded but through the washings of vigilance and penance.  The Christian is a peacemaker, and in this way he will become a child of God.

The Christian is the one who is “persecuted for the sake of righteousness”, that is, for living an upright life.  He is criticized and insulted  for not joining in the wicked behavior of those who do not belong to Christ.  His righteousness will bring him the Kingdom of heaven.  The Christian is also insulted and persecuted and slandered because of his belief in Jesus Christ.  He is blessed in this and rejoices that he has been chosen to suffer for him, as did the Apostles: “And they indeed went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus” (Acts of the Apostles 5, 41).

These, then are the marks of the true follower of the Lord Jesus which we should also show so that, distinguished by our mercy and meekness and the other virtues all around us may know we are Christians and may desire to serve the Lord as well.