Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Sister Anawim used to call me to say the Mass for the Missionaries of Charity in Downtown Newark, a place you do not want to go at night. It was always a very moving experience since the nuns are so young, from every continent, barefoot, and very pious. Her name means the ‘little one’, or the one who is ‘poor in spirit.’ I always thought that it meant the one who was broke, financially poor, which is true. But the gospel (Matthew 5: 1-12) meaning is more than one’s financial situation. It means the one who is totally dependent on God; the one who sees he or she is incapable of doing anything worthwhile for the Lord with their own efforts. They are the last ones, the little ones, one who live spiritual childhood; they are the ones who have the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus, seeing the crowds, went up to the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him, and he taught them. The setting was very cosmic: blue sky, earth, and the Word. When Moses received the Ten Commandments it was thunder and lightning; here it is completely different. Jesus spoke without any trace or reference to his Father. And he spoke with ultimate authority, as God. He is not only the new Moses but God himself.
Blessed is sometimes translated as happy is the one…but this is not so accurate. It is not a psychological happiness that the Beatitudes give us. Fortunate captures the idea more completely. Many desire to have meekness, purity of heart and to be peacemakers, but few attain it. How fortunate are they? Bien adventurado in Spanish gets it even more so. Many want to be pure of heart or peacemakers or meek, but few attain it. How lucky or how fortunate they are to have this spirit!
And in Greek there is no verb after the ‘blessed.’ It would read: blessed the poor in spirit for they…It also tells us that God is NOT asking you to do many things; it is not a list of do’s and don’ts. It is the spirit of God that he wants to give you. One of the Church Fathers said, God became man so that we might become God. His son became man so that we could see that it was possible to be like God.
The gospel does not say: blessed are those who fast or give alms or pray. The Beatitudes go deeper. They are looking at the spirit that underlies the fasting. Do them in the right spirit and they will lead you to God. If you and I do them as a Pharisee, then what’s the point? The Beatitudes teach us to love, as a Christian. This is impossible on a human level, without the help of God.
Jesus doesn’t merely speak the Beatitudes. He lives them. He is the Beatitudes. Looking at him you see what it means to be gentle and merciful, poor in spirit, to be pure of heart, to make peace, to be persecuted. That is why he has the right to say as we heard last week, “Come, follow me!” He does not say simply, “Do what I say.” He says, Come, follow me, become like me! These are ten invitations to perfect love. God wants to give all of them to us. Be open to this gift, ask for it, realize that this is true peace. How fortunate we would be if we have them.