All Saints and the Beatitudes
Is 43:1-7, Ac 5:27-42, Mt 5: 1-12; Second Sunday after Pentecost
Thoughts of a Nun
To be human is to listen to the rest of the world with a tender heart, and to learn to live with our arms open and our souls seared with a sense of responsibility for everything that is. Any human who does this is surely a saint. How do we become this kind of human as we celebrate all the saints today?
Most scripture scholars agree that the sermon on the Mount containing the beatitudes is a collection of the teachings of Jesus done over a much longer time than one sitting down and opening of his mouth. This sermon is the concentrated memory of many hours of heart to heart communion between the disciples and their master. Delving into the meanings of these blessings from today’s gospel would certainly cause us to be fully human if we could understand them the way Jesus meant them.
How much of this concentrated teaching of Jesus do we understand? How do we understand it?
For instance, the poor in spirit are not those who are destitute. Material poverty is not a good thing. Jesus would never have called living in slums or on the streets and not having enough to eat a blessed condition to be in. One aim of Christianity, even of just humanity, is to eliminate that kind of poverty. The poor are blessed because having realized their own helplessness, have put their whole trust in God to lead them. They are living in the Kingdom of God, wanting to do what God wants of them. The Evangelist Matthew wanted to make sure his listeners did not think being poor financially meant an automatic ticket to the kingdom of God.
In the next Blessed, the Greek term for Mourning means the greatest of grieves one might have. Such as for a very dear one who has died. Another way of saying this is: Blessed are those who are intensely sorry for the sorrow and the suffering in this world. Undoubtedly it also means blessed are they who are sorry for their own sins and failings. The joy of forgiving and of being forgiven is the greatest of comforts. The essential kindness of our fellow human beings reaching out also shows us the comfort and compassion of God.
Aristotle defined meekness as the middle between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness. It is the happy medium between too much and too little anger.
A rule of thumb for this type of meekness could be to not get angry over insult and injury done to oneself but be only right to be angry at injuries done to others. Another understanding, perhaps a better one, of meekness is lofty–heartedness meaning a true humility which banishes all pride. Without this humility a person cannot learn, for the first step to learning is the realization of our own ignorance. This humility or awareness of our own ignorance allows for a certain kind of gentleness in our approach to life.
Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, in other words, goodness. In the time of Jesus there were those who would literally die because of no food or water. Even today there are places where this is so. It is not our condition or state but if it were, do we value goodness as much as we would value food or drink if we were starving or dying of thirst? Most of us have an instinctive desire for goodness. Are we prepared though to make the effort and sacrifices real goodness requires? Think what the world might be like if we desired goodness more than anything else.
The Lord’s prayer; “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” and “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy” seem almost synonymous and are pretty clear in meaning. In looking up some of the words in the Greek though, the meaning of mercy (Chesedh) means the ability to get right inside the other person’s skin so that we see, think and feel as that person does. We are able to experience what the other is experiencing. Think how much easier it would be to understand, to sympathize, even forgive and be kind in a helpful way if we were experiencing what the other was experiencing. In a sense, did not God do just that? In Jesus God became human, being able to see things, feel things and think things as a human.
To be human is to listen to the rest of the world with a tender heart, and to learn to live with our arms open and our souls seared with a sense of responsibility for everything that is. That is what Jesus does. He has shown us the way. We don’t have to go to other countries or nations. Be this kind of human to the person next to us. Let us continue pondering these teachings and learn how to live them as the saints did, each of us in our own way.
Christ is in our midst!