The Beatitudes -
The Decalogue elevated by the Son of God
by Father John A. Hardon, S.J.
Our Conference this evening is on the Beatitudes. As you know the
Beatitudes are the beginning of Christ’s Sermon-on-the-Mount, which is
Chapters Five, Six, and Seven
of the Gospel of Saint Matthew. In our next Conference we shall take the Lord’s Prayer.
Between the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer, we have a Synthesis
of all that Jesus wanted to teach us in His Sermon-on-the-Mount.
What Our Lord did in the Beatitudes is give us not just a
Synthesis, but what I might call an Ocean of Christian Spirituality. Throughout the Sermon-on-the-Mount Our
Lord keeps contrasting what the People of the Old-Law have been told, they were told that, they would quote from a
Commandment of the Decalogue, but
He would add, ‘I say to you’.
In other words, the Sermon-on-the-Mount is the Decalogue, Elevated by
the Son of God. And the Compendium of all of Christ’s Teaching, and
in that sense, a Synthesis of everything that He wants His
Followers to do, is contained in the Beatitudes. Our Plan for each of the
Beatitudes, I wish to cover all Eight (8) in the time at our disposal, is
First to quote from Christ’s Statement of each
Beatitude, briefly explain its meaning as the Church understands
the Beatitude. But, then especially apply the
Beatitudes to our own lives, because, the Beatitudes were meant
to be lived. Indeed, Jesus Christ
lived the Beatitudes and a perfect restatement of the following of
Christ is practicing the Beatitudes. We might remind ourselves
that the Beatitudes opened the Sermon-on-the-Mount. They were
given, not surprisingly, to the Disciples and selectively to them. And immediately after giving them the
Beatitudes, Christ told them that they, those whom He
had selectively chosen and taught, they were to be the Light of the World. They were to be the
Salt of the Earth.
There are Two (2) Versions in the Gospels of the Beatitudes.
In Saint Luke’s Gospel there are Four (4), coupled with what we call the
Four (4) Woes. In other words, the
Four (4) Beatitudes and the Promises that Christ makes
to those who live the Beatitudes. And then in Luke, the
corresponding Four (4) Threats,
Woes if you wish, that Christ, shall we say, Promises to those who do not
live the Beatitudes. Before we begin examining each of the
Beatitudes in detail, let us be clear, for the Followers of Christ,
the Beatitudes are not an Option, They are a
Divinely Ordained Obligation. Having received the Grace of the
Supernatural Life in Baptism, we have been given the Strength
to live the Beatitudes and in Luke’s Gospel, quoting
Our Lord, Woe to us, woe to us, if we do not live the Beatitudes.
First Beatitude
First then, we are told in the First
Beatitude, “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for they shall have the Kingdom of Heaven”.
What is Christ saying? He is telling us that we shall be
Blessed. Where Being-Blessed means
Made-Happy by God. In other words, we shall be
Supernaturally Happy. In particular, living out the
First Beatitude, we are assured the
Kingdom of Heaven in Eternity, but already on Earth we are assured
Happiness. In Christ’s Words ‘theirs’
the Poor in Spirit is the Kingdom of Heaven. What does
Jesus mean? He tells us, we shall be, we shall be happy and
experience nothing less than a Foretaste of Heaven here on Earth, on One
(1) Condition, that we are Detached from everything in this World. That is the primary
meaning of the First Beatitude. To be
Poor in Spirit means to not be enslaved by anything in this World. Or from
another perspective, to be Poor in Spirit means, to be Internally Freed
and in that sense, Spiritually Poor, Detached from everything,
everything, except the One Being for Whom we were made. What are
we further saying? Whatever we possess, whether Materially-speaking or Intellectual-ability, or Education or Social-prestige, you name it.
Whatever it is, before God, the First
Beatitude tells us, we are to be Detached from everything in this World as a Condition,
watch it, not only for Perfect Happiness in the world-to-come, but also for
Authentic Happiness already here in this Valley of Tears. Our
Hearts are to be set only, (comma) only, on the Living God and
in the measure in which our Hearts are set-on Him, in that
measure we shall experience Heavenly Joy already here and before we reach
Eternity.
Second Beatitude
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Human Being/Person
(A Unity (1) of Body and Soul)
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Body/Inferior Will/
Psychosomatic Powers
Passions/Emotions/
Sensory Appetite/
Memory/Imagination
(Subordinate-Partner)
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Soul/Intellect/
Superior Will/
Reason/Grace/
Infused Knowledge/
Heart/Conscience
(Dominant Partner)
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The Heart resides in the Soul of a Person
Anger and the other Passions
reside in the Body.
Strength is manifested in our control of the
Will of the Soul.
Love and Charity are an
Act of the Will.
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Second Beatitude. “Blessed are the
Meek, for they shall possess the earth”. Notice in each of the Beatitudes,
Christ First sets-down the Condition and then
He follows with a Promise. What’s the Condition here? It is Meekness.
Other translations have, “Blessed are the Gentle”, and the Promise, “they
shall possess the earth”. What are we being told? Clearly, the Promise that Christ makes
is not to possess land, so many acres, or least of all, the Earth as a Planet. Christ
does not Promise, surely not for His Followers, Material Wealth. Almost Two
(2) Thousand Years of the Church’s History tells us, the Promise that
Jesus makes is Influence over the Hearts of others, provided we
are Meek, One Translation, or Gentle,
Another Version. We shall be able to Influence others, we shall possess in the
Measure of our Meekness or Gentleness, hear it, we
shall possess the Wonderful Power of leading others to God, but only, and this is
Divine Mathematics, in the Measure of our
Meekness. What then is the condition for possessing Influence over the Souls of others?
It is Meekness as the control of the Passion of Anger, or from
another perspective, and the Greek of Saint Matthew allows us to use either English translation, or
Gentleness, in our Loving exercise of Strength. I didn’t coin these words last night. In
our Loving exercise of Strength, only Strong people can be
Gentle. Meekness, then, is the Virtue
of Temperance, which masters our Spontaneous Tendency to Anger. When we’re Opposed or
Contradicted, or something-or-someone, as the expression goes, stands-in-our-way. Meekness masters
Irascibility (low boiling-point).
Gentleness, on the other hand, is the Virtue of Charity, which
Loves the persons over whom we have Power, what a combination,
what a combination. To have Power over people and to Love them and never show, less still
Parade, one’s Dominance over those over whom indeed I have Power. Whether the Power is Political or Financial or Intellectual, or
Social or you name it. Instead, Gentleness is the exercise of
Charity. Where we exercise, and in English you hesitate using the word, Power. But we use it Kindly, Patiently, in a word,
Gently. Power does not show its Power. Power respects the person over whom I, indeed, have
Power, whatever that Power may be, because I Love the person. And hear
it, hear it, the one toward whom I show my Love,
though I have indeed Power over that individual, that person, in the language of Jesus Christ,
is my Benefactor. Because it is by Loving others that we
Prove and Show our Love for God.
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Jesus, Meek and Humble of Heart;
Make our Hearts like unto Thine.
Amen
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We go on.
Third Beatitude
The Third Beatitude has Our
Lord telling us, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted”. Again, what
are we being told? We are being told there is Sorrow, which is pleasing to
God. In my own vocabulary I distinguish between Sorrow and
Sadness. And in using these Two (2) Words, I identify
Sadness as Wrong, as Sinful, as
Sorrow either over the Wrong Object or Sorrow, which has got
out-of-control. But Sorrow as such, is, must be pleasing to God.
We may say Sorrow is part of our life on Earth. Christ Himself,
we know, Mourned; indeed, He Wept.
And Christ’s Weeping, call it Christ’s
Mourning, is a pattern of what our Mourning should be.
Christ Wept at the Grave of
Lazarus. We may, indeed, we should Mourn over the Loss of
someone we Love. Whether it is a Loss by Death, as I know, I was
just Ordained when my mother Died,
One (1) Mass from beginning-to-end, I Wept during the
whole Mass. But, as we know, there is Losing someone not only
by Death, but by Rejection.
Losing someone because that someone has become Estranged from everything that I hold dear. But there is another and
deeper-form of Mourning that Christ Our Lord both Manifested and
Teaches us to follow His Example.
Jesus shed tears over Jerusalem. We should
Mourn, Mourn over Sinners.
And we look at our own Beloved Country, words cannot describe the depths, I mark my words, of Depravity
to which so many of our Fellow Countrymen have Sunk. Adulterers,
Fornicators, Sodomists, Murderers,
dear God, are Canonized. All of this is, to put it mildly,
Legitimate Mourning. Following, not just the Teaching, but the Example of the
Son of God became Man in order to teach us among other lessons,
how we are to Mourn, living as-we-are, surely, in the Valley of Tears.
But then the Promise, Christ tells us, “they shall be comforted”,
this Poor, non-Catholic, English Language, they shall be comforted. In both the original Greek of
Saint Matthew and the Church’s official Latin, they shall be
Strengthened, they shall receive Fortitude, they shall receive
Supernatural Strength from on High. In other words, Christ Our Lord assures us that, like
Him, we too are to expect to Mourn. But, we are also to expect
to be Strengthened, Strengthened by that
Holy Spirit Who comes to give us both the Light for the
Mind, and especially Strength for the
Will. To bear Unflinchingly and Courageously under the Burden of Life and especially
under the Terrifying Burden of living in a Sin Laden World and
Sadly receiving, often, no encouragement from other Human Beings, but depending on
Jesus Christ to Strengthen us in carrying with
Him our Cross.
Fourth Beatitude
The Fourth Beatitude: Jesus
declares, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for Justice, for they shall be satisfied”. There
are at least a half-a-dozen standard translations of the Fourth Beatitude.
Over the years especially comparing the translation with the original Greek. I prefer the one I’ve just read. What then are we
being told? Christ is telling us to Desire what is
Just. Hear it and don’t forget. What is Just? That which is
pleasing to Him. In other words, we are to Hunger and
Thirst, which in the Bible the Two (2) Verbs, to
Hunger and to Thirst are the Strongest Verbs in the Biblical
Vocabulary for Desire. We are to Hunger and
Thirst for what is Right. And what is Right? Hear it,
hear it and don’t forget. It is an open, open Contradiction to the Philosophy of this World. For the World, what is
Right? What I want. For the Christian what is Right?
What God wants, in other words what I need. Believe me this is
not a play-on-words, this is Bedrock Christianity. As over the years I’ve been telling both my students
and people I speak to, there’s only One (1) Conflict that has ever been,
or shall I say, Fought in this World, and that is between Two (2)
Wills, the Divine Will and the Human
Will. What are we then being told? That, provide we Desire,
watch your Desires, this is the Secret of
Happiness as locked-up deep, deep, down in our Hearts. Desire
what you need, One (1) Statement. Desire what
God wants, Another Statement. Desire
what is Right, another Synonym. Desire
Heaven and the Means of reaching Heaven, which is the Grace of
God.
And what’s the Promise? What a Thrilling Promise, your Desires will always, always,
be Satisfied. Over the Forty (40)-plus Years of teaching Theology, I never tire of telling people,
there is only One (1) Definition of Happiness, and that is Unsatisfied
Desires. So here it is, it is both that Simple and needless to say, that Hard. We shall be
Happy if only, if only we Conform our Desires to
the Will of God. And then, oh Joy, we will see in everything in
our lives the Grace of God. We’ll have no Problems in life.
Father, are you Serious? No, I’m not just Serious, I am Brutally Honest. Of course, you might say,
but I’m not sure what God wants. My friend, very simple, Pray
and ask for Light. Lord, what do You want? Though
He tells you, you may still think you’ve got a Problem. You’re
Scared, Pray again. This time, Lord give me
Strength, I know what You want all right, but, oh dear Jesus, I’m afraid. I know you are,
that’s why I’m sending you what you call a Problem. Ask
Me for the Strength and you’ll have a
Foretaste of Heaven on Earth. Of course, of course, that will mean, of course, it will mean Carrying
the Cross.
No Pain
. . . . . . No Gain
No Guts
. . . . . . No Glory
No Cross
. . . . . No Crown
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Fifth Beatitude
The Fifth Beatitude: “Blessed are
the Merciful, for they shall obtain Mercy”. This Beatitude,
Christ made sure was enshrined in the Lord’s Prayer. Forgive us
our trespasses, we tell Our Lord, forgive us our trespasses as
we forgive those who trespass against us. So what is Our Lord telling us to do? To
Forgive others, to not dwell on their, well, what shall I call it, their
Wickedness, no matter how Black you paint their actions towards yourselves, don’t dwell
on it. We are to Love those who do not Love us. In other
words, and this is no Cliché believe-you-me, our Salvation depends on this, my dear fellow
Sinners. We all desperately need God’s Mercy. Very well, what is
the Divinely Infallible way of obtaining God’s Mercy? By
practicing Mercy towards others. That is why Unkind,
Thoughtless, Mean, Inattentive,
Unjust, even Cruel people are put into our lives, we need
Them. I mean it, we need Them, and you don’t run away from
those people, we need Them, They are a great
Gift. They are God’s
Provided-Means for His giving us Mercy.
What’s the Promise? The greatest Promise that Christ could make was the reason
He became Man. And, hear it, on the
Cross, what did Christ say? Those who had Unjustly
condemned Him to Death, nailed Him
to the Cross, the Murderers,
Christ as man begged His Heavenly Father to Forgive
Them. And Christ made sure that before
He Died on Calvary, that
He would also Pardon, remember, the Thief who was
Crucified along with the Savior. There’s more here than meets the eye.
It is not only, though obviously, of great Supernatural Benefit to us to be
Merciful to others, that you might say, is the immediate logic of the Fifth
Beatitude. But, as now almost Two (2) Thousand Years of the
Church’s commentators have pointed out, the Promise, “they shall obtain
mercy”, is not only Mercy for ourselves. By our being Merciful
toward others who can be very Offensive to us, that too, but also, we obtain
Mercy for the very ones who are Offensive, who Hurt us.
God has given me the Privilege over the years of my Priesthood to have experienced enough
Rejection and of Opposition, and Sadly,
from some people that I’ve done some Great Favors for. In other words, it is not only that
Mercy is Promised to us because we are Merciful, but
Mercy is Promised to those toward whom we show Mercy. We merit
Mercy for them and may well be, don’t forget this, it may well be, that our
Merciful Forgiveness of those who have maybe Cruelly Betrayed us, even
Hated us, may be the condition that Christ attaches to giving
these people His Grace of Merciful
Repentance. And that, of course, in one sentence is precisely what Jesus Christ did.
Surely, surely, He did not need to have His own sins forgiven.
But, His Mercy toward those who were so Cruel toward
Him, His Mercy Merited the Mercy
from His Heavenly Father, for the very ones, who except for His Mercy
toward them, would not have obtained Mercy from the Heavenly
Father to be Saved themselves. More than any of us realize, we hold the
Salvation of Souls in the Palms-of-our-Hands.
We go on.
Sixth Beatitude
The Sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the
Clean of Heart, for they shall see God”. There are Two (2) Kinds of
Purity expressed in the Sixth Beatitude. There is the
Purity from Sin and there’s the Purity
of Chastity. Both forms of Purity are understood in the
Sixth Beatitude.
Definitions
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Mind - The Intellect, the Thinking Principle of the
Soul.
Heart - Synonymous with a Soul's
Will; the Power by which we deliberately and freely choose to
"act" or "not to act". The
Heart is subordinated to the Mind, its Acts
must be about what the Mind/Intellect presents to it. The Heart
tends toward the Good, but can become Corrupt
and filled with Sin.
Man's First
Abuse of his Heart/Mind/Free Will was by Adam and Eve.
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And what is Christ’s Promise? Both forms of Purity,
Purity from Sin and Purity
of Chastity, are Promised by Christ an Extraordinary-Ability to
see God. In other words, there is nothing, nothing which so Enlightens
the Human Mind in being able to see with the
Eyes-of-Faith what God has revealed, as a
Clean Heart. How this needs to be underlined, indeed I would add, etched in bronze. The
more Pure a person’s Heart is, Pure
in not being Stained-with-Sin, Pure in living a
Chaste Life, a Sinless Heart, a Chaste
Heart, the more is assured by Christ, a Mind that can
see and penetrate into Mysteries that the most Superb Intellect
cannot penetrate. Forty-Seven (47) Years in the Priesthood have taught me volumes, one thing I’ve
learned, there is no Mind so Black, so
Dark, so Blind, as the Mind whose
Heart is filled with Sin. Sinners are
Blind. They are Blind.
The First Thing I tell people to learn about those who write books in, you name it what, Theology,
Spirituality, Biblical Studies, you name it, find out what kind of lives those people are living. If they are living
Humble, Obedient, Chaste
lives, you can Trust the Writing, otherwise, don’t touch their books. Oh what names I could give,
but Prudence tells me to withhold. Some years ago I was giving some lectures at the University of
Michigan, had dinner with the Catholic Chaplain at the University. In the course of the conversation, he told me that not a few of
the Catholics come to him and they tell him, “I can’t believe all this the Catholic Church is teaching”.
So I tell them, “sit down” and my First Question is,
“How’s your sex life?” “My sex life, what’s that got to do with what I’m
telling you?” He tells them, “Everything”. A Pure Heart
is joined to a Perceptive Mind.
At the end of his Treatise On the Incarnation, Saint Athanasius remarked: "He that
would comprehend the Mind of those who speak of God must needs begin by Washing and Cleansing his Soul".
Seventh Beatitude
The Seventh Beatitude: “Blessed are
the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”. A word at least should be said about what
Peace is, to make sense of what a Peacemaker is. There are
Two (2) Kinds of Peace. I never tire telling people. There is
Peace of Mind and Peace of Heart.
Peace of Mind is, the experience of knowing the Truth. For which
there is no substitute under Heaven. That’s why America, my figures are
Seventy Million (70,000,000) Americans, are using some kind of medically prescribed Tranquilizers.
They’re not at Peace. They are Starving for the
Truth.
What’s Peace of Heart? If Peace of Mind is the experience of
knowing the Truth, Peace of Heart is the experience of doing the
Will of God. Oh, how this needs to be, this time, carved in granite.
With a Graduate Degree in Psychology, I can tell you it contradicts most of what, at least, Psychotherapists will tell you.
You have Peace of Heart, in their Vocabulary, when you do your Own
Will. That is not just a Lie, that is a Demonic Lie.
Peace of Heart can be experienced only by those who are doing God’s
Will, and that’s a Divinely Mathematical Proportion
(α) [Peace of Heart α
Conformity to the Will of God]. Our Hearts will be as much
at Peace as we are doing the Will of God.
So then what is Peacemaking? Evidently it means, assisting others,
First in acquiring Peace of Mind, teaching them the Truth.
How many people admire Peace of Heart? Telling them what is God’s Will,
and of course, reconciling people who are estranged from each other. Hear it.
Hear it. Only people who are at Peace within-themselves can be at
Peace with-others. I repeat, no one else can be at Peace with another person, unless he or she
is at Peace within. And therefore, to be a Peacemaker means to help
people acquire that Inner-Peace without which there cannot be Peace
between or among people.
And the Promise, ah, Christ you might say exalted His
Vocabulary, the tenderest Promise He could make, “they shall be called,
children of God”, specially Loved by God and whatever
you can do to Reconcile others will be Blessed by the
Lord. Others among themselves, but remember, no Reconciliation
between people is possible unless there is First Peace
within-people and of course needless to say, we will be ourselves only as effective Peacemakers as
we ourselves are at Peace ourselves.
Eighth Beatitude
Finally, and I hesitate even speaking of the Eighth
Beatitude because I would like to spend the Whole Hour just on
the Eighth Beatitude. It is so Rich in it’s implications.
First it reads, “Blessed are you when men abuse you and persecute you and
speak all kinds of calumny against you on My account, rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in Heaven. This is how they
persecuted the Prophets before you”. Unquote the Savior. What are we being told?
Christ saved the Eighth Beatitude
for Last. You live Faithfully the First
Seven (7) Beatitudes, and my friends, you cannot escape the
Eighth, am I clear? In other words, even as Christ Himself, and just repeat the verbs,
was Abused and Persecuted and all kinds of
Calumny spoken against Him, Hated,
Hounded, Condemned to Death, Crucified,
and the Worst possible, the most Horrible kind of
Execution of which the Roman Soldiers were capable, was Crucifixion.
Christ Himself experienced that Suffering and
His Promises for those who follow-in His Footsteps, they are to
expect to be Rejected accordingly. You might ask, well why? Why? Because the World always
Hates the Truth, and when Truth
became Incarnate, the Truth was
Rejected, Crucified, Died and was
Buried. You might say somewhat surprisingly, Christ in giving us
the Eighth Beatitude Promises, oh, He
Promises Happiness all right, but hear it, the Promise of looking-forward-to a
Heavenly Eternity. In other words, for those who follow Jesus Faithfully, they should
not expect any other Joy here on Earth that is more deeply satisfying than the
Joy of knowing that they are following in the Footsteps of the Master
and that even as He was Rejected, so they are. They are
Rejected with Him, but, hear it, in the original
Greek of Saint Matthew, the Followers of Christ are told not just to
rejoice, but positively, dance with joy. Why? Because
Love, Love enjoys to Suffer
for the One whom he Loves, and there is no greater Joy, no
greater Joy on Earth, than that of Uniting our Being,
Rejected by the World, because we are Faithful to
Jesus Christ.
No Pain . . . . . .
No Gain
No Guts . . . . . .
No Glory
No Cross . . . . .
No Crown
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Lord Jesus, we beg You for the Grace to not just believe in the
Beatitudes, not just to understand the Beatitudes, not even just to live
the Beatitudes, but, as the Eighth Beatitude makes clear, to Suffer the
Beatitudes out of Love for You. Because, that dear Jesus, is our
greatest Happiness. Not only the Heaven for which we are made, but
already here, in Your Arms on Earth.
Amen.
Thank you for your attention.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Short Audio Clip on
'The Beatitudes are Possible'
by Monsignor William B. Smith, STD
Teacher of Moral Theology
A 3 Minute Treatise on the Beatitudes
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Notâre Bene:
This long Sermon on the Mount, spanning Three (3) Chapters of Matthew's Gospel, is the First of Jesus’ Sermons that we
hear, and it stands as a Summary of nearly everything else Jesus will Preach. He will Amplify the Message with Parables
and other Examples, but He will Never-Change the Message He Preaches here.
