“What if the Beatitudes weren’t just comforting words, but a blueprint for a way of life”, writes Sr. Joan Chittister. A blueprint for life…A Divine blueprint stamped upon our heart…A blueprint that places us in paradox, in a reversal of how we normally see life. It is not easy to stand holding any paradox…and yet paradox is at the heart of the Christian mystery: “If any want to be a follower of mine they must take up their cross and follow me. For whoever loses his or her life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will find life” (Mk 8:34-35). Sr. Joan goes on to say that the “Beatitudes of life are actually the…attitudes for life”! So, each beatitude depicts an inner attitude that we are called to live and grow into: “Blessed the poor in spirit…” “Blessed those who hunger now…” “Blessed those who weep now…” What is not in Luke’s gospel today but is in the gospel of Matthew is “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God” (Mt 5:3). What if we would take inside this blueprint and ponder what each beatitude is saying to us? The Beatitudes turn upside down the normal way people think and act in our society. What? You are blessed if you are persecuted for justice’s sake!! The Beatitudes are proclaimed at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew’s gospel (Mt 5:1-12). What could this mean? Could we not say that this teaching is pivotal for following Jesus and the gospel? It is important I think to reflect on what Jesus is calling us to in this seminal and eternal teaching.
In commenting on Luke’s ‘Beatitudes’ (Lk 6:17,20-26) where we have four beatitudes and not the eight of Matthew’s gospel, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar places the word ‘blessed’ in this context: “What does blessed mean? Certainly, it does not mean ‘happy’ in the sense that man gives to this word. And it is certainly not a call to continue on his way comforted and contented. Instead of referring to something that belongs to man, something that man feels or experiences, it refers to something in God that affects this man. In the context of blessedness Jesus speaks of ‘reward’, which is also only a metaphor. It has to do with the value that this man has for God and in God, something timeless in God that will be revealed to the man in his own time” (Light of the Word, p.277). Let’s tease out what von Balthasar is saying in this dense text. ‘Blessed’ in this teaching of Jesus is a Divine word; it is addressed to the human person who is the recipient and who ‘feels and experiences’ its impact on one’s life. ‘Blessed’ turns us to God, to our lives in God…but what does it mean, how do we understand that one is ‘blessed’ who mourns now, one is ‘blessed’ who hungers now and suffers injustice now? ‘Blessed’ challenges our relationship with God, how deep and authentic it is. Placing ‘blessed’ before each beatitude puts us in relation with God, inserts us in the Divine ambience where we sense that blessing will indeed transform a present reality into a new moment, a changed reality of what is intangible immediately but sensed. ‘Blessed are you’ enables us to trust what will emerge as we are immersed in Divine paradox. Von Balthasar concludes his brief commentary with this pithy text: “The blessedness is found right in the sacrifice” (p.278). In the surrender we are blessed if our hearts are open to God’s ways which are not our ways. It is striking that the universal Church uses the gospel of the Beatitudes for the solemnity of All Saints. The ‘Beatitudes’ were the blueprint for the saints. This was the paradigm that they lived and embodied. ‘Blessed are you’ says the Divine voice. The saints go before us in ‘blessedness’. Whatever we are struggling with let these Divine words encircle our heart: ‘Blessed are you’.
Sr. Kathy DeVico, Abbess
Chapter Talk – Sixth Sunday of the Year – February 16, 2025, cycle-C
