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The Beatitudes

The Beatitudes. Anne HG. Beatitudes. The solemn blessings ( beatitudines , benedictiones ) which mark the opening of the Sermon on the Mount, the very first of Jesus’ sermons in the the Gospel of Matthew

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The Beatitudes

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  1. The Beatitudes Anne HG

  2. Beatitudes • The solemn blessings (beatitudines, benedictiones) which mark the opening of the Sermon on the Mount, the very first of Jesus’ sermons in the the Gospel of Matthew • The phrase "blessed are" in each of the beatitudes implies a current state of happiness or well-being

  3. The Beatitudes • The expression held powerful meaning of "divine joy and perfect happiness" to the people of the day • In other words, Jesus was saying "divinely happy and fortunate are" those who possess these inward qualities • While speaking of a current "blessedness," each pronouncement also promises a future reward

  4. The Beatitudes • We are called to practice virtues against the seduction of evil in the world • This commitment of our Christian responsibility to practice virtue is synthesized in the Beatitudes, which our Savior gave us • The Beatitudes are often called the Magna Carta of Christian perfection

  5. The Second Vatican Council • The second Vatican Council called the Beatitudes path to the universal call to holiness; they are a "lifetime commitment to practicing the Beatitudes.“ • They are uniquely Christian principles of human conduct • The norms set down in the Beatitudes go far beyond the dialogue in which Christ confirmed the Decalogue. The Beatitudes are its fulfillment.

  6. The Beatitudes and the Decalogue • The Beatitudes assume the Decalogue and they go beyond it • One reason the Beatitudes are able, humanly speaking, to make such heavy demands on human nature is because God, when He became man, gave man the grace to go beyond the Decalogue

  7. The Beatitudes • The Beatitudes are a perfect synthesis of Christ's own life; they are, if you wish, a summary of Christ's own practice of virtue • When we say that perfection consists in following Christ and ask what that means, we can answer that it means practicing the Beatitudes, which Christ first practiced and then preached

  8. The Beatitudes • The Beatitudes exemplify the paradoxical character of Christianity. We speak of Christian mysteries, and so they are • They are not fully comprehensible to the human mind because they are the antithesis of what society expects • In the Beatitudes, the paradox is happiness, which Christ promises if a person does certain things that naturally – or humanly speaking – are the very opposite of what we would expect to bring happiness

  9. The Poor in Spirit • Jesus tells us to do things that we don't naturally enjoy and then tells us we are going to have joy • “Blessed are the poor in spirit” the call not to focus on material goods and accumulating them is the opposite of the message of society which focuses on building wealth and the accumulation of cool things bringing happiness and status

  10. The Poor in Spirit • We are required, then, to be detached in spirit so that we use the gifts we have as God wants us to use them, and to enjoy them only insofar as the Lord wants us to enjoy them, but never to take complacency in any creature comfort • We are, therefore, not to dwell on what we have. Not to think ourselves better than somebody else because we have more than someone else has. Why? Because whatever we have is a gift

  11. Blessed are the meek • Meek is often translated or understood as humility or a combination of humility and gentleness • A combination of humility and gentleness is strength restrained by love, only strong people can be gentle and humble • Humility and gentleness, therefore, is not weakness; it is just the opposite

  12. Blessed are the Meek • “inherit the earth:” this means the ability, through God's grace, to prevail over others. • Humility and gentleness conquers, humility and gentleness wins, overcomes, prevails over the hardest hearts, over the most humanly impossible situations

  13. Blessed are those who mourn • It may help to distinguish between sorrow and sadness. Christ does not mean "happy those who are sad." • Sadness is mourning, but it is either mourning over things that don't deserve to be mourned over, or it is going beyond the extent to which they were supposed to be mourned. • It is either mourning over the wrong object or excessive mourning

  14. Blessed are those who mourn • Sorrow, on the other hand, is grief over what deserves to be mourned (and mourned in the right way • The Gospels give us a fine description of what is to be mourned in the two episodes where we are told that Our Lord wept. • He wept over Jerusalem and at Lazarus' tomb

  15. Blessed are those who mourn • At Lazarus' tomb, Christ sorrowed over Lazarus' death. • We, too, sorrow over the loss of people we love. God does some uncanny things. • He puts lovable people into our lives. • And, leave it up to God, you know what He always does? He takes them away • We are promised great comfort that brings strength or fortitude to bear patiently with the sorrows God puts into our lives

  16. Blessed are the merciful • Mercy is not a popular word outside of Christianity • Mercy is love that overcomes resistance • God's mercy is towards us: it is His love overcoming resistance: our tendency to sin rather than practice virtue is healed through God’s mercy

  17. Blessed are the pure of heart • There are many meanings to the expression "pure of heart" or "purity of heart." • One meaning is the internal chastity of mind, symbolized by the biblical word "heart” • Whenever the Scriptures want to interiorize a virtue, they speak of having it in one's heart • "Purity of heart" is internal chastity of mind or "chastity of the imagination."

  18. The pure of heart • This is more than chastity of body, or chastity of the senses. • It means that kind of custody over the internal movements of my spirit in which I sacrifice the very laudable, and beautiful and sacred satisfaction which God permits only to those who are married and only within the marital embrace • "purity of heart" is required of all Christ's followers

  19. The pure of heart • That perspicacious capacity which partakes of mysticism – to be able to see God even in this life, His beauty and His goodness, even in the most impossible situations of life – is reserved for those who have learned the secret of purity of heart • It can be understood as having our focus on God rather than on material or physical pleasures

  20. Blessed are the peace makers • There is so much disorder in the world that God wants peacemakers. • Peacemaking means reconciliation: first with God, the highest kind of peacemaking; with themselves, and within themselves

  21. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness • Thirsting for righteousness can be seen as longing and working for justice as a virtue • Working to fulfill the requirement that we give to God and to others what is due them • Working to overcome the injustice that is in the world due to the sins of others: greed, corruption, poverty etc. • truth in the following of Christ consists in desiring and then choosing what is right

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