I don’t quite like to preach on the beatitudes because the experience is like going to buy shampoo only to find that there are 20 different types of shampoos to choose from and everyone of them good. I am afraid that having chosen of the beatitudes and halfway through expounding it, I get stuck because I have nothing else to say. So, let’s see how the CCC can help us in this matter. The Catechism says, “The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement—however beneficial it may be—such as science, technology and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love" (CCC#1723).The first misconception we might want to disabuse ourselves of is that the beatitudes glorify starvation, misery or persecution as if they were “blessed” states of being. For example, abject starvation is evil. The great and grave number of children going to bed with an empty stomach is unconscionable; most especially if we live in the context of wastage of food. In today’s world of agricultural advancement, no one should ever have to starve. Hence, the blessedness of the beatitudes refers to our reliance or dependence on God alone as we heard in the quote from the CCC and so, it is right that the beatitudes challenge us to choose how we live our Christianity—by authentic Christianity through reliance on God or by a Christianity that conforms to the standards of the world.
It boils down to asking if we want to live true and authentic Christianity or do we want a Christianity of compromise. If we choose to live authentic Christianity, our life will change as our choices will affect how we live, move and have our being, just to paraphrase a quote from Act 17:28.
At one time, I remember, it was really fashionable to speak of “being counter-cultural”. But, I think, the term “counter-cultural”, even though true, sounds ideological. The beatitudes are not a set of “rules” but rather a description of a way of life. St Paul describes in the 2nd Letter to the Corinthians his beatific experience of suffering. “We are taken for impostors while we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here we are alive; rumoured to be executed before we are sentenced; thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich; for people having nothing though we have everything (2nd Cor. 6: 8-10).
St Paul’s description of discipleship is not ideological but rather, comes from a lived experience. He describes the Christian’s life as a paradox indeed. The blessedness we possess is not because we are persecuted. To be happy because we are persecuted may be indicative of mental illness. Instead, blessedness means that in spite of persecution, we are able to laugh or despite our hunger we are able to rejoice. The paradox is that our peace comes not from outside but rather wells up from inside. This is why the beatitudes cannot be ideological because ideology is subscription to a set of ideals or values or better still, to political manifestoes. On the contrary, the beatitudes are a subscription to a person: Christ. It is the person of Christ who gives us the reason for the laughter despite all that is crushing around us. St Paul says that much in 2nd Cor. 4: 8-9, “We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems but never despair; we have been persecuted, but never deserted; knocked down but never killed”.
The person of Christ is the reason why Paul says that “always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body, the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body” (2 Cor. 4:10-11).
According to Benedict XVI, the beatitudes express the meaning of discipleship. They cannot be expressed in purely theoretical terms; it is proclaimed in the life and suffering, and in the mysterious joy, of the disciple who gives himself over to completely follow the Lord. As such the beatitudes are not a social programme even though the choices we make in completely following the Lord will have social implications. It is when we have anchored ourselves upon Jesus, upon the person of Christ that we begin to mould a culture of inner freedom in order to stand up to the prevailing culture of affluence, a culture which glorifies self-sufficiency.
It is not difficult to trace the culture of “self-sufficiency” in our lives. As I have said before, every time we fail at an enterprise, our first thought is often, “I have not done enough”. It is a thought which betrays that the success of our undertaking is premised on our ability to carry out or execute all our plans. But, the beatitudes invite us to the inner freedom that is not afraid to embrace even failure because we are totally dependent on God’s promise to be with us.
In conclusion, the beatitudes invite us to a new way of living which is both difficult and challenging. First and foremost, this life is made possible by the person of Christ. He alone can offer to us all the spiritual means that we need in order to live his beatitudes or live Him with conviction in our daily lives. You may be wondering why I am hammering the point of “the person of Christ”. In the context of liberation theology, the beatitudes seem to be a programme of social initiatives aimed at the liberation of the human person. But, more and more, I am convinced that the failure to love mercy, to act justly or to walk tenderly with the Lord is a failure of recognition. We fail to love our neighbour because we do not know Christ enough. Christianity is not serving a programme but serving the person of Christ.
So, it is right that we turn to Him, as St Paul so says, “God has made us members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue and our holiness and our freedom. If anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord”. Only in Him, will what we do make sense. Through Him we live the beatitudes and through Him we become the beatitudes.
