Fortunate are those who mourn;
they shall be comforted.
Fortunate are the gentle; they shall possess the land.
Fortunate are those who hunger
and thirst for justice,
for they shall be satisfied.
Fortunate are the merciful, for they shall find mercy.
Fortunate are those with pure hearts,
for they shall see God.
Fortunate are those who work for peace;
they shall be called children of God.
Fortunate are those who are persecuted
for the cause of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Fortunate are you, when people insult you
and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil
against you because you are my followers.
Be glad and joyful, for a great reward is kept for you in God. For that is how this people persecuted the prophets who lived before you.
REFLECTION:
The ‘Beatitudes’ which Jesus proclaims in the Gospel reading represent a kind of ‘reversal’ of the order in which we ordinarily understand things.
After all, none of those who are pronounced ‘blessed’ (or in the case of this translation, ‘fortunate’) are what the world would ordinarily regard as such.
And yet that is precisely what Jesus proclaims. Too often, our wealth, our abilities, our skills,
talents and capacities blind us to the reality that we are all ultimately poor, we are all weak, sinful, inadequate and fallen.
And yet our pride hinders us from seeing that we are totally dependent on God.
The ‘reversals’ proclaimed by the Beatitudes call us to once again acknowledge our utter poverty and dependence on God.
Our lives are in his hands; it is he who sustains us, not ourselves. Does that lessen our abilities, talents, gifts, and skills? Far from it.
In fact, acknowledging our dependence on God highlights them even more, raises them to the level to which they really belong: gifts from the Almighty.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020