June 8, 2026
Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 359
Reading 1
Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab:
“As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve,
during these years there shall be no dew or rain except at my word.”
The LORD then said to Elijah:
“Leave here, go east
and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
You shall drink of the stream,
and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”
So he left and did as the LORD had commanded.
He went and remained by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning,
and bread and meat in the evening,
and he drank from the stream.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
121:1bc-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. (see 2) Our help is from the Lord, who made
heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip;
may he slumber not who guards you:
Indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps,
the guardian of Israel.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade;
he is beside you at your right hand.
The sun shall not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your life.
The LORD will guard your coming and your going,
both now and forever.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice and be glad;
for your reward will be great in heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060826.cfm
Commentary on 1
Kings 17:1-6
As stated in the Vatican II Missal:
“Today we begin reading the story of the dramatic man of
God, Elijah (9th century BC). The king of the northern kingdom, Ahab, married
the pagan, Jezebel. She introduced pagan cults. Elijah, chosen by
God to battle paganism, announces a lengthy drought as God’s punishment.”
For the next three weeks we are returning to the Books of
Kings. We will be reading from both the First and Second Books. The
readings centre mainly on the great prophet Elijah and also on his successor,
Elisha. Also featuring prominently will be King Ahab and his notorious
wife, Jezebel.
What is told here probably belongs to the earlier life of
the prophet, and the author takes up the story where it fits into his overall
narrative. It is the description of a serious drought which is seen as a
punishment for the introduction into Israel of the worship of Baal. We
are in the reign of King Ahab, who had married Jezebel, a woman from Sidon, and
it was through her influence that the king introduced the worship of
Baal. He even built a temple to Baal in Samaria.
All we are told of Elijah’s origins is that he came from
Tishbe in Gilead. Gilead was a region in the northern area on the east
side of the Jordan. The exact location of Tishbe is not now known.
He was being sent by God to oppose vigorously, by word and action, both Baal
worship and those engaged in it.
Elijah begins by proclaiming solemnly to King Ahab in the
name of the Lord that, until God declares otherwise, there will be a drought in
Israel. The reason is clear—it is a punishment for the idolatry of God’s
people.
Elijah makes his proclamation in the name of:
…the Lord the God of Israel…before whom I stand…
This is a technical phrase which indicates someone who
stands in the service of a king. Kings and priests were specially anointed
to serve as God’s official representatives and spokespersons with the
responsibility to see that their people remained faithful to the covenant and
in the service of God. Since the days of Jeroboam, the northern kingdom
had not had such a priest, and its kings had all been unfaithful.
Now in the great religious crisis brought on by Ahab’s
promotion of Baal worship, the Lord sent Elijah (and after him Elisha) to serve
as his representative (instead of a king and priests), much as Moses had done
long ago. In fact, the author of Kings highlights many similarities
between the ministries of Elijah and Moses.
The Lord says to Elijah:
…there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except
by my word.
This form of punishment is significant because, although
Baal was seen as a god of fertility and lord of the rain clouds on which that
fertility depended, he was powerless against Yahweh’s decision to withhold all
rain and moisture. This will be dramatically emphasised and proved in the
scene which brings the drought to an end.
Symbolically, too, Elijah is told to go away from God’s land
and hide on the east side of the Jordan. By this gesture God indicates
that he is withdrawing from his people, leaving them isolated from his word
(which comes through the prophet) and from his blessings. The absence of
the prophet only confirms God’s separation from his people. Such symbolic
acts by prophets are common in the Old Testament. The location of the
“Wadi Cherith” is not certain. Possibly it was a gorge formed by one of
the northern tributaries to the Yarmuk River.
At the same time, while God’s people in the promised land go
thirsty and hungry during the drought that afflicts them, Elijah will drink
from the stream in the oasis and, miraculously, ravens will bring him bread in
the morning and meat in the evening. The Lord’s faithful servant was
miraculously sustained on the other side of the Jordan (like Israel in the
desert in the time of Moses), while Israel in the promised land was going
hungry—another clear message to Israel of its vain reliance on Baal.
The fact that Elijah was sustained in a miraculous way apart
from living among his own people also demonstrated that the word of God was not
dependent on the people, but the people were totally dependent on the word of
God. It was not God who had gone back on his covenant promises to his people.
It was his people who had violated the covenant by turning their back on him
and cultivating the idols of Baal.
Sometimes we think that God has abandoned us, but if we
looked more closely, we would find that it is we who have moved away from
him. Our hunger, too, for the most part is a spiritual hunger. When
we are close to him, we can find his presence and his love in every experience
that we have.
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Commentary on
Matthew 5:1-12
Today we begin reading from Matthew’s Gospel and will
continue to do so for several weeks to come. We begin with chapter 5 and the
Sermon on the Mount.
In reading Matthew’s Gospel, we need to remember that it was
directed primarily at a readership with a Jewish background, and in this it
differs greatly from Mark’s Gospel. One of Matthew’s aims is to present Jesus
as the new Moses, transcending, but not putting aside the law given to the
Israelites by the first Moses. And as the Law of Moses is contained in what we
call the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), the law or teaching of
Jesus is presented uniquely in this Gospel by five long discourses.
The first of these is the Sermon on the Mount and it consists
mainly of the qualities which are expected of a follower of the new Law, and
the new Moses—Jesus. It begins with what we call the Eight Beatitudes. It could
be said that these have been greatly under-rated in the life of the Christian
churches, Catholic and otherwise. Most people tend to see the centre of
Christian living in the Ten Commandments, and yet they really belong to the
Hebrew (Old) Testament; they are part of that Law which the coming of Jesus did
not nullify, but transcended. They are, of course, still valid as moral
guidelines, but in many ways, they fall far short of the expectations presented
by Jesus in the Beatitudes.
It would seem, in fact, that Matthew is presenting the
Beatitudes as taking over the role of the Commandments, and this is indicated
by the prominent place they have in forming the opening of the first discourse.
They are, as it were, a manifesto of Jesus’ message and his call to see the
world in his way. They express the necessary attitudes of those who belong to
the Kingdom. Those who have these attitudes already have entered that Kingdom.
Perhaps a few words about the ‘Kingdom’ are in order. In
many ways, Matthew’s Gospel can be called ‘a Gospel of the Kingdom’. The phrase
that Matthew consistently uses, however, is ‘Kingdom of heaven’. For many
people this can be misleading because it causes them to think that Jesus is
talking about the next life, our life in ‘heaven’. As a result, the Beatitudes
are sometimes interpreted as conditions to be observed by those who want to go
to heaven after they die.
This may be a serious misreading of the text. Matthew uses
the term ‘Kingdom of heaven’ because, mindful of the Jewish background of his
readers, he does not like to mention the name of God directly. He uses other
circumlocutions in the course of his Gospel to get around using God’s name, as
when he has Jesus say:
…whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven…
(Matt 16:19)
By using passive voice in the second half of the statement,
he avoids mentioning the Doer—God. The other Gospels have no hesitation in
talking about the ‘Kingdom of God’, and it is important to understand that is
also what Matthew means.
What is this Kingdom? It is not a place. The Greek
word, basileia, is an abstract word which means ‘kingship’ or
‘reign’ rather than ‘kingdom’, which suggests a territory. ‘Kingship’ or
‘reign’, on the contrary, suggests power. To belong to the Kingdom or Kingship
of God, then, is to put oneself fully, consciously and deliberately under the
power of God—to experience that power and be empowered by it. That power is
above all the power of agape-love.
When we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “your Kingdom come”, we
are not talking about a future life after death, but praying that people
everywhere put themselves under the loving power of God in the here and now.
That is made clear by the petition immediately following: “your will be
done on earth…” Our first call as Christians is to belong to, to
enter that Kingdom, and not just to be a member of the Church.
The Church is, in so far as it is faithful to the call of
Christ, part of the Kingdom, but the Kingdom extends far beyond the membership
of the Church. The Church is, as it were, the sacrament or visible sign of the
Kingdom. There are many examples in our present time of people, who are not
even Christian, who are very much full of the spirit of the Kingdom, more so
perhaps than many who are baptised. An example from the past is Mahatma Gandhi,
who was particularly fond of the Beatitudes and identified with them.
Today’s text begins with Jesus seeing the crowds and going
up a hill. Moses, too, delivered God’s law from an elevated place, Mount Sinai.
In neither case can we identify the actual mountain or hill, although
traditionally, of course, there is a hill near the northern shore of the Sea of
Galilee that has been called the Mount of the Beatitudes.
In the traditional way of a teacher, Jesus sits down to
teach. We see him doing the same in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:20). He
is joined by his disciples, and it is not clear whether they were the primary
object of his teaching, or that the crowds were also included. The teaching, of
course, is directed to followers and, in particular, to those reading the
Gospel.
Jesus begins the discourse with the wonderful words of the
Beatitudes. There are eight of them, each one beginning with the words,
“Blessed are those…” ‘Blessed’ is also translated as ‘Happy’ and is from the
Greek adjective makarios which includes not only the idea of
happiness, but also of good fortune, of being specially blessed. So we can also
translate it as “Happy are those…” or “Fortunate are those…” It is important to
realise that being a follower of Christ is intended to be a source of deep
happiness and a realisation that one is truly fortunate to have discovered this
vision of life.
At a first reading, the Beatitudes seem to fly in the face
of commonly accepted ideals of the good life. It takes a deeper reading to see
their inner truth.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
The Gospel in general shows great concern for the poor, that is, all those
people who are deprived of what they rightfully need to lead a life of decent
dignity. Why should the poor be particularly blessed? As people living in
deprivation, obviously they are not. But in terms of the Kingdom, they are
blessed because in the Kingdom, where love, compassion and justice prevail,
there is no place for such inequality. The Kingdom is an environment of
interlocking relationships where people take care of each other, and where the
resources of all are shared according to the needs of all. The Kingdom is a
place of blessings and happiness for the poor because it spells the end of
their poverty. The poor are the “little ones” that Jesus speaks about as
qualification for entering the Kingdom. They are the “last” who will be first.
And, while ‘poverty’ in a wider sense can be applied to all, Jesus is thinking
especially of the material simplicity that he expects from his disciples, a
poverty which he himself experienced with “nowhere to lay his head”. Wealth can
only mean depriving the needy of what they should have.
Matthew is unique in using the term “poor in spirit”, and it
is a significant addition. While the Gospel in speaking of the poor is mainly
and rightly concerned with the materially poor, Matthew’s phrase can broaden
the concept. Because in reality, there are many other ways in which people can
be deprived and regarded as poor. We are more sensitive to this in our own day
with our deeper insights into psychological and sociological factors. People
can, although materially well-off, be literally poor in spirit. That is, they
have little spirit, very little happiness, lives of full of stress and anxiety
and anger and resentment. These are all the result of our highly competitive,
each-person-for-himself society, which is everything that the Kingdom is not.
Taken in that sense, the Beatitude applies to a very large number of people.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
The word “meek” is variously translated as ‘gentle’, ‘lowly’ or ‘humble’. The
Greek word comes from the noun prautes. The beatitude is
reminiscent of a phrase in Psalm 37:
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. (Ps 37:11)
Perhaps ‘gentle’ is the better rendering. It suggests
someone who is kind and caring and not particularly assertive and dominating.
In our rough and tumble society, such people normally get pushed aside and can
thus be classed among the ‘lowly’ and the ‘humble’. But they are not
necessarily ‘meek’, which suggests people who allow themselves to be trampled
on. Rather, they belong to those who subscribe to active non-violence. That is,
they will never resort to any form of violent behaviour to achieve their goals,
but they are active and pro-active, not passive—or meek. We might think of a
historical figure like Martin Luther King, Jr. To be ‘gentle’ in this sense
requires a great inner strength and, of course, in the Kingdom there is a very
desirable need for such people. It is there that they will come into their own.
In some texts this Beatitude is interchanged with the
following and sometimes it is presented as an addition to the first about the
“poor in spirit”, where ‘gentle’ is understood as ‘lowly’. In this case there
would only be seven Beatitudes, a more biblical number.
Blessed (Happy) are those who mourn, for they will be
comforted.
Mourning and happiness would seem to be contradictory to each other. It does
not say what the mourning might be about. It could be the death of a family
member or a loved one, but it could be something quite different altogether.
Again we have to see the beatitude in the context of the
Kingdom. There, those who mourn—for whatever reason—can be sure of experiencing
the comfort and support of their brothers and sisters. That is something that
they cannot be always sure of in a world where people are too busy taking care
of their own immediate interests. Mourning by itself is never a happy
experience, but it can become a blessing when surrounded by the right people as
their love and concern are poured out.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘What is right’? ‘What is just’? Righteousness, meaning ‘being just’ or ‘being
right’ (it is also synonymous with ‘justice’ in some translations) is when each
person is accorded what ‘belongs’ to them. A just or righteous world is a world
of right relationships; in the Kingdom, that is realised. And so, those who
truly hunger and thirst to see justice done in our world for every single
person will see their dreams and hopes come to fruition.
It is a hunger and thirst which everyone of us should pray
to have. Only when we all have that hunger and thirst will justice be achieved
and the Kingdom become a reality. We have made progress over the years, but we
still have a long, long way to go.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Mercy, compassion, the ability to forgive fully—the Kingdom is a world full of
mercy and forgiveness. And just as we will be ready to forgive others, we will
find that others will be ready to forgive us when we fail in our
responsibilities towards others. In the Lord’s Prayer, which is a prayer of the
Kingdom, this is what we ask for:
…forgive us our sins because we forgive the sins of those
who have offended us.
In fact, it should be impossible for those who belong to the
Kingdom to be offended, and forgiveness should come easily to them. That does
not mean, of course, that we condone every wrong. The question of justice
always remains. But condemning wrong does not exclude healing wounds caused by
the hurt which wrongdoing causes. And mercy understood as compassion is a
particularly desirable quality in a Kingdom person. Such a person not only
experiences pity for those who suffer, but knows how to enter into and
empathise with what they are going through. This was a quality found again and
again in Jesus himself.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Pure’ here is not referring primarily—or solely—to sexual purity, as is
sometimes thought.* The
pure in heart are those whose vision is totally free of any distortion or
prejudice. They see things exactly as they are. As a result, they have little difficulty
in recognising the presence and the action of God in the people and the
environment around them. This purity of heart, this ability to be able to see
with perfect clarity, is truly a gift. It requires a high level of integrity on
our part, but the rewards are enormous.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called
children of God.
Surely this is one of the most beautiful of the beatitudes and the one we would
all love to have applied to ourselves. In a world so full of divisions and
conflicts of all kinds, the role of the peacemaker is so much needed. It is
something we can all do, starting in our own homes, then in our working places
and the wider society. It is something we can do as individuals and in groups,
as parishes and churches. And, how true that, as peacemakers, we can be called
“children of God”! The Letter to the Ephesians speaks beautifully of Jesus as
making peace and breaking down walls between people, by his death on the cross
(see Eph 2:14).
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Most people would hardly regard being persecuted, which could involve prison,
torture and death, as a source of blessedness in the context of ‘happiness’.
But it is not the persecution that triggers the happiness, it is the
reason why it is willingly undergone.
Right from the beginnings of the Church, as described in the
Acts of the Apostles, Christians rejoiced to be found worthy to suffer with and
like their Lord in the proclamation of his message and way of life. That way of
life was so precious to them, such a source of meaning, that they were more
than willing to give their lives to defend it.
In prison, they sang songs and prayed, as did many civil
rights leaders (most of them committed Christians) in the United States who
would sing “We shall overcome” as they rode the paddy wagons to jail. It is a
much more painful experience to compromise with our deepest convictions in
order to avoid criticism or physical suffering. They are indeed, as Jesus says,
the successors to the great prophets of the Hebrew Testament. Truly happy are
those, who with integrity, can stand by their convictions whatever the cost.
Some people have seen in these Beatitudes a portrait of
Jesus himself, and certainly The Beatitudes should be the portrait of every
Christian and of every Kingdom person. They are the charter that people
everywhere (and not just Christians) are called to follow. They go far beyond
what is demanded of us in the Ten Commandments. The Commandments are not so
difficult to follow and, in so far as several of them are expressed in the
negative (‘Thou shalt not…’), they can be observed by doing nothing! There is
no way, however, that people can ever say they observe any Beatitude to the
fullest. They always call us to a further and higher level.
__________________________________
*From the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2518:
“Pure in heart” refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to
the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or
sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith.”
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Monday,
June 8, 2026
Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God of wisdom and love, source of
all good, send your Spirit to teach us your truth and guide our actions in your
way of peace.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 5: 1-12
Seeing the crowds, Jesus went onto
the mountain. And when he was seated his disciples came to him. Then he began
to speak. This is what he taught them:
How blessed are the poor in spirit: the kingdom of Heaven
is theirs.
Blessed are the gentle: they shall have the earth as
inheritance.
Blessed are those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for uprightness: they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: they shall have mercy shown
them.
Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: they
shall be recognized as children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted in
the cause of uprightness: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Blessed are you when people abuse you and
persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they
persecuted the prophets before you.
Reflection
From today, beginning of the 10th week of Ordinary Time, up to
the end of the
21st Week of Ordinary time, the daily Gospels
are taken from the Gospel of Matthew. Starting from the beginning of the 22nd
week of Ordinary Time, up to the end of the Liturgical Year, the Gospels are
taken from the Gospel of Luke.
•
In Matthew’s Gospel written for the communities
of the converted Jews of Galilee and Syria, Jesus is presented as the New
Moses, the new legislator. In the Old Testament the Law of Moses was codified
in five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Imitating
the ancient model, Matthew presents the New Law in five great discourses spread
over in the Gospel:
•
a) the Sermon on the Mountain (Mt 5: 1 to 7:
29);
•
b) the Discourse on the Mission (Mt 10:
1-42);
•
c) The Discourse of the Parables (Mt 13:
1-52);
•
d) The Discourse of the Community (Mt 18:
1-35);
•
e) The Discourse of the Future of the Kingdom
(Mt 24: 1 to 25: 46).
The narrative parts, which have been put in among the five
Discourses, describe the practice of Jesus and show how He observed the New Law
and incarnated it in his life.
•
Matthew 5: 1-2: The solemn announcement of the
New Law. In agreement with the context of the Gospel of Matthew, in the moment
when Jesus pronounces the Discourse on the Mountain, there were only four
disciples with him (cf. Mt 4: 18-22). Few people. But an immense multitude was
behind him (Mt 4: 25). In the Old Testament, Moses went up to Mount Sinai to
receive the Law of God. As it happened to Moses, Jesus went up to the Mountain,
and seeing the crowd, he proclaimed the New Law. The solemn way in which
Matthew introduces the proclamation of the New Law is significant: “Seeing the
crowds, he went onto the mountain. And when he was seated his disciples came to
him. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them: How blessed are the
poor in spirit, the kingdom of Heaven is theirs”. The eight Beatitudes open in
a solemn way the “Discourse on the Mountain” – the sermon on the Mountain. In
them Jesus defines who can be considered blessed, who can enter into the
Kingdom. There are eight categories of persons, eight entrance doors to the
Kingdom, for the community. There are no other entrances! Anyone who wants to
enter into the Kingdom should identify himself with at least one of these eight
categories.
•
Matthew 5: 3: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Jesus acknowledges the richness and the value of the poor (Mt 11: 25-26). He
defines his own mission in these words: “to proclaim the Good News to the poor”
(Lk 4: 18). He himself lives poorly. He possesses nothing for himself, not even
a stone where to rest his head (Mt 88: 20). And to anyone who wants to follow
him, he orders to choose: God or money! (Mt 6: 24). In Luke’s Gospel it is
said: “Blessed are you who are poor!” (Lk 6: 20). But who is poor in spirit? It
is the poor person who has the same spirit that animated Jesus. It is not the
rich person, neither the poor person who has the mentality of a rich person.
But rather it is the poor person who acts as Jesus, he thinks of the poor and
recognizes the value in him. It is the poor person who says: “I think that the
world will be better when the little one who suffers thinks of the least.
•
Blessed the poor in spirit => for theirs is
the Kingdom of Heaven
•
Blessed the meek => they shall have the earth
as inheritance
•
Blessed those who mourn => they will be
consoled
•
Blessed those who hunger and thirst for justice
=> they shall have their fill
•
Blessed are the merciful => they shall have
mercy shown them
•
Blessed are the pure in heart => they shall
see God
•
Blessed are the peacemakers => they shall be
recognized children of God
•
Blessed those persecuted in the cause of justice
=> theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
•
Matthew 5: 4-9: The new project of life. Every time
that in the Bible they try to renew the Covenant, they begin by re-establishing
the rights of the poor and of the excluded. Without this, the Covenant cannot
be renewed! This is the way the Prophets did, this is how Jesus did. In the
Beatitudes, he announces the new Project of God which accepts the poor and the
excluded. It denounces the system which excludes the poor and which persecutes
those who fight for justice. The first category of the “poor in spirit” and the
last category of those “persecuted for the cause of justice” receive the same
promise of the Kingdom of Heaven. And they receive it beginning now, in the
present, because Jesus says: “theirs is the
Kingdom!” The Kingdom is already present in their life. Between the first and
the last category, there are six other categories which receive the promise of
the Kingdom. In them there is the new project of life which wants to
reconstruct life totally through a new type of relationship: with material goods (the first two); with persons among themselves (2nd
two); with God (3rd
two). The Christian community should be an example of this Kingdom, a place
where the Kingdom begins ands takes shape, form beginning now. The three
duos:
•
First duo: the meek and those who mourn: the meek are those poor of whom Psalm
37 speaks. They have been deprived of their land and they will inherit it again
(Ps 37: 11; cf. Ps 37: 22, 29, 34). Those who mourn are those who weep in the
face of injustices in the world and in people (cf. Ps 119: 136; Ez 9: 4; Tb 13.
16; 2 P 2: 7). These two Beatitudes want to reconstruct the relationship with
material goods: the possession of the land and of the reconciled world.
•
Second duo:
those who hunger and thirst for justice and the merciful: Those who are hungry and thirsty for justice are
those who desire to renew human living together, in such a way that once again
it may be according to the demands of justice. The merciful are those who feel in their heart the misery of others
because they want to eliminate the inequality between brothers and sisters.
These two Beatitudes want to reconstruct the relationship among persons through
the practice of justice and solidarity.
•
Third duo: The pure in heart and the
peacemakers: The pure in heart are
those who have a contemplative look which allows them to perceive the presence
of God in everything. Those who promote
peace, the peacemakers, will be called children of God, because they make
an effort so that a new experience of God can penetrate in everything and can
integrate all things. These two Beatitudes want to build up the relationship
with God: to see the presence of God which acts in everything and be called son
and daughter of God.
•
Matthew 5: 10-12: The persecuted for the cause
of justice and of the Gospel. The Beatitudes say exactly the contrary of what
society in which we live says. In fact, in society, those who are persecuted
for the cause of justice are considered as unhappy, wretched persons. The poor
is unhappy. Blessed is the one who has money and can go to the Supermarket and
spend as he wishes. Blessed is the one who is hungry for power. The unhappy and
wretched are the poor, those who weep! In television, the novels diffuse this
myth of the happy and fulfilled person. And without being aware, the novels
become the model of life for many of us. Is there still place in our society
for these words of Jesus: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the cause
of justice and of the Gospel? Blessed are the poor! Blessed are those who
weep!”? And according to me, being a Christian, in fact, who is blessed?
Personal Questions
•
We all want to be happy. All of us! But are we
truly happy? Why yes? Why no? How can we understand that a person can be poor
and happy at the same time?
•
In which moments of your life have you felt
truly happy? Was it a happiness like the one proclaimed by Jesus in the
Beatitudes, or was it of another type?
Concluding Prayer
I lift up my eyes to the mountains; where is my help to come
from?
My help comes from Yahweh who made heaven and earth. (Ps 121:
1-2)
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