Christ the Cornerstone

The Beatitudes are a ‘roadmap’ to happiness in ‘communion with God’

The Gospel reading for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Lk 6: 17, 20–26) contains the eight Beatitudes preached by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), the Beatitudes represent “the heart of Jesus’ teaching” (#1716). They reveal the true path to happiness and lead always to joy.

There is a debate between those who prefer the 8 Beatitudes over the 10 Commandments. The Commandments are said to be negative proscriptions (“Thou shalt not”), whereas the Beatitudes are positive statements (“Blessed are you”). The reality is that both show us how to live well and avoid evil in a world that is colored by sadness, sin, and death.

The Commandments are warning signs. They identify behaviors that are destructive. By observing them, we can stay on the right path and keep from harming ourselves or others. The Beatitudes, on the other hand, are a roadmap. They reveal the way we should live if we want to be happy and reach our final destiny, the joy of heaven.

As our Church teaches, “the Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it” (CCC #1718). Everyone wants to be happy, but our innate sense of right and wrong has been distorted by sin. We need help to determine how we should live.

The Church teaches that “the Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts. God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally, but also to the Church as a whole, the new people made up of those who have accepted the promise and live from it in faith” (CCC #1719).

“Beatitude” is the state of supreme happiness that can only be attained in communion with God. Our Savior Jesus Christ has revealed that the way to the ultimate beatitude (heavenly joy) is through him and, particularly, through the experience of self-sacrificing death that alone leads to resurrection, the fullness of life.

That’s why Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that the only way to live fully is to die to self. The Way of the Cross is the only way to complete and everlasting happiness. Blessed are we when we say “no” to ourselves and “yes” to God.

In his 2020 catechesis on the Beatitudes, Pope Francis taught that each Beatitude is composed of three parts: the opening word “Blessed” followed by the situation in which those who are called blessed find themselves—poor in spirit, mourning, thirsting for justice—and finally the reason for which they are blessed.

The conditions that occasion blessedness are spiritual— hungers of the heart—that cry out for divine intervention. Blessed are we when our hearts are restless and we long for God to comfort us, heal us and lead us to repentance.

As Pope Francis observes, in its original meaning, the word “Blessed” does not indicate someone “with a full belly or who is doing well.” It refers to a person who finds himself or herself in a state of grace and who is going forward on the path indicated by God with patience, poverty, service towards others or consolation. “He or she who goes forward on that path is happy, and will be blessed.”

The reason for each Beatitude is not to be found in one’s present situation, but in the new condition that those who are blessed receive as a gift from God: “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, “for they will be comforted”, “for they will inherit the land” and so on.

Here are the eight Beatitudes. As Pope Francis says, “It would be nice to learn them by heart and to repeat them in order to keep this law that Jesus gives us in our mind and in our hearts.”

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. †