Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
I cannot imagine how many books have been written on the Sermon on the Mount. Today’s Gospel passage is the very beginning and possibly the most familiar, if not beloved, verses of the Sermon. It also poses, if taken seriously, the highest challenge to a maturing Christian disciple and requires the ‘leaving behind’ all things temporal. A few years ago I was searching for homilies by the Church Fathers dealing with the Beatitudes and was very struck by what St. Augustine wrote. His thoughts still hold great value for me and I would like to share some of his writing on the Beatitudes.
The first 8 precepts from the mouth of Jesus form a kind of circle, each precept, in some manner, building on the previous one and returning to the beginning. In the first, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”, Augustine identifies humility as the foundational virtue of all virtues. Thus he points to pride as the root of all sin, the cause of any separation or distance from the Lord, and thus, the Kingdom of God. Only when one truly realizes one’s place in creation and sees who one truly is in the eyes of the Creator can one allow the touch of the Holy Spirit to transform them.
The Blessed meek, who shall possess the earth are humble and answer only to God…they have left behind quarreling, fighting, and arguing over temporal things. Indeed, the saint says “they do not resist evil, but overcome evil with good… (and) shall by inheritance possess the earth.” Augustine associates the mourning of those on this journey of conversion with the loss of what was formerly so dear to them. This detachment includes temporal pleasures but also those things which we see as ‘good’—even our closest relationships insofar as they interfere with placing God above everything in our lives. The saint acknowledges the pain and grief that is part of this process and we cannot go it alone. The Holy Spirit companions us and provides the grace to continue along this way…the presence of comfort and the promise of joy ever with us.
Now what does a blessed one who is humble, meek, and detached seek? Having truly turned toward God, this one hungers and thirsts for righteousness, desiring only to be fed by the Father and fulfill his will as did Jesus. This one sees others as God sees them and freely offers mercy as indeed they have experienced mercy. This blessed one, pure of heart, seeks and is able to perceive the light of God with the eyes of their heart. “…Just as this light cannot be seen except with pure eyes; so neither is God seen, unless that is pure by which He can be seen.” Thus this blessed one, pure of heart and offering no resistance to God walks in the world as a peacemaker, a child of God bringing about the reign of the Kingdom in the world in precisely the manner appointed by the Father. This blessed one of God cannot be disturbed or distracted by things of this present world. Neither persecution nor rejection can disquiet them; theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. And in this eighth precept, the promise to the blessed one is the same as that of the first.
For Augustine, the Beatitudes are an expression of the process of conversion. He notes that Jesus addresses the first eight precepts in a general way and the last is addressed directly to those present. “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” (Mt 5:11-12) So Jesus is addressing us. He is addressing us on the mountain. What he lays out in these verses is the ultimate challenge. Today, I find myself praying to God that, no matter how formidable the fear or resistance or temptation, he may grant me the grace to allow the Spirit to carry me closer to this state blessedness.
--Gail Lyman