In this second episode on the Gospel of Matthew, we take a look at Jesus’ first preaching in His famous Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. The bible besties break down this rich yet puzzling text, and explain why and how the Beatitudes instruct the life of a Christian.
What are the Beatitudes?
The word beatitude comes from the root word beatus in Latin, which means blessed or happy. The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ preaching. They fulfil the promises made to the chosen people (Israel) by ordering them no longer to the possession of territory, but to the Kingdom of Heaven1.
Can you really be blessed if you are poor in spirit; mourning; hungry; or persecuted?
Many of the people whom the world would consider to be among the most miserable, Jesus proclaims to be in an advantageous situation, for God assures them of consolation in the future. The Beatitudes express the ways in which the faithful are called to share in the glory of Jesus’ passion and resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly for Christ’s disciples2. They order our gaze beyond the temporal to the eternal, making clear that the follower of Christ lives for the Kingdom of heaven promised in the next life.
How are the Beatitudes different from the Ten Commandments?
The setting of the Sermon of the Mount in the New Testament recalls the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai in the Old Testament. Moses went up Mount Sinai, and received the Law, or the Ten Commandments, from God, then brought the Law down the mountain to the people. Jesus, however, delivers his teaching on the Beatitudes to the people who had come up the mountain. A few differences are worth noting. First, where Moses had to first receive the Law from God, Jesus preached the Beatitudes himself, pointing to Jesus’ divine authority. Second, Moses brought the Law down from Mount Sinai, but Jesus preached on the mountain. This signifies the higher precepts of a life oriented towards heaven, as opposed to the lower precepts given to Israel. St Augustine writes, “God gave lesser laws to those requiring the bonds of fear, but higher laws to those ready to be set free by love. The higher precepts are for the kingdom of heaven, just as the lower precepts were for a kingdom on earth.”3 The Beatitudes make explicit their Christological basis — it is in and through Christ that these blessings may be received. Jesus initially speaks of those being persecuted for righteousness’ sake4, but later addresses his disciples directly, blessing them for being persecuted on his account5 . Here, obedience to God’s law is associated with obedience to Christ himself. Other Jewish prophets and rabbis may have encouraged people to endure persecution for the sake of the Torah and out of obedience to God. Jesus, however, speaks of his disciples being persecuted because of Him. Jesus asserts an authority no prophet or rabbi in Israel could claim to possess, an act that would be blasphemous if he were not truly the Son of God.
What does it mean to live the Beatitudes?
The Beatitudes are not merely ethical principles, they are statements about the unique authority of Jesus and what it means to orient our lives around him. Living the Beatitudes is imitating Christ’s life, which means sharing in his sufferings and persecution, and ultimately, his glory.
The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for true 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 fulfil it6. St Augustine writes, “How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.”7
However, this natural desire has been tainted by sin, and this is perhaps why the Beatitudes seem to run counter to our human understanding of happiness. When Adam first transgressed the commandment of God, original sin entered the human condition and corrupted the moral order8, including the inclinations for good in humanity. Concupiscence — mankind’s inclination to sin — clouds our ability to discern the eternal good from worldly pleasures, and we end up choosing proximate goods that stray from God’s promises to us. The Beatitudes, then, turn mankind’s gaze away from things of the world, and set out the fundamentals of a life lived for God and His Kingdom instead.
Footnotes:
1 CCC 1716
2 CCC 1717
3 St. Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount 1, 1, 2
4 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)
5 Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matthew 5:11)
6 CCC 1718
7 St. Augustine, Conf.10,20:PL 32,791
8 “…the first man, Adam, when he had transgressed the commandment of God in Paradise, immediately lost the holiness and justice wherein he had been constituted; and that he incurred, through the offence of that prevarication, the wrath and indignation of God, and consequently death, with which God had previously threatened him…” – The Council of Trent, Decree Concerning Original Sin
Episode 3 references:
