The Beatitudes
In Mt. Eremos, a small but beautiful chapel with the Beatitudes written on its walls has been built. There’s a little debate on the number of Beatitudes; some say there are only eight while others say that there are 10 Beatitudes. Well, the most important is that, everything is there for us to read and ponder; after all, they are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
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In the Old Testament, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments that he carved by his finger in a stone tablet in Mt. Sinai. These were a set of commands that God wanted man to follow to the letter. It has since become the basic law of humankind where laws made by men or their kingdoms used it as their basis for their laws. In the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ imparts on his disciples the Beatitudes.
So you may ask, what are the Beatitudes? How important are these words to us Christians? The Beatitudes are declarations of blessedness by our Lord for certain acts by the faithful and in doing so, they are given a reward in the kingdom of heaven. Blessedness also means in a state of being happy for doing God’s will here on earth.
The most famous Beatitude of all is the first one when the Lord said,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” More often than not, this passage has been taken out of context to mean only “Blessed are the poor” and the “in spirit” part taken away. So those who live in poverty can rejoice that they are assured to get into the kingdom of heaven because of their poverty here on earth.
But then we should take this passage in its entirety – “Blessed are the poor in spirit” – because it gives a different meaning. Being materially poor is different from being “poor in spirit”. There are many people who are extremely rich, but are poor in spirit, while there are many of our materially poor brothers and sisters who are not poor in spirit.
So what does it mean to be poor in spirit? To be poor in spirit means admitting that you cannot do anything without God that you really have nothing to offer to God, no matter how much you pray to him or how many times you go to church to pray. Above all, it is the understanding that God gives you blessings not because you deserve it, but rather because of God’s love for humankind and his unfathomable divine mercy for us sinners.
My favorite among the Beatitudes is “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” If your heart is in the right place and you have no grudge against anyone, then you will surely see God face-to-face when our time to leave this earth comes and we are rewarded with eternal life.
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