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| Jack Kerouac: posted without explanation |
Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth,
who have observed his law;
seek justice, seek humility;
perhaps you may be sheltered
on the day of the LORD's anger.
But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD:
the remnant of Israel.
They shall do no wrong
and speak no lies;
nor shall there be found in their mouths
a deceitful tongue;
they shall pasture and couch their flocks
with none to disturb them. Zephanaiah 2:3; 3:12-13
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."
The Gospel reading for this Sunday mass is the absolute heart of the Christian message: the Beatitudes. Paired with a similar first reading from the Old Testament.
First question: what does “blessed” mean? Obviously not “happy” or “joyful”; for “blessed are they who mourn.” Jesus says what blessed means in the first beatitude: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And this is repeated after the last beatitude: “for your reward will be great in heaven.” They will find reward in eternity. These are the ones who will get to heaven, and be exalted in heaven.
When it comes to “Blessed are the meek,” Jesus seems to promise them instead the Earth: “for they will inherit the land [the earth].” But note the word “inherit.” That means not the present earth, but a future earth, when someone dies. This refers to the new earth at the end of time.
“See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit”—Luke has simply “poor.” “Poor in spirit” seems to me a more plausible theological formulation than simply “poor.” I can imagine that Luke’s eyewitness source misunderstood or misremembered; it would be easy to do. After all, simply being poor is a gross materialistic measure. Some poor deserve to be poor—the welfare queens, those who are poor because they are lazy.
“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’”
Conversely, some who are wealthy did not seek wealth, but attained it as a byproduct of producing some benefit to mankind. And use it not for their own physical comfort, but to accomplish more.
By “poor in spirit,” I take something like “not motivated by money.” Such people will, usually, also be materially poor.
This is, not incidentally, an argument against the modern attitude that priority should be placed on political acts supposed to eliminate poverty. And this is common event in modern churches. This too puts too much emphasis on money. If it gets you into heaven, poverty is not a bad thing; the Franciscans seek it. It is charity that is the good thing: not because it ends poverty, but because it ennobles the soul of the giver. It is something due one’s brother.
The poor you will have always with you.
“Blessed are they who mourn.” I love to point this one out. So much for “happy happy joy joy” Christianity. If you are happy in and with this world, your mind is not in the right place. You should be yearning for heaven. Here we are living in exile, in the valley of soul-making.
It is true that elsewhere Paul says “Rejoice in the Lord always.” But that is not “rejoice always”; that is, “keep your mind always with the Lord, to keep your spirits up.”
This has important implications for the modern psychiatric concept of “depression.” Insofar as it is used to describe a state of chronic sorrow, this is to pathologize sanity. Any sensitive and intelligent person should be sad.
"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth."--Dostoevsky
“Blessed are the meek.” This is the most difficult beatitude, I think. “Meek” is not a great translation from the original Greek, which means something more like “restrained” or “reserved.” It does not carry the implication of timidity that “meek” does in English.
I’d take it as “those who do not seek power or attention.” This meshes well with the promised reward: they will inherit the Earth. And it parallels “blessed are the poor in spirit.” Blessed are those not motivated by money, and blessed are those not motivated by power.
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” This puts paid to the modern idea that universal forgiveness is the core Christian message. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is the opposite of forgiving and forgetting, or of wanting to be forgiven.
Moreover, this promises that God too is not forgiving. For they shall be satisfied.
One should not be motivated by money or power. One should be motivated by righteousness, by a sense of justice.
This is neatly followed by “blessed are the merciful.” Making the distinction between mercy and mere forgiveness. Mercy is not unqualified forgiveness of a fault. Merriam-Webster: “mercy: leniency, or restraint (as in imposing punishment) shown especially to an offender or to one subject to the power of another.”
It comes into play when one is in a position to exact punishment. One does not forgive, but exacts a milder punishment than one could enforce.
Unqualified forgiveness or unconditional love is not merciful. It is not kind. It kills the soul of the other.
“Blessed are the clean [or pure] of heart.” This echoes Jesus’s command to love God “with your whole heart.” Being pure, unadulterated, all of one substance, means being of one mind, unclouded by doubts or qualifications or exceptions. This is directly counter to the modern condemnation of “religious extremism” and promotion of relativism and ambiguity over conviction.
God will spit out the lukewarm. Ambiguity is a vice, not a virtue.
“Blessed are the peacemakers.” As noted in a recent post, this does not mean pacifism. Pacifism, a refusal to fight, leads to and endorses war and strife. Think for a moment of your own inevitable experience in the grade 3 schoolyard. If a kid refuses to stand up for himself, does this discourage the bully? Does refusing to step in for the victim discourage the bully?
It does not mean diplomacy either. Diplomacy sometimes averts war; sometimes it causes it. In either case, it involves a certain level of dishonesty, of compromise of principle. This cannot tally with our first reading, from Zephaniah:
“They shall do no wrong
and speak no lies;
nor shall there be found in their mouths
a deceitful tongue”
It means keeping the peace. Who keeps the peace? The umpire, the referee, the judge, the police. Peacekeeping means setting and honouring clear rules, clear boundaries. Not crossing borders. “Good fences make good neighbours.”
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.” This goes against the common tendency to measure morality by “community standards”; to see conformity as morality. If you are righteous, you will be persecuted for it. If you get along with everybody, you are not a good person. And this is necessarily true. If being good brought you good in this world, everyone would be good simply out of self-interest. It is only when doing what is right goes against your self-interest that it is a righteous deed and a moral act.
This truth is echoed in Jesus’s admonition to keep to the narrow gate: “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
So you cannot get to heaven by going along to get along.
“Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.”
It follows that the good people of the earth will not be those widely celebrated as good. People famous for being good ought to be held in the greatest suspicion. To the contrary, being genuinely good will attract horrible false accusations from bad people. If someone is commonly portrayed as awful, or mad, without clear evidence, this is the best evidence that they are genuinely good and honourable people.
I will refrain from giving examples, because they will necessarily be controversial and demand justification. Ponder this for yourself.
