The Beatitudes: The Path to True Happiness | Sunday Reflection

Our Gospel this Sunday introduces us to a very significant part of Matthew’s Gospel - the Sermon on the Mount, and in particular, the Beatitudes. Spanning three whole chapters, with 111 verses, Matthew wants to get across that what Jesus has to say in His Sermon on the Mount is critically important. Like many other things in Scripture, the words of this Sermon, especially the Beatitudes, can be easy to pass over or just appreciate on the surface level as something that sounds nice. Like all things in Scripture, Jesus invites us to dive deeper to see the fullness of what He desires to reveal to us.

Right away, when we hear Jesus say, “Blessed are…” we are instantly drawn into the direction that Jesus wants to take this Sermon. What does He mean by “blessed”? He is talking about the answer to one of the most fundamental questions we have as human persons - how can I be happy? Everything we do in life we do to try to find happiness. I go to school to get a job. I get a job to make money. I make money to support myself and my family. And it keeps going. Eventually you get to a place where you realize the ultimate reason for anything I do is to find happiness. And not just a fleeting happiness, but a happiness that does not go away.

For centuries, philosophers have pondered over what happiness means and what it looks like. But, we have the benefit of the Church to give us the answer we are seeking. That happiness, as Thomas Aquinas shows us, is found ultimately in being in union with God. Beatitude, or blessedness, is the happiness that we are looking for. By being in union with the eternal God, living and true, we are eternally united with the author and the fulfillment of our hearts. And so Jesus shows us how we approach that beatitude, that blessedness, in this life. So, as He invites us to walk with Him, He shows us the way to do that.

Fr. Jacques Philippe, in his book, The Eight Doors of the Kingdom, shows us that the Beatitudes are not some romanticized and unrealistic vision of humanity that nobody could live up to nor are they a feel-good category that excuses us from the real task of rejecting sin, but rather the Beatitudes are the doorways to eternal happiness in God. He says, “The Beatitudes, one might say, are not only the most profound revelation of the mystery of God but also a complete treatise on spiritual life. They show what we are called to be Christians, what it really means to live the Gospel. They describe true human and spiritual maturity. A portrait of Christ, they are also the portrait of the mature Christian in Christ, a son or daughter of the Father who is free in the Spirit. They sum up the most perfect realization of human existence.”

In short, to follow Jesus means that we live the Beatitudes, and in living the Beatitudes, we become more like Jesus who exemplified them in Himself.

So, how do we live the Beatitudes? This is where even more wisdom from the Church can help us. St. Augustine famously preached on the Beatitudes, linking them with the perfect prayer of the Our Father, as well as the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, He shows us that living the Beatitudes is not a solo project, but instead one that is deeply rooted in the life of God Himself, who gives us the grace to live it together with the entire Church. To offer just a taste of what Augustine shows us here, we can see how he shows the 8 Beatitudes as the progression of our lives as disciples.

In being poor in spirit, I come to recognize my poverty and inability to save myself. But, in humility, I can come to see that Jesus can and wants to. Humility helps me to offer myself to God. Then, in my meekness, I can come to accept and receive God and what He reveals. In docility, I can accept that I don’t have all the answers, but God does and I can let Him show me who He is and who I am in Him. In discovering the sweetness of God, I am moved with tears in mourning for my sin, but also accepting what I need to do to change. In beginning this process of conversion, God’s grace fills me with the satisfaction of that which my heart has longed for and I develop a greater hunger and thirst for righteousness, moving me to living a good moral life and walking the path God has provided for me. In walking this path, I realize that I need help and I continually need God’s mercy because I fall. Knowing that others are on the same journey, I can show mercy to others and in letting go of injuries, I can empty myself of what is holding me back from holiness and let God fill me more with His grace. When God fills me with His grace, He transforms my heart and makes it pure. I can see things as God sees them, giving me the peace and security to be able to surrender myself totally to Him. In doing so, I can have my eyes set on heaven and to receive the persecutions that might come from holy living.

While so much more can be said, perhaps this can all be summed up in one of Augustine’s most famous lines, “You have made us for yourself O Lord & our heart is restless until it rests in you.” I invite us today to open those doors to the Kingdom and walk through them.