I have been looking at the Beatitudes (or, as I recently heard, The Be-Attitudes):

Matthew 5:1-12 (the Beatitudes are also found in Luke’s Gospel)

“Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

In looking at the Beatitudes, each type of “blessed” listed in the Beatitudes can be viewed as virtuous ways of contributing positively to community well-being. It would seem – at least in part – that the Beatitudes were spoken of as a way to call us toward living as Jesus wants us to live. I find myself pondering the value and/or challenges for most of us ordinary folk in living up to each of the Beatitudes. I ponder the logistics of several of the individual Beatitudes as follows:

• Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Why will those who mourn be comforted? Because in order to mourn, one must have loved. We are called to “love one another.”
  
• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. This is a tough one and I have a lot to sayBased upon the wording of the Beatitudes (in English, anyway), several of the other beatitudes refer to people who already have these traits – either innate or cultivated.  It is another matter to consider “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”   We don’t hunger or thirst for qualities we already possess.  Rather, hungering for righteousness can imply the need to become righteous.  To put it another way, it’s one thing to “hunger and thirst for righteousness” and quite another matter to undergo the emotional and spiritual refinement necessary to become righteous. One can understand that righteousness of spirit and righteousness of action position a person to bring about positivity in the world (and, the person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness has somehow come to recognize righteousness and its’ value): God would therefore consider becoming righteous to a be a worthwhile trait – and a blessing to bestow upon anyone who wants to be righteous.  In thinking about righteousness, the example of Oskar Schindler comes to mind – Israel recognized him as a “Righteous Person” following WWII. Anyone who knows the story of Oskar Schindler (for many of us, such knowledge is the result of the movie Schindler’s List) knows that finding one’s way to righteousness is not always a smooth or easy task.  Sometimes, the process of becoming righteous is daunting.  In Oskar Schindler’s case, he started out as a less-than-humanitarian industrialist and an opportunistic member of the Nazi party during WWII.   During the war, he slowly began to face the human atrocities of the Nazi regime.  Based on how he’s been depicted, I don’t know that he “hungered and thirsted for righteousness” prior to seeing the atrocities of WWII, but somehow he got around to righteousness.   In time, he made great personal sacrifice to save the lives of 1,200 Jews – earning him the later status in Israel of Righteous Person.   He became recognized as a righteous person as the result of “doing the right thing” at a great personal price.  “Doing the right thing” even when there is personal sacrifice involved, I suppose, meets the definition of being righteous. The daunting task of becoming and/or being led to righteousness (those who hunger for righteousness will be satisfied) requires that we surrender our own self-interest for doing what is for the greater good.   The spiritual crucible of refinement for becoming righteous can therefore be challenging (at least for those of us who aren’t born to naturally be like St. Therese of Liseuax) – the person willing to undergo this process is worthy of God’s attention.   Anyone who “hungers and thirsts for righteousness” may be in any pre-righteous stage of being human – ranging from saintly (or nearly so) to grumpy, irritable, or otherwise troublesome.  Yet, the person who “hungers and thirsts for righteousness” wants to be righteousness – a valued trait.  A reading of the Sermon on the Mount indicates God’s willingness to bring the willing person into a valued spiritual status.  It’s up to the person to cooperate with being led to righteousness.  I find myself pondering the emotional/spiritual crucible necessary to become righteous…..
• Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Basically, treat each other the way you want to be treated and act in a way that creates kind and good communities. How well do we step out of our perspective to be kind to others? It’s often easy to be merciful to the endearing child you love who spilled their milk. However. how merciful are we to the person who rear-ends our car when we are two car payments from getting the car paid off (that happened to a friend of mine. Her eighteen-year-old daughter had just started driving and rear-ended my friend at a stop sign when her daughter was following her – totaling her car two months before it was due to be paid off)? How patient or merciful are we when a politician whose policies we disagree with makes a legitimately human mistake? How merciful are we toward the irritable relative “who has always been difficult” or the bull-headed neighbor who painted their house an awful lime green to spite a neighbor they don’t like?
• Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. For most of us ordinary mortals, it’s easy to come up with a funny punchline for this one: “Yeah, I’m pure of heart – on a bad day, I am pure $#@!#.” Jokes aside, though, I wonder if perhaps there could have been a better English translation on this one from the original Greek. Blessed are those who are purely good? Blessed are those who purely love? I’m sure this one has something to do with having a “better heart” than what I have on a bad day………
• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. I am finding a lot to consider with this one – up there with “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” It’s straightforward to understand why God values peacemakers. Peacemakers work toward positive relations among God’s children. How much is required, though, to be a peacemaker? A genuine peacemaker moves beyond simply having a distaste for conflict or a passive fairy tale notion of being a pacifist. Peacemaking takes real effort. On a personal scale, we must focus not only on our own perspective and desires to really work to build understanding with the people with whom we disagree – working to build personal bridges when conflict occurs. We have to recognize when we are in the wrong and step up to fix our mistakes. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. On a national scale, peacemakers must learn about international relations and study how/why conflict occurs – and engage in bringing people together toward meaningful solutions. Again, no easy task. Blessed are the genuine peacemakers – peacemakers move beyond their own needs ty help move the world toward being a better place.

Kim Burkhardt blogs about faith at The Hermitage Within. Thank you for reading this faith blog and for sharing it with your friends. While you are here, please feel welcome to provide support to sustain this blog ($$).