Here in today’s Gospel, we have St Luke’s version of the beatitudes, where we hear Christ repeatedly saying, “Blessed are you.” However, have we ever stopped and thought about what these words mean? We all know what the word blessing means; we use it to mean something like a gift, or in some cases, maybe even God’s favour and protection. This definition is not far from the original Greek, Makarios, but this Greek word carries another connotation: happiness. We see this conveyed in some translations of scripture where instead of “blessed are you,” it says, “happy are you.”
Yet there is something even more crucial in the saying; Christ does not say, “you will be blessed when,” but He uses the past tense, “Blessed are you,” as something that already happened. Jesus declares that they are blessed now, not once they die or receive satisfaction but blessed today. To put this into perspective, He is speaking with the poor, the hungry, the weeping and the hated, and he tells these people that they are blessed? I know that the last time I was just one of those things, I was not feeling too blessed, to say the least, yet this is what Christ says. Indeed, at first glance, the passage does not seem to make sense. Who is this man telling people in deep suffering that they are blessed or happy or even lucky?
He is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, which is why we must not just think about these words in terms of worldly standards, rather we ought to look at them through Heaven’s eyes. So, when we hear “Blessed are you,” we can see that Jesus is looking past this life. In other words, Christ is seeing this suffering the same way He sees His cross. He is showing us that suffering is not the great enemy of our lives. No, that is sin. When you are poor, hungry, grieving, or persecuted, these are not just opportunities to grow in patience, but this suffering is distancing you from vice and attachment. These moments of suffering are gifts when we look at it through the eyes of Christ and let our cross, our Calvary, lead us to Heaven. As our Lord says in the Gospel, “Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, look! – your reward will be great in Heaven.”
Andre Boudreau – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
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