Tuesday, March 11—Day 7

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5:3-12

The Freedom of the Blessed
When you think about God’s blessings in your life, which circumstances come to mind? A miraculous healing? A new job? A loving family? If you are like me, the list is made up of ways God has given you things that you have wanted. How do I know God is blessing me? I look at all the ways in which my life is choiceworthy, happy, and healthy.

If we take this idea of blessing into our reading of the Beatitudes, though, it forces us to read them in a very peculiar way. We must understand people who mourn, or are persecuted, to be blessed by way of compensation. It is not that these people are blessed now (for on this reckoning, mourning or poverty of spirit itself could not be a blessing) but rather that they will be blessed later to make up for the discomfort they are feeling now. Blessed are those who eat their Brussels sprouts, for they will be given dessert. 

I don’t believe, however, that delayed gratification or eventual compensation is the right way to think about Christ’s words here. Rather, this passage is meant to disrupt the way we think about blessing itself. Christ is inviting us to look at the world and identify as blessed not the rich, nor the stable, nor the content. Rather, those who are discontent in their longing for God, who have chosen to disrupt their own comfort, count as blessed: those who try to make peace between enemies, who preach the gospel in the midst of persecution, who behave gently in a world that responds to strength, who desire righteousness so deeply that the burning thirst for it is felt continually.

Blessings, seen in this way, are not passively received. They aren’t things or circumstances that God gives us at all. Rather, to be blessed is to be free to be uncomfortable for the sake of the kingdom. The blessed are not concerned with gaining power, but are willing to endure whatever comes their way because of their righteous actions. The blessed are not afraid of sacrifice, but act in the world as Christ does, utterly disregarding their own comfort and pleasure for the sake of becoming and revealing the kingdom of God.

Of course, this is not to say that God has no role in making us the blessed. God is active in creating in us this character free from the fear of affliction, but the way God often creates this freedom is through an education in loss. It is often those who know what it is to have nothing who are willing to give up everything for the kingdom. “How difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” We may be mistaken about what sustains us until the thing we believed was sustaining us is taken away. The images paired here with the sung beatitudes are expressions of sorrow and loss. These images may bring us comfort if we know this sorrow is never wasted in God, but that mourning creates in us the comfort of the blessed.

Prayer
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.
(The Prayer of St. Francis)

Janelle Aijian, Assistant Professor of Torrey Honors Institute