The Noontimes

Happiness – Beatitude (Matthew Chapter 5 and Luke 6)

James Tissot: Jesus Preaches the Sermon on the Mount

As we move from the Old Testament to the New, God is moving us away from the external, vengeful, jealous, patriarchal God to a God of the internal – God whom Jeremiah promised in Chapter 31 verse 31 – God who writes the covenant we have with him on our hearts – God the Father, who sends Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit to live with us. In the Old Testament, God rewards good people and punishes bad people in order to gain their trust. In the New Testament, God calls us to spiritual maturity; he calls us to perfect union with him, to deep intimacy (Psalms 42 and 62). In the New Testament he asks that we accept him, the giver . . . rather than the gifts.

Jeff Cavins in his lecture on Matthew 5 outlines four levels of happiness: 1) instant gratification, 2) personal achievement, 3) philanthropy, and 4) union with God. The first two levels are about the self: Level one concerns the ego and what it can find, acquire, possess, and Level two refers to awards we receive. Both of these levels give immediate satisfaction but are not lasting because, as scripture points out, we are created for more than this. In Level three we begin to move outside of ourselves to care about others, but this still is not lasting, not beatific, because it is not communion with our creator – because intimate union with God is what we were created for.

Jesus shows us in the New Testament how to achieve that union. In his sermons on the Mount (Matthew) and the Plain (Luke), Jesus lays out quite clearly what one does to join him in the real kingdom, the kingdom of eternal, beatific happiness. We will not find him in any of the kingdoms we experience here on this earth: political kingdoms, social kingdoms, work kingdoms. And Jesus brings us his message of inversion with the paradox of the Beatitudes. He leads us on an exodus from bondage to true freedom. Jeff Cavins points out that these beatitudes do not occur in a random manner; rather, they form a carefully constructed ladder that leads to true blessedness, true and lasting happiness. They lead to the joy of the kingdom.

The first beatitude is, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Here Jesus speaks of people who are truly humble, who know themselves. Humility is the opposite of hubris or overpowering pride. Thomas Aquinas tells us that we can have no virtue unless we first have humility – a voluntary humility through which we recognize ourselves as God’s creation. This voluntary poorness in spirit is a pre-condition to entry into the kingdom (Phil 2, 5-8, Gal 2:20, Catechism 2546)

It is this self-knowledge that leads us to the second beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Once we understand and acknowledge our poverty of spirit, we are sad. We have discovered, brought to light, and admitted to God through our prayers that we are nothing but his creation. We exist and experience success and failure through no gift to ourselves but only through God’s gifts to us. It makes us sad to admit to our weaknesses, and some of us get stuck at this beatitude for many years. We know and admit that we are not in charge; and this knowledge can lead us to the third beatitude.

James Tissot: Jesus Preaching by the Sea

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” I always understood the quality of meekness to be sweetness and affability, not strength. Here, however, the word is used to indicate a controlled strength. To possess the meekness Jesus refers to here is to be teachable. People who are meek as Jesus is meek have submitted their strength to God for his use. They have no arrogance. And so God knows that these people can be trusted with authority – both here on earth and later. So through our poverty of spirit and our sadness, we arrive at possessing power. We begin to see the paradox unfold. And we move to the fourth beatitude.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Once the soul has capitulated to God, emptied out the human to let in the divine, it begins to thirst for more of what it has begun to experience. And this soul will search without ceasing to experience God in deepest intimacy. It hears Gods call and must respond. Thomas Aquinas tells us that, “God thirsts that you might thirst for him.” This soul will wander through the night calling out for the beloved in the same way as the mourning lover in Chapter 3 of the Song of Songs. It searches as did the soul in St. John of the Cross’ beautiful poem “Dark Night of the Soul.” It will do all in order to be with God. And it will be satisfied once it has found God because God alone is enough. And those who are satisfied cannot be manipulated by the world. They will not sail into the carefully controlled waters of this world because they have known the freedom of God’s embrace. And those who are satisfied respond with mercy – the fifth beatitude.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” And having walked through a gauntlet of people and events which taunt them to abandon God, having given and received mercy, these souls will be purified. The sixth beatitude is, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

James Tissot: The Lord’s Pray

Having traveled so far and endured so much, these souls which experience mercy have forged in themselves a capacity for truth which frightens most other souls because they are incapable of condoning falsehood. “They have attuned their intellects and their wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity, chastity or sexual rectitude, love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith.” (Catechism paragraph 2518) And this leads them to the seventh beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” And we are children of God. St. Paul tells us that we are God’s adopted sons and daughters. And our brother, Jesus the Christ, shows us this ladder of beatitudes by which we may attain our inheritance . . . but the ladder has another rung. And it is this last rung which takes us to the point where we must see the paradox.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you falsely on my account.” This feels nonsensical. This seems to be the opposite of what we believe to be true. And it is the opposite of the Old Testament Covenant where the good were rewarded and the bad were reviled. But here Jesus pauses on his road to Jerusalem to preach this sermon to thousands as they recline on a hillside to tell them and us that there is a new order to things. He calls us to spiritual maturity. He asks us to be faithful in a new way – to step through the narrow gate with him, to tend to the marginalized, to stand and speak when he asks us to speak, to be silent when he asks for our silence, to preserve what is holy rather than to give it to dogs. So, the final verse reads, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Jesus Preaching on the Plain

Often when someone leads a group in prayer and reads Christ’s Beatitudes, the leader will trail off after the “blessed” verses, omitting the persecution bits. I believe that this may be in error. By leaving off the final verses, we think only about the irony of verses 3 through 9. And I believe that irony is never fulfilling or satisfying. The true paradox of Christ can only be seen when we include the final two verses which speak about the paradox of joy being gained through suffering. To recite the first seven verses without the last two is to tell the Gospel story ending at the crucifixion . . . leaving off the telling of the Resurrection, the road to Emmaus, the meal shared with the apostles along the bank of the sea, the return of Christ to the Upper Room, the Ascension, and finally the descent and in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing lasting if we neglect the last two verses. The prayer becomes hollow.

Beatitude is blessing – it is happiness. It is a gift freely given by God. The desire for beatitude is written on each of our hearts by God. It is a promise from him which challenges us to make moral choices. It is a covenant which invites us to purify our hearts, to seek God, and to rest serenely in beatific joy with him . . . because God alone is enough.

Blessings on you . . . happiness, serenity, and beatitude to you.

James Tissot: Exhortation to the Apostles

I have appended here two poems by two Golden Age Spanish mystics. These poems always speak to me. One is a decent English translation of Saint John’s “Dark Night of the Soul,” but of course, there is nothing like the original Spanish. And the other is the short but powerful prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila. Together, these two people changed the Church in quiet, persistent beatitude.

Upon a darkened night
The flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright
I fled my house while all in quiet rest

Shrouded by the night
And by the secret stair I quickly fled
The veil concealed my eyes
While all within lay quiet as the dead.

(Chorus)

O, night thou was my guide!
O, night more loving than the rising sun!
O, night that joined the Lover to the beloved one!
Transforming each of them into the other.

Upon that misty night
In secrecy beyond such mortal sight
Without a guide or light
Than that which burned as deeply in my heart.

That fire ’twas led me on
And shone more bright than of the midday sun
To where He waited still
It was a place where no one else could come.

(Chorus)

Within my pounding heart
Which kept itself entirely for Him
He fell into His sleep
beneath the cedars all my love I gave.

From o’er the fortress walls
The wind would brush His hair against His brow
And with its smoother hand
caressed my every sense it would allow.

(Chorus)

I lost my self to Him
And laid my face upon my Lover’s breast
And care and grief grew dim
As in the morning’s mist became the light.
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair.

*Arranged and adapted by Loreena McKennitt, 1993

Reposted March 27, 2004 

http://www.frimmin.com/poetry/darknight.html

And here is a translation of the beautiful anthem of St. Teresa of Avila which I love to teach the girls in the original Spanish. This prayer was said to be her bookmark. Its simplicity and totality always inspire me.

Let nothing frighten you,

Let nothing terrify you.

Everything passes,

God never changes.

Patience attains all.

He who has God lacks nothing.

God alone is enough.

Amen.