Unpacking the Beatitudes

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

In the shorter form of the Beatitudes in St. Luke’s Gospel we read, “Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.’” (Luke 6:20-22)

In Scripture the word “blessed” means happy or how lucky you are or how fortunate you are.  We might ask, “How can we be blessed or happy if we are poor, weeping, being hated or hungry?”  The beatitudes are paradoxes or seemingly self-contradicting principles.  But since it is God in Christ who is saying these, then they must be true.  We need to remember that the beatitudes are heavenly wisdom. The reason why we are having a hard time understanding them is perhaps we are too rooted and attached to earthly things which is precisely the lesson the beatitudes is telling us to be rooted in heaven.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”  (Luke 6:20) It tells us that happy are you if you don’t put your security or ultimate happiness in wealth.  The overall lesson of the beatitudes is all about rooting our heart in God and not on the things of this world.  Many are attached to wealth because they think it’s the solution to all their problems as well as the answer to their deepest longing to be happy.  But many wealthy in this world have proven to us that this is not so.  A happiness survey says that wealth can only give you a certain degree of satisfaction; that once your basic needs in life (housing, clothing, food, transportation, etc.) are fulfilled any further acquisition of them will not bring you any additional joy.  Money simply can’t make you happy.

“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” (Luke 6:21) We should hunger for the right things, the things of God or spiritual things, on virtues or values rather than be hungry for the things of this world that cannot satisfy us. Hunger symbolizes sensual pleasure.  The modern world is obsessed with the pleasures of food, drinks and sex.  Just ponder on the immensity of internet pornography.  It is a multi-billion-dollar industry.  It means millions are invested on the improper use of the pleasures of sex that also leave millions of people with empty hearts.  God’s design for sex is for pro-creation or giving birth to another human being but should be within marriage, because a child deserves a father and a mother to take care of him or her.  Any misuse of sex outside of marriage will spell trouble such as divorce, neglect of children, promiscuous lifestyle, addiction to pornography, feeling of emptiness, etc.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” (Luke 6:21) How happy you are if you are not grounding your heart on good feelings.  Good feelings are good in themselves but they are volatile.  They can easily change.  Sometimes you wake up in a good mood at other times you feel bad.  Sometimes this thing or that person makes you really happy sometimes just moderately happy.  Or other times it makes no difference at all.  Feelings are often times directionless and they are very temporary.  Some people are so addicted to good feelings that they will take harmful drugs just to constantly have them.  What is important is we root our minds on wisdom, truth, values and religious teachings because these are principles that are not subject to change or moods.  We can be experiencing difficulties in our life but remain peaceful and serene, but only if we have rooted our mind and heart on wisdom, a wisdom that makes us see a spiritual meaning to our sufferings.

“Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” (Luke 6:22) Honor or fame can be addictive too.  Some celebrities are too attached to their popularity that once they lose it, they get depressed and lose their sense of meaning in life.  Honor is not a bad thing in itself.  St. Thomas Aquinas defines it as a flag of virtue.  Meaning it points to something that is admirable, worthy of praise or an example to be followed.  If someone is hardworking, we praise that person and we try to follow his good example.  But making honor as the be all and end all of life will bring you trouble, simply because you cannot please others forever.  It’s making your happiness dependent on other people’s good perception of you and that is not a stable foundation for happiness.

We should instead root our hearts on the unchangeable and the unlimited.  For that is the nature of our hearts, it longs for the infinite and the permanent.  And it can only be satisfied in the Almighty (infinite) and Ever-living (permanent) God.  “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  (Psalm 37:4)