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The Beatitudes

Dive into the teachings of the Beatitudes - a framework for Christian life and holiness. Understand the paradoxical promises that offer hope and joy in trials. Explore how embracing poverty in spirit and mourning leads to comfort and spiritual growth.

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The Beatitudes

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  1. The Beatitudes Sister Paul Mary Dreger, FSE Holy Apostles College and Seminary THL 511: Catechism 11 Fall 2013

  2. Beatitudes • “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” (CCC, 2013) • To Know God, Love God, Serve God, and Be with Him in Eternity. • Roadmap – personally and with entire Church

  3. Beatitudes • “The natural desire for happiness.” (CCC, 1718) • Beatitude means “perfect blessedness or happiness” (Neufeldt, Webster’s New World Dictionary, 38) • Vocation to holiness • Follow the Will of God • Jesus Christ will teach us the way to holiness.

  4. Beatitudes • Jesus gave His disciples a way to live according to their call to holiness. • “The Sermon on the Mount.” • Aframework necessary to build a solid moral life.

  5. Beatitudes Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5:3-11)

  6. Beatitudes • “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Mt. 5:17) • Jesus shows how they “gather together the ancient promises regarding the Promised Land and point them to the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 10) • Take the Ten Commandments one step further

  7. Beatitudes • Paradoxical promises “shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life.” (CCC, 1717) • “Uniquely Christian principles of human conduct.” (Hardon, The Beatitudes, 1) • Provide Hope • Carry us through our trials • Find Joy in their midst

  8. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” • Rooted in the Old Testament • Poor referring to material and spiritual poverty • “Poverty which is not experienced in both body and soul is an illusion.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 43)

  9. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” • Christ • Material Poverty: poor family, humble surroundings • Spiritual Poverty: abandoned at time of death • He depended completely on His Father • By His example, he calls us “to be constantly aware of and to acknowledge our absolute poverty and emptiness before God, our utter nakedness before all the world.” (Groeschel, Heaven in our Hands, 156)

  10. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” • Poor in Spirit = Freedom • “Possession is all about service, to contrast the culture of affluence with the culture of inner freedom.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 77) • Widow and her coins • “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” (Lk21:3-4, NAB.)

  11. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” • Freedom = Love • “Without the help of poverty, love becomes possessive and, desiring to monopolize its object, it abases and defiles it until it flees from the lover.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 50.) • Francis of Assisi • Francis “was gripped in an utterly radical way by the promise of the first Beatitude” that he gave everything he had, including his own clothing, to the poor. (Pope Benedict, Jesus of Nazareth, 78.) • In his process of conversion, Francis learned to use each gift in the way God wanted him to use it.

  12. “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” • Mourning • Takes away all hope and makes one turn away from God • Judas • An encounter with truth, “which leads man to undergo conversion and to resist evil.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 86.) • Peter

  13. “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” • “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy … So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” (Jn16:20,22, NAB.) • Must have courage. • They will suffer because of their faith. • “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” (Heb5:8, NAB.)

  14. “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” • Suffering • We all suffer. • To mourn something is the most intense type of suffering. • Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. (Cf. Jn 11:35, NAB.) • Look to Christ in our suffering • Through His love, “suffering is thus transformed and becomes the instrument of the Gospel.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 87.)

  15. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” • Meekness - “revealed as a quality of God and of Christ.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 58.) • Jesus’ Kingship - He “rules” His people with gentleness and humility leading them to His Kingdom. • True meekness is “the outcome of a long struggle against the disordered violence of our feelings, failings, and fears.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 61.) • Self-mastery • Catholics express the virtue of meekness is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

  16. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” • “Meekness wields tremendous psychological strength.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 72.) • Lowers aggression • Creates friendships • Builds community • Power over their own actions as they model themselves after Christ.

  17. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” • Spiritual aspect - every person hungers and thirsts for goodness, truth, and beauty. • “Not content with things as they are and refuse to stifle the restlessness of heart that points man toward something greater and so sets him on the inward journey to reach it.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 91.) • Humanity needs God in order to live. • “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” (Mt. 4:4, NAB.) • “Truth in the following of Christ consists in desiring and then choosing what is right.” (Hardon, The Beatitudes, 5) • This Beatitude signifies justice.

  18. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” • “A constant will to render to every man what is due to him.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 100.) • Oriented to the other and not oneself • Without holding back, but completely from the heart. • Woman at the Well • Jesus was able to tap into her innate desire for God • She was satisfied through her encounter with the Lord.

  19. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” • Courage • “overcome our own personal obstacles” (Groeschel, Heaven in Our Hands, 84.) • in order to “encounter difficulties and dangers with firmness and without fear.” (Groeschel, Heaven in Our Hands, 85.) • We must allow ourselves to be satisfied by the gifts God is willing to give us and to use them according to His will.

  20. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” • Mercy is “the perception of an evil of misery which moves us.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 116.) • True charity, faithfulness, justice, and forgiveness • “Mercy is one of the faces of God’s love, come among us in Christ to overcome our sin with its attendant suffering and death and free us from our misery by restoring justice and life to us.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 123.)

  21. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” • The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. (See Lk. 15, NAB.) • the relationship between the mercy of His Father and the repentance of a sinner. • Pharisees observed Him eating with sinners • “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt. 9:12-13, NAB.) • In order to receive mercy, to receive God’s forgiveness, we must be able to show mercy and forgive others

  22. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” • “It takes great strength to be merciful” and forgive others when we feel we have been unjustly treated. (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 118.) • “God’s justice is always tempered by His mercy.” (Groeschel, Heaven in Our Hands, 103.) • Sacrament of Reconciliation – He always forgives us. • God’s mercy “is love that overcomes resistance.” (Hardon, The Beatitudes, 5.)

  23. “Blessed are the clean of heart,for they will see God.” • Aclean heart is a pure heart. • Purity that “appears to us as a quality of a soul to be found principally in the heart and only secondarily in external practices.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 132.) • Our innate desire to “gaze on the mystery of divine being, the very source of life and of love.” (Groeschel, Heaven in Our Hands, 187.)

  24. “Blessed are the clean of heart,for they will see God.” • Purity = Love • God is Love, then the love we come to know is God. • Virtue of Chastity • “chastity confers clarity of vision.” (Hardon, The Beatitudes, 6.) • Through the virtue of chastity, we place our “body under the discipline of the spirit.”(Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 93.) • Seekers of truth

  25. “Blessed are the clean of heart,for they will see God.” • 3 different facets of purity 1. Purity of Perception • allows one to see things as God sees them 2. Purity of Understanding • “comprehends things, or at least tries to understand them in the light of God’s love” (Groeschel, Heaven in Our Hands,178.) 3. Purity of Desire • the only thing we need to desire is God

  26. “Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called children of God.” • Prophet Isaiah spoke of the promise of Salvation • The Angel reiterated this to the Shepherds • Beatitude “invites us to be and do what the Son does, so that we ourselves may become ‘sons of God.’” (Pope Benedict, Jesus of Nazareth, 85) • True Peace – Jesus Christ

  27. “Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called children of God.” • Reconciliation • “Only the man who is reconciled with God and with himself can establish peace around him and throughout the world.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 85.) • God • Others • Ourselves • Through our desire and capacity to reconcile, we are able to bring others through to their own process of reconciliation with God.

  28. “Blessed are the they who are persecuted for the sake for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” • Disciples suffered persecution • Christians endured suffering • Provides Hope • St. Paul • Persecuted Christians • Was persecuted after his conversion • “Paul let suffering accomplish its intended effect: to purge his soul so that he could draw nearer to God.” (Groeschel, Heaven in Our Hands, 62.)

  29. “Blessed are the they who are persecuted for the sake for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” • Christians continue to face persecution and experience suffering for their belief in Jesus Christ • When you speak the Truth, “you must expect to be opposed.” (Hardon, The Beatitudes, 7.) • “This teaching, the world of persecuted men, shakes us out of apathy and reminds us that our own life too is indeed a time of suffering and struggle against evil.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 167.) • Leads to true happiness

  30. True Happiness • The Beatitudes will bring happiness, but not the happiness defined by the world. • “In the Beatitudes, the paradox is happiness, which Christ promises if a person does certain things that naturally, or humanly speaking, are the very opposite of what we would expect to bring happiness.” (Hardon, The Beatitudes, 2.) • “Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find the fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God.” (CCC, 2548.) • Our happiness can only be fulfilled by God.

  31. For the Church • Beatitudes are meant not only for individuals , but for the entire church – for a Community of Believers • “They make us share in the great hope of the people of God which was formed from the beginning and was renewed in the Church by Jesus Christ.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 29.)

  32. Living the Beatitudes • We must live them in our daily lives. • “They confront us with the aching realities of human existence and show us what lies in our depths.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 35.) • The Beatitudes “demand conversion, that we inwardly turn around to go in the opposite direction from the one we would spontaneously like to go in.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 98.) • The way of true discipleship.

  33. Living the Beatitudes • “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” (Mt 7:24-27, NAB.)

  34. Living the Beatitudes • Christ is our foundation. • We can live a life according to the Beatitudes because they were first “lived by Christ himself.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 74.) • “The Lord Himself mysteriously accompanies us by the grace of His Spirit, and travels anew, with us and in us, the road to the Kingdom which He has taught us.” (Pinckaers, The Pursuit of Happiness, 202.) • We, as disciples, learn from our Master and “the richness of life and the greatness of man’s calling are opened up.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 99.)

  35. Bibliography Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000. Groeschel, Benedict J. Heaven in Our Hands. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 1994. Hardon, Father John. "The Beatitudes: Generosity and Happiness." CERC. 2009. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/printarticle.html?id=6119 (accessed September 22, 2013). Neufeldt, Victoria, ed. Webster's New World Dictionary. New York: Prentice Hall, 1989. Pinckaers, Servais. The Pursuit of Happiness - God's Way: Living the Beatitudes. Staten Island, New York: The Society of St. Paul, 1998. Pope Benedict XVI. Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Doubleday, 2007. The New American Bible. Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, 1986.

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