The beatitudes are among the most beautiful words in the scriptures…. but they are also very mysterious. There is something confusing about the meaning of them. This shows in the different ways the writers of the individual Gospels try to clarify their meaning … sometimes their attempts to clarify the meaning makes them even more mysterious…. Luke’s version of the beatitudes says, blessed are the poor….. whereas Matthew’s gospel says… blessed are the poor in spirit… but that doesn’t exactly clarify the meaning…..
There is something elusive about them…
It is quite jarring in one sense…. Happy are the poor, the trampled…. those who mourn….. blessed?.. one could forgive a person for saying… “what’s happy or blessed about being poor or victimized”….. but of course.. Jesus is not making poverty, sadness, suffering, and injustice into virtues….. Luke’s version of this makes that clear by adding woes… woe to the rich… woe to those who are doing well now….. but there is still uncertainty here….
In order to get our heads around Jesus word’s it is important to ask….. why is Jesus giving this speech….. what are the values he is showing us…. and what is he trying to do here…..
One thing is for sure…. he is not saying these words so that people can turn around and say… “well, if the poor and the oppressed are so blessed and happy, then let’s keep them down in the gutter so that their blessings may increase….” no… quite the opposite…..It is meant to inspire action…. change in the here and now…. not complacency and apathy………. Jesus is saying these words to give real hope to those bowed down… and also so as to unsettle and shake those who are complacent and acting unjustly towards others….
Jesus gives these beatitudes to fill people with hope and blessing because he has come to usher in this Kingdom here and now and not just in the next life. Anyone who can relate to the experiences of the Beatitudes is at the front of the line for entry into this new vision for the world….. on “earth as it is in Heaven”. If these people -- poor, lowly and disadvantaged people have God’s favour, concern and attention, then everyone else is called (urgently) to pay attention to them…. // …to start addressing their needs, and fostering the values of Jesus’ Kingdom here and now.
When we look at the readings around the gospel today, we see that throughout the history of God’s relating with his people, there is a recurring theme….. God’s values are love, peace, respect, integrity, humility, justice, practical concern for the sick, the poor and the widow and the orphan….….. – “Those who come to God seeking justice and humility, will be able to be God\'s people.”
Those who do the opposite, (who oppress and mistreat others) are not God’s people, and will have nothing to be blessed or happy about in God’s Kingdom….. And may God’s Kingdom come here and now…. may it start with values of this world being turned on their head…..
It is extremely reassuring to know that God has deep concern for the poor and a deep concern for those who are unjustly treated,.,,// ,and if God has respect for them then woe to anyone who has contempt for the poor, who mistreats the vulnerable……. they are acting against God’s priorities…
One British family is apparently not among those whom the Book of Zephaniah is referring to when it says, “They shall do no wrong and speak no lies.” An 84-year-old man whose family had forged statues and paintings and then passed them off as priceless pieces of art to museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, received a two-year suspended sentence in a London court Monday.
George Greenhalgh, his 83-year-old wife, Olive, and their 46-year-old son, Shaun, pleaded guilty to charges of laundering money from the sale of forged artworks. The son, who had created the fakes, was sentenced to more than four years in jail in November. His mother received a 12-month sentence. Police said the parents handled most of the sales.
Police said the Greenhalghs used a genuine 19th-century sales document to get ideas on what items to fake, and once the items were fabricated, they used the catalog as proof of provenance when presenting their knockoffs for sale.
The family has been “operating for nearly 20 years, producing and introducing a diverse range of art works into theU.K. Chicago
George Greenhalgh, his 83-year-old wife, Olive, and their 46-year-old son, Shaun, pleaded guilty to charges of laundering money from the sale of forged artworks. The son, who had created the fakes, was sentenced to more than four years in jail in November. His mother received a 12-month sentence. Police said the parents handled most of the sales.
Police said the Greenhalghs used a genuine 19th-century sales document to get ideas on what items to fake, and once the items were fabricated, they used the catalog as proof of provenance when presenting their knockoffs for sale.
The family has been “operating for nearly 20 years, producing and introducing a diverse range of art works into the
This family may have thought… oh well, we are only ripping off rich people, not the poor… but still… this kind of story, illustrates an all-too-common value system in society…. as long as I don’t get caught… its okay…. it is okay to lie, to cheat, to defraud… if there are people foolish enough for me to ‘pull the wool over their eyes’….it’s their problem not mine….. but no… these are not the values of the Kingdom…. / Values such as ‘survival of the fittest” - “let the buyer beware” or ‘every person for themselves’ …. just do not make the cut in Jesus’ vision for the world… and for the Kingdom….
and then, as Jesus said frequently in the gospels…. its not just people who say they are followers of Christ who will enter the Kingdom… one of the greatest peacemakers of our age would have to be Ghandi who advocated peaceful resistance….(it is 60 years ago last week) -- he was assassinated for his beliefs in freedom from oppression -- although not Christian, he had enormous respect for the Christian thinking around non-violence and social justice…. his actions were a living of the beatitudes…..
The final word goes of course to Jesus himself… who not only spoke the beatitudes but lived them… he is the ultimate example of the one who suffered all manner of things but still went about helping the poor and freeing those bowed down… he named the values of the Kingdom and went about putting them into action in everything he did and said…. and he asks us to continue his work of being instruments of joy, hope and justice in our world today… with special concern for those who are in need.
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