Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

Introduction

The Beatitude is the first major dis­course delivered by Jesus as recor­ded in the Gos­pel accord­ing to Mat­thew (chapters 5–7; see also Luke 6:20–49). Beatitude is a state of supreme hap­pi­ness. It could be likened to the Hindu and Buddhist Enlightenment/Nirvana, the beatitude that tran­scends the cycle of rein­carn­a­tion, marked by the extinc­tion of desire, suf­fer­ing and indi­vidu­al aware­ness. The beatitudes have been influ­enced by Isai­ah 61, which men­tions the poor in 61:1; com­fort for mourn­ers in 61:2; right­eous­ness in 61:3.8.11; heal­ing of the broken-hearted (same as the pure in heart of Mat­thew) in 61:1; and inher­it­ing the land in 61:1 (cf. also Ps 37:11). The king­dom of heav­en is func­tion­ally equi­val­ent to the preach­ing of the good news of Isai­ah 61:1. That is, the king­dom of heav­en of the beatitudes has the same effect and mean­ing with the preach­ing of the good news as stated in Isai­ah 61:1.

What is Beatitude?

Beatitude is a form of wis­dom say­ing. It adds a dis­tinct­ive theo­lo­gic­al tone to the bib­lic­al writ­ings. It is one of the lit­er­ary genres (com­mu­nic­a­tion tech­nique) fre­quently found in the Scrip­tures. One of the best known is Psalm 1:1 – “Blessed is he/she who does not walk in the coun­sel of the wicked.” We also find sim­il­ar wis­dom in Psalm 112:1 and Pro­verbs 28:14: “Blessed is the man/woman who fears the Lord.

The Beatitudes

The list of the beatitudes, that is, those who are poor in spir­it; those who are humble/gentle; those who mourn; those who hun­ger and thirst for what is right; those who are mer­ci­ful; those who are pure in heart; those who make peace; those who are per­se­cuted for doing right, are at the centre of Jesus’ mis­sion. These people are declared blessed. Jesus care­fully out­lined the evils of the con­tem­por­ary world. If we sin­cerely and object­ively look into our lives, in our fam­il­ies, in your towns, in your com­munit­ies, places of work, schools, the soci­ety, and even in our Churches, we notice all kinds of poverty; arrog­ance (opposed to being humble, meek or gentle); people mourn­ing for one form of injustice or the oth­er; wrong doing and lies every­where (opposed to hun­ger and thirst for right); mer­ci­less­ness in the exer­cise of author­ity; impur­ity of thoughts and deeds; plant­ing of seeds of dis­cord and black­mail­ing (opposed to peace­mak­ing); and all kinds of per­se­cu­tion even and espe­cially in the reli­gious circles and among adher­ents of the vari­ous reli­gions. If you can avoid these neg­at­ive atti­tudes, then you are blessed.

Conclusion

Jesus prom­ised and prom­ises reward only to those who are per­se­cuted and black­mailed on account of the Gos­pel. That is, on account of right­eous­ness and unjustly. There­fore, if you are per­se­cuted because you per­se­cute, if you are black­mailed because you black­mail, if you are treated unjustly because you are unjust, if mercy is denied you because you are mer­ci­less, if you mourn because you make oth­ers mourn, then, you should not com­plain. You are only receiv­ing back what you gave out; for the meas­ure you give is the meas­ure, you will get back (Matt 7:2). As Bob Mar­ley would say in one of his tracks (Exodus): Open your eyes, look with­in. Are you sat­is­fied with the life you are liv­ing? Are you poor in the spir­it? Are you humble? What is the reas­on for your mourn­ing? Do you hun­ger and thirst for right­eous­ness or for unright­eous­ness? Is your heart pure or impure? Do you love peace or war? Do you per­se­cute and inflict pain on others?

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 4^th Sunday of the year is found in The Word of Life, vol. I, pages 85–90. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo
or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com
or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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