Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

The beatitudes (meaning blessings) are thought of, by many scholars, as the extension of the law given to Moses. But I feel that it is more accurate to say that the 10 commandments are the law by which we order our lives. The beatitudes on the other hand, are the simple instructions for how we love our neighbor as ourselves, and by doing so Loving God. Confused, I was at first too, but a couple years ago I heard a homily that helped me to better understand this truth. The priest explained that the beatitutes are actually the steps all of us sinners take on the journey toward sainthood. One leads to the next, and it is a beautiful progression toward sanctity. Let me explain….

1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” – better understood as “poor for the sake of the Spirit.” This is the first step on the journey to God. It is like the prodigal son that looks into the feeding pots, and was jealous of the pigs. It is recognizing that you are a sinner, and that you are incomplete without God in your life. This recognition is the first step, and often times the hardest and most important one, because this is often the moment where the sinner finally turns toward God, and starts their journey back to Him.
2. “Blessed are those who mourn” – once you know that you are a sinner and need Gods help, the next thing is to understand how far you have fallen from God’s glory and His plan for your life. Sorrow and mourning are the just and righteous response to this realization. But this is not a perpetual time of mourning, because God will comfort you, and lead you to the next step.
3. “Blessed are the meek” – Meekness is specifically defined as power under control. And can be more generally understood as humility. Humility is the realization that you are a fallen sinner, and that you are no better than anyone else. We are all sinners, and we all have fallen short of the glory of God. But humility is mostly the acceptance that you cannot be a beloved son or daughter of God without His help and His loving grace…, and that all of us are in the same boat.
4. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness” – After you humbly accept that you are a sinner and need Gods help, you will begin to yearn for God’s grace to lift you up and justify your existence. We yearn for this because we realize we do not have it in ourselves to achieve this righteousness on our own, and that we can only receive it from God. – Fasting is also a part of this step, because fasting truly helps orient our body and soul away from this world and direct it towards God directly, Direct it in a way that is most ready to accept the grace that God wants to pour out on you.
5. “Blessed are the merciful” – When your heart is yearning toward righteousness, you humbly look out on the world and you see that the world is suffering from the same thing you are, and you begin to empathize with other sinners and want to grant mercy to them, because you recognize your own sinfulness and emptiness in the way others around us relate to God and each other. If you are honest with yourself you will understand that you are no better than any of them, and thus mercy is the logical result, and that mercy leads to the out pouring of grace from God through you. That mercy may be just the thing that they need to start the journey for themselves and recognize their sin and separation from God.
6. “Blessed are the clean of heart” – Clean of heart is a person that is trying to reject temptation, and keep their minds securely on the lord. This drive comes from the interior pain that is caused by the recognition that my sin is what causes my separation from God, and causing my spiritual poverty. That interiour pain, purifies the heart and steels the will from attachments to the world, because your love for God, is greater than any pleasure or promise that the world could offer.
7. “Blessed are the peacemakers” – Peace is the natural result of a person that is humbly seeking righteousness, rejecting temptation, and offering mercy to all those that you encounter. War is the result of people taking what is not theirs, or protecting what is “yours” from an aggressor. Peace is the detachment from the things of this world, and the lack of response to the agressor. This is the promise of heaven that when we are all brought up to heaven, the citizens of the Kingdom will no longer fight and make war, because the possession of having God in our lives is infinitely more valuable than any thing or temptation that this world can offer.
8. “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness” – The people of this world, that are slaves to temptation and attachment, will hate those who live by the virtues of the beatitudes. Your mere existence, serves as a living reminder of how far they have fallen from God. They will accuse you of being self-righteous, they will say that you think you are better than them, and they will hate you because they know in their sub-conscience, that you actually are. Not because you are better, but because you have something they cannot have, because to have it means they will have to give up everything else. Since they cannot do that, they hate you and persecute you, because they cannot give up their attachment to this world.

The beatitudes are a lifelong journey. You will not always be at the bottom of the ladder, and you will not always be at the top. Sometimes you will get to the top and the persecutions will cause you to lose faith, and you will find yourself at step one again. But as long as you are on the ladder, lovin God and earnestly taking one step after another, you will ultimately find your way to Heaven. Just don’t ever give up, and know that all along… “they will insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of Him.” But if you stay close to god and the sacraments, and you constantly move toward God on this journey, you can at the end of the day… “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.” This is my prayer for you, that you will feel this too, and find your way to the Lord.

Oh lord, help me today to find my place on the steps of this ladder, and help me to make the next step toward you, amen.