This year in the three-year cycle of Sunday readings, we listen to the Gospel of St. Matthew the Apostle. He was a tax collector who, while sitting at the customs post in Capernaum, was called to follow Jesus. His Gospel is the longest out of all four Gospels and includes stories known from the other Gospels. But some stories can only be found in his Gospel, such as some parables and some parts of the Beatitudes.

This Sunday we will hear the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount from Chapter 5 of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  This passage also is read by the Church on November 1, the Solemnity of All Saints. It begins with the phrase: “When Jesus saw the crowds.” Although Jesus’ speech was presented to the crowds, “. . . his disciples came to him” as well.  There can be no doubt that the Lord is about to teach a doctrine by which he intends to form his disciples for their own good, as well as for the good of the whole world.

Each of the eight Beatitudes starts with a powerful word “makarioi” in Greek original, that could be translated as “happy,” “blessed” or fortunate.”  Perhaps fortunate,” as indicated by some scholars, would be the most approximate intended meaning.  The word “fortunate” shows the person in question to be in possession of a good that many desire but cannot obtain, for whatever reason. In such a situation, a fortunate person may not be excited about his condition and yet, he does not cease to be fortunate. By using this word “makariois”, Jesus consecrates to God’s service certain attitudes and states of life that the world simply scorns and tramples as useless and shameful. Jesus raises up what the world has no use for.

Those who practice the Beatitudes are imitators of God and of His divine nature. The Beatitudes are not negative commandments that forbid sin, whereas the Ten Commandments requires obedience to God as a minimum. The Beatitudes are the carta magna, a great constitution, that invites us, poor mortals, to be like God here and now in the world, to live without sin, to incarnate the divine holiness, to become children of God. These Blessings are intended to accustom us to live with God and God to live with us. The Beatitudes are like the breathing of this divine life on earth, the life that makes a person happy and fortunate in the same way that God is happy and fortunate.

Fr. Mark Jurzyk