Today,
with the proclamation of the Beatitudes, Jesus helps us realize how
forgetful we can often be and how we tend to behave like children,
who usually forget their memories because of their plays. Jesus
feared that the amount of his “good news” —that is,
his words, his gestures, his silences— would be diluted amidst
our sins and worries. In the parable of the sower, do you remember
the image of the thorns that sprang up with his seeds, and choked
them? Well, this is why St. Mathew run the Beatitudes as fundamental
principles, so that we do not never ever forget them. They are a
compendium of the New Law presented by Jesus, like some basic points
which help us living a Christian life.
The Beatitudes are
intended for everybody. The Master is not only teaching his disciples
around him, nor does He exclude any kind of persons, but He delivers
a Universal message. However, He emphasizes the disposition we must
have and the moral behaviour He expects from us. While the definite
salvation is not given in this world, but in the other one, we must
change, right now, while we are here, our mentality and our
evaluation of things. It is necessary we get used to see the crying
face of Christ, in those who mourn, in those poor of spirit, in the
meek at heart, in those who yearn to become saints, in those who have
taken a “determined determination”, as St. Therese of the
Child Jesus liked to say, so that we can become Sowers of Peace and
Joy.
The
Beatitudes are the Lord's perfume participated in human history. But,
also in yours and mine. The two last verses incorporate the presence
of the Cross, as they invite us to rejoice when, because of him and
of the Gospel, things go humanly wrong. For when the coherence of our
Christian life is strong enough, we will, then, most probably suffer
persecution in a thousand different ways, amid unexpected
difficulties and setbacks. St. Matthew's text is emphatic: so «Be
glad and joyful, for a great reward is kept for you in God» (Mt
5,12).
