The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. They are the fulfilment of the teaching of the Torah, the most beautiful manifesto of what it means to live on earth as a new creation. They reveal that the kingdom of heaven isn’t about power or strength or land or wealth or possession but rather that the kingdom of heaven is within us. The kingdom of heaven is an attitude, a way of the heart, a way of thinking and acting which is shocking, radical and life changing.
The Beatitudes can be said to reveal the face of Christ because he lived them perfectly. They are the pathway to happiness and true fulfilment. In short, the Beatitudes are beautiful. Do you know them off by heart? Have you secured them in your memory? Are they on the tip of your tongue? Here’s another question: are you happy? And another one: do you want to live a happy life? If you do, and God knows we all do, there is only one way and this is to live the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes show us the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of every human act. We are called to beatitude by the Beatitudes and one day beholding the beatific vision. As St. Augustine so beautifully and eloquently expressed it: ‘There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end do we have, if not to reach the kingdom which has not ended?’ We are put in this world to know, love and serve God, and at the end of our lives enter the joy of eternal life, where death is not the end, but the beginning.
When we put into practice the light yoke and burden of the Beatitudes, we begin to taste the eternal life to which we are called. For in the kingdom of heaven, we encounter the poor in spirit, those who mourned but now know the joy of Christ, the meek and not the prideful and haughty, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who whilst on earth hungered and thirsted for righteousness.
