NO GREATER LOVE: JESUS AND THE BEATITUDES 

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us much about how He expects us to live. In Chapter Four of Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict discusses this Sermon giving us much food for thought and meditation. First, he clears up a misconception about the Beatitudes which is often taught. The Beatitudes are not infrequently presented as the New Testament's counterpart to the Ten Commandments, as an example of the Christian ethics that is supposedly superior to the commands of the Old Testament. This approach totally misconstrues these words of Jesus. Jesus always presupposed the validity of the Ten Commandments as a matter of course (see, for example, Mk 10:19; Lk 16:17). In the Sermon on the Mount, he recapitulates and gives added depth to the commandments of the second tablet, but he does not abolish them (cf. Mt 5:21-48). To do so would in any case diametrically contradict the fundamental principle underpinning his discussion of the Ten Commandments: "Think not that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished" (Mt 5:17-18). 

 

How did the Lord Jesus fulfill the Law and the Prophets? There are many ways, but a few of them can be listed. The Chosen People of Israel knew that the true God had given them commandments and directives through Moses. Yet they did not always perfectly obey these commands. Certainly, they had to repent, but they also needed to show God that they had repented by concrete actions. Moses gave them a system of animal sacrifices to do this. Those who were truly close to God knew that the animal sacrifices were not enough. For example, the psalmist of Psalm 51 states “For you take no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Ps 51:16-17)

 

What concrete action is needed for us to show God that we have repented and for God to show us that He has accepted our repentance? Jesus gave us the answer. Confession. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” He told the apostles, the first priests and bishops. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (Jn 20:22-23). In sacramental confession, internal repentance is to lead to the external confession to the priest and the penance directed by the priest. The Lord assures us that if this is done properly, we can be sure of God’s forgiveness. We should note that Christ gave the Church the power to forgive sins after He had suffered on the Cross and rose from the dead. After He had triumphed over sin on the Cross, we can enjoy the fruits of His Triumph. Of course, the fruits of His Triumph are not just forgiveness of sins but also eternal life. The Lord taught us that the fruit of repentance is eternal life, while the fruit of a refusal to repent is eternal death.

 

What about the way we live our lives in the here and now? Pope Benedict tells us that Jesus fulfilled all the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12) in his life here on earth. We have seen that the Sermon on the Mount is a hidden Christology. Behind the Sermon on the Mount, stands the figure of Christ, the man who is God, but, who, precisely because he is God, descends, empties himself, all the way to death on the Cross. However, there are those who are respectful of Jesus and even grant the greatness of His life, but deny that this greatness has any relationship to Christians. In The Antichrist, the secular, nineteenth century philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, wrote “In truth, there was only one Christian and he died on the cross.” Nietzsche read the Bible selectively seeing what he wanted to see and ignoring the rest. Nietzsche assumed that to be a follower of Christ, one must be a carbon-copy of Jesus. This attitude is typical of enemies of the Church who try to separate Jesus from His followers and from the Church.

 

In reality, what it takes to be a follower of the Lord is determined by the Lord Himself. Peter is a prime example. In the gospels, St. Peter is not portrayed as the perfect human with no faults. Peter said silly things to the Lord. (Mt 16:22-23, Mt 17:4) He denied that he knew the Lord. (Mt 26:69-75) Even after the Resurrection, Peter was rebuked by St. Paul. (Gal 2:11-14) Yet, by the Sea of Tiberias, after three times asking Peter if he loved Him (Jn 21:15-17) and predicting Peter’s martyrdom, (Jn 21:18-19) Jesus still commanded Peter to “Follow me.” (Jn 21:19) According to tradition, Peter did follow Jesus right to the Cross by being crucified by the Romans upside down.

 

Jesus fulfilled the Beatitudes not only in Himself, but also in his followers whom we call Christians.

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1.       The first Beatitude says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3) Jesus Himself was poor, however, from the beginning, Christians have imitated His Poverty according to their circumstances. This was especially taken up by St. Francis and the Franciscans, who in a formal way have incorporated poverty into their way of life. Some have been very literally poor, but the phrase “in spirit” indicates that even one who is required by their state in life to own many possessions can still be poor.

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2.       When Jesus was informed that his dear friend Lazarus had died, he wept (Jn 11:35) even though He knew what He was going to do. The Beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 3:4) means that even Christians who believe in the Resurrection can mourn for the loss of a loved one just as the Lord did.

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3.       The Beatitude “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth” (Mt 5:5) was lived by Jesus who was meek when He was personally attacked at His Passion. Like Jesus, many Christians have boldly proclaimed the truth but have been meek when personally attacked to the point of martyrdom.

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4.        The Beatitudes “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt 5:6) and “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:10) go together since those who seek after righteousness are bound to be persecuted by an unrighteous world. We can read about the persecution of Christians in the book of Acts and this persecution has continued right to the present time.

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5.       Jesus’ preaching must have converted the rich tax collector, Zacchaeus, (Lk 19:1-10) since he had climbed into a tree to see Jesus as he passed by. Jesus went to this man’s house, even though Zacchaeus, who, as a tax collector for the Romans, could be very unmerciful. Yet Zacchaeus gives half of what he owned to the poor and restores fourfold to anyone he had defrauded. Jesus approved these merciful actions (Lk 19:9-10) In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, (Lk 18:9-17) another tax collector (or was it the same tax collector?) prays in the temple to God for mercy. Jesus asserts that this tax collector did obtain mercy. This fulfills the Beatitude “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Mt 5:7) 

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6.       Jesus was certainly pure of heart when he obeyed the Father right to the Cross. There have been many Christians, such as St. Joseph of Cupertino, who were known for their patience, humility, and obedience and thus fulfilled the Beatitude “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8)

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7.       Jesus was also not the violent revolutionary who could overthrow Roman domination of the Jews although many wanted Him to do just that and did not believe in Him because of this “failure”. Instead, he fulfilled the Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Mt 5:9) by remaining peaceful while violently and unjustly being led to crucifixion. Many Christians have followed Jesus by not resisting unjust treatment or, like St. Elizabeth of Portugal, being a peacemaker between warring parties.

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8.       How many of us have been shunned, excluded and hated by those who do not understand or who even reject Christianity? This fulfills the Beatitude “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Mt 5:11) In this last Beatitude, Jesus is speaking of Christians. The Lord was hated and rejected because he spoke with Divine authority against the sins and deceptions of powerful people. Christians who speak against or even live against the spirit of the times will also be rejected and attacked unjustly. It is true that many Christians live in harmony with and accept the unrighteousness of the world. Those who do not go along with the politically correct regime can expect to be lied about and misinterpreted by the world.

 

As Pope Benedict says above, Jesus did fulfill the Beatitudes and the entire Sermon on the Mount in His Life. Many Christians down through the ages have also fulfilled the Beatitudes. No Christian was a “carbon-copy” of Jesus Christ as Nietzsche demanded. Despite imperfections and failures, Christians followed Jesus in their own circumstances as did St. Peter. We need to do the same. – Jim Nugent, CFP