Hi everyone. Welcome back to daily gospel
exegesis. Today, we have a really
important passage to look at and there's a lot to say about this
one so we'll get straight into it.
We're looking today at Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 to 12,
seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill, there, he sat down and
was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak.
This is what he taught them. How happy are the poor in
spirit? Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Happy the gentle they shall have the Earth for their heritage.
Happy are those who mourn? They shall be comforted.
Happy. Those who hunger and thirst for
what is right? They shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful they shall have mercy shown to them.
Happy the pure in heart. They shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers they shall be called sons of God.
Happy? Those who are persecuted in the
cause of right. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy, are you when people abuse you, and persecute you and speak
all kinds of calumny against you on my account rejoice, and be
glad for your reward will be great in heaven.
This Is How They persecuted the prophets before you.
So really, really important passage one.
That's probably familiar to many of you and there's lots of
different angles that we can approach this from and there's
lots of really interesting things about this.
Passage. So firstly, what's the context
we're in Matthew Chapter 5 and in chapters 1 to 4, he's already
begun his ministry in Galilee. He's been teaching in various
synagogues, particularly in chapter 4 and Performing.
Lots of local healings by this time, his gathered followers
from All over Israel. The section we have here at the
start of chapter 5, begins The Sermon on the Mount, which goes
for three chapters. We're looking today at What's
called the introduction to The Sermon, on the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount is one of five discourses in the gospel
of Matthew. This is the first one.
And we need to make a few comments about The Sermon on the
Mount and what it's all about. If you read chapters 5 to 7 and
I do recommend reading it in one block.
If you can, the basic point of The Sermon on the Mount is, he's
telling his followers. What it means to live under
God's reign. He's going to teach his
disciples what it means to have God as their father.
What it means to have Jesus as their Lord and Master.
He's going to teach them what it means to love one another, and
he's going to teach them how to love others, even their enemies.
So he's telling his disciples what their standard of life
should be his teaching them and it's a very high standard as we
know he says be perfect. Just as your heavenly father is
perfect. That's later in chapter 5.
But we shouldn't just say The Sermon on the Mount is just a
discourse on how to live or about ethics or something.
Jesus also, says, some things here that carry profound claims
about his own identity and authority.
And we'll look at these in the coming days as we move through
chapters five to seven. There's a lot we could say about
the structure of the sermon. Some have suggested that it's
deliberately structured on the three pillars of Judaism, which
are the Torah worship and Good Deeds.
They're To be the three Essentials of the faith.
So some have said, maybe it's deliberately been done so that
chapter 5 is all about the Torah.
Chapter 6 is all about worship and chapter 7 is all about Good
Deeds. That's one possibility.
Certainly the Our father is Central, that's right in the
middle of The Sermon on the Mount.
And this is a quote from one Bible scholar.
Thus The Sermon on the Mount takes its readers along a way
that leads them from God's radical demands into the
interior of Faith where they experience the father's nearness
in prayer, then it leads them back into the Praxis of
renouncing possessions and of love.
And with the Sermon on the Mount.
It's possible that this didn't all happen on the one occasion.
Maybe Jesus said these things at different times in his ministry,
and Matthew has collected them and put them all at the same
point because they're about a similar thing.
And in that sense, maybe Matthew is deliberately crafting a
kingdom, Manifesto of all the great things Jesus says about
the Kingdom, so that Matthews readers will have it all in one
place that's possible. Although we shouldn't rule out
that Jesus may have said all of this.
In one go and certainly that's quite possible.
So verse 1, we're starting at today, it says, seeing the
crowds so by now, we know that there's these huge crowds
following Jesus, he went up the hill or more literally Mountain.
That's what it says there. So why would he go up a
mountain? Probably because he plans to
teach the crowds and we know that the mountains in Galilee a
really good for amplifying sound, you can stand at the top
and people all the way down the bottom can hear your teaching
with any. Don't have to yell, you can go
there today and try it with a tour group and it's Really cool.
One person gets up there and says something quietly but
everyone down the bottom of the mountain can hear it, but there
might be another reason why Jesus went up the mountain and
why Matthew highlights, the fact that Jesus went up the mountain,
perhaps it's to set up a parallel with Moses.
Remember, Moses goes up the mountain to present the
teachings or in fact to receive the teachings of the old
Covenant. And now Jesus goes up the
mountain here to announce the teachings of the New Covenant.
And in particular, the Fulfillment of the Mosaic law.
So Jesus is being presented as a new Moses.
That's certainly a possibility but there is a key difference
though between The Sermon on the Mount and Moses going up the
mountain which is that Jesus Takes people with him up the
mountain here, whereas Moses went up by himself.
But it is true that all throughout the Old Testament,
the phrase Moses went up. The mountain is very common to
when the Jews are reflecting on when Moses received the Ten
Commandments. And so the same phrase is used
here. Jesus went up the mountain now,
we're not sure exactly which mountain it was.
But there is a traditional site of where Jesus did this sermon,
it's called The Church of the Beatitudes.
That's where it's believed to have occurred and you can go
there today. So Jesus goes up the mountain
there, he sat down and was joined by his disciples, so
Jesus sits down and that's the posture of a rabbi teaching.
Now there is a bit of a question here, about what's the audience
of Jesus? His disciples are, who is
mentioned here, but we also know that there's crowds following
him and listening to him EC intending this message for the
crowd or for his disciples. Certainly the content of what he
says here would only really make sense to disciples.
So perhaps the best solution is to say that the Sermon on the
Mount is directed at the crowd, but most of the crowd, are his
disciples already. They're one in the same or at
least they want to be his disciples.
So there isn't really a conflict there.
Verse two, then he began to speak, this is what he taught
them or more literally and he opened his mouth and taught
them. So we're going to hear quite a
solemn. Hear from Jesus and Jesus is
going to preach in our passage today.
Verse 12. 12, what has come to be known as the eight Beatitudes
and the word Beatitudes needs a bit of unpacking.
Essentially it means blessings. The word blessed which is or our
lectionary translation, renders it as happy the Greek word there
is makarios Jesus says that you are makarios.
If this happens to you you are makarios.
If this happens to you basically, happy is an okay
translation but the basic meaning is favored.
It doesn't refer to a happy positive emotional state.
It's not an emotional thing, makarios means being in a
fortunate situation and it's the same basic idea when the angel
Gabriel appears to, Mary and says, highly favored, you are
all blessed you are. It's the same sort of basic
Jewish idea of having favor in God's sight.
Now, what about the word Beatitudes?
You've probably heard that word, lots of times before and assume
that it was just a label that was attached to this particular
sermon. Actually, it was a key part of
Jewish tradition, even before Jesus.
And in fact, other parts of the ancient world had this word
Beatitudes as well. A beatitude was a way of
speaking. It was almost like a greeting
and it particularly involved, the form.
Blessed is the one who does X. If you ever had a teacher There
was in that format was called a beatitude we find that several
times in the Psalms and then the wisdom literature, if you've
ever heard the Psalms proclaimed that say something like blessed
is the one who does God's Commandments or blessed?
Is the one who walks in the ways of the Lord.
That is a beatitude because it's in the form of blessed is the
one. So to in the Jewish World, a
beatitude either, commended those who take a certain path in
life or it promises future consolations to those in a
fictions. Now we see both elements in what
Jesus says here. Jesus is going to teach his
disciples about certain groups, of people who are fortunate.
And he's also going to tell us why they're fortunate.
So these are Jesus Beatitudes. Basically, the ones that he
unpacks for his disciples. Most Old Testament, texts
referred to be attitudes as imparting blessings in the
present life. But there are some later ones
that focus on eschatological blessings where they promised.
Relation to the faithful who are afflicted.
When God ultimately vindicates. The just so we do have these
promises about blessed is the one who perseveres blessed is
the one who remains on Judgment Day.
Some key texts here, which are well worth looking at.
Because these are probably in the background of Jesus thinking
here, tobert 13:14 and Jan, Daniel 12:12.
Both have this idea of people receiving blessings at the end
of time, if they persevere in doing.
God's will. What we're about to see is one
of the hardest parts of the Gospel of Matthew to interpret.
There's so much that could be said about it.
You've probably heard lots of sermons preached about it.
Usually, you'll probably hear sermons preached about spiritual
senses of this text. We want to discern the literal
sense of the text, and that's what our podcast is all about
helping. You understand what the author
and what Jesus intended on the most fundamental level?
It's not an easy text to do that for.
So I'm going to do my best but there might be some things that
I don't get. Quite right.
On the most basic level in general here.
For each of the eight Beatitudes, Jesus is teaching
his disciples of the ones who are truly blessed are not those
who the world sees, as blessed or even what conventional
wisdom, or what the Pharisees taught about.
Who is blessed, he's saying that all of those Notions that
incorrect. He's turning the world standards
for happiness and blessedness upside down.
So on a fundamental level what Jesus is teaching here is that
those who are Ian is disadvantaged by the world are
actually in a very favorable position.
When his followers live by God's standards, they will be in a
truly fortunate state of life, no matter what their
circumstances may be. Because they bring a glimmer of
the joy and hope of the Heavenly Kingdom into the afflictions of
the present world. So that's the overall, big
picture of what we're going to see here in the Beatitudes,
that's the general meaning. However there's also some
specific promises to each of the types of people.
We can't ignore the promises that Jesus gives.
Perhaps the best way to interpret, what we're about to
see here is that all of the promises in the coming verses
refer to basically the same thing, which is entering the
kingdom of heaven and that is certainly a key theme in the
gospel of Matthew. So all of eight Beatitudes, the
reward is the same entering the kingdom of heaven.
Once we've established that though, there's still a further
question about the Beatitudes is Jesus, promising them things in
the future, or is he telling them things that they already
have? In virtue of already being in
the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it a present tense thing or
is he telling them? What will they will receive on
Judgement Day? When the Kingdom of Heaven comes
in its fullness. So there's two options if he's
referring to present things. That his disciples are already
experiencing because they're already in the kingdom of God,
then. Jesus is saying here that they
are already happy or blessed. So when he says blessed are you
he's just saying it. Like it is your blessed already
because you're already in the kingdom of God but if he's
referring to Future things, they're going to inherit on
Judgement Day. When the kingdom of God comes in
its fullness. Then Jesus is telling his
disciples that they should consider themselves happy or
blessed because of what they're going to receive one day.
He's telling them that ultimately They will receive
these amazing things and therefore they should consider
them. Blessed that I think is the best
interpretation that he's talking about future promises mostly
because Jesus is mostly using the word shall in these coming
versus so that implies a future fulfillment.
That's not to say they can't experience some of these
promises in the present, but it's mostly Jesus telling them
what awaits them in the future in the future Kingdom of Heaven.
At the End of Time. Verse 3, he His first one.
How happy are the poor in spirit?
What does it mean to be poor in spirit?
Well, it probably means those who recognize that they are
powerless in and of themselves and those who realize that God
is the only one who can help them.
So they find their security in the Lord rather than in material
wealth. Maybe that's meant to contrast
with the Pharisees who are quite self-sufficient, but that's the
basic idea. It's those who are who recognize
their need for the Lord. Now, Luke's version of this
passage of this beatitude is he just says, blessed are the poor
now. That has quite a different
meaning from blessed, are the poor in spirit.
So many, many essays have been written by biblical Scholars
about, which is the right version.
Blessed are the poor and blessed, the poor in spirit
because they do have quite different meanings.
It's not Just a simple variation in language, there's a question
about which was the original, which author wrote first and
which, which of the author's borrowed and modified, it it's
not easy to solve may be part of the solution here, is that in
the Old Testament, the word poor didn't just refer to those who
are in economic hardship, but it had also come to refer to those
who are part of the oppressed people of God in general.
So, we see that in some 30 Seven in Isaiah, chapter 10 and in
other places in Isaiah as well. That would make sense.
I think, because Matthew is assuming his readers, know, the
Old Testament, quite well. So I think that's the best way
of harmonizing. The two is that, when Luke says,
blessed are the poor, he doesn't just mean economically poor.
He has a broader notion of poor, which basically corresponds to
poor in spirit. Now, of course it could be that
Luke's version which is sometimes called the sermon on
the plain. Maybe this is an entirely
different speech and that is quite possible because Jesus
would have given similar teachings on different occasions
and in that case we don't have a problem.
So blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom
of Heaven. Of course, the Kingdom of Heaven
is a key theme all through the gospel of Matthew.
And basically, it means it's where God's will on Heaven is
carried out on Earth. The Kingdom of Heaven, According
To Jesus begins during his own Ministry.
It continues afterwards through the work of the Holy Spirit, and
it will one day be consummated when God sets up, his final
Kingdom on Earth. So Jesus here, teaches that, the
poor in spirit will be part of this Kingdom of Heaven.
That's one group who gets to be in the Kingdom.
Now, we're about to see what we have is verse for most
translations of the Bible have verse 4 and 5 swapped around
compared to what we see in the lectionary.
I'm not sure. Sure why the lectionary has put
blessed, are the meek before? Happy are those who mourn?
Usually it's the other way around.
It could just be a typo in the lectionary so if you studying
the Bible, most Bibles will have happy are those who mourn next
but our lectionary has happy the gentle so we'll look at happy.
The gentle first. And another word for gentle is
Meek. Lots of discussion about
meekness. As I'm sure you've heard those
different explanations of meekness.
I think the best way to understand meekness is that it's
those who understand their place before God, and who do not
overstep their boundaries. It probably does have some sort
of relationship to anger and aggression.
The the meek of those who patiently, wait on the Lord,
amid their afflictions, and they refrain from responding in
anger, or with Force against those who wronged them.
I do think that makes sense in context of other things.
Matthew says, in The Sermon, on the Mount here.
He does talk about what to do when you're Afflicted.
That's kind of what the whole thing is about.
So I think a good explanation here of meekness is those who
patiently, wait. On the Lord rather than
retaliating. So, in other words, they rely on
God, not their own strength to set things, right?
That is a Meek person. Meekness is in the Bible, the
meekest person according to the Bible in the Old Testament is
Moses. It actually says, Moses was the
meekest person on Earth. That's in number 12, numbers 12
verse 3, and then Jesus himself. Of course, says that he is Meek
in 11:29. This same basic teaching, Jesus
is going to amplify shortly in The Sermon on the Mount when he
says turn the other cheek, that's basically what it means
to be meek is to not retaliate, but to submit ourselves to On
Happy the gentle or the meek for they shall have the Earth for
their Heritage or more literally, they shall inherit
the earth. Now, this is a quote from Psalm
37:11. In fact, it says pretty much
this. In Psalm 37, the meek shall
inherit the earth. Now in context of the psalm, the
Earth there is about the promised land.
It's a promise that those who are virtuous in the Old
Testament and to wait on God, if they're patient, They will
receive the promised. And Jesus here.
Modifies that a bit to refer to the Future coming of the Kingdom
of Heaven on Earth. So their hopes about the
promised land Jesus says, that's going to be fulfilled in a
greater way in the, coming Kingdom of Heaven.
So, Jesus says that those who are Meek and do not aggressively
seek an honorable position, they will inherit the Kingdom.
That will be quite a radical teaching since the conventional
wisdom of the time. If you think about it, was that
those with the biggest and most powerful Army would be those who
inherit the earth, that was how the Roman World worked.
So, Jesus turns that on his head verse 5, happy those who mourn.
Now, that seems like an oxymoron.
Happy those, who mourn morning. He refers particularly to the
Jewish conception of morning. Any particular it's thinking of
those who grieve over wickedness, like Daniel and Ezra
in the Old Testament. They were said to mourn and
grieve over wickedness. Jesus says, happy those who
mourn they shall be comforted. So in context here, Jesus
basically saying that those who suffer and mourn, as a result of
wickedness will one day be comforted by God.
It doesn't mean that everyone who is sad will get to heaven.
Often you'll see this quoted at funerals.
Happy those who mourn. They will be.
Added. Perhaps there is an application
there on the spiritual level of the text, but on the literal
level. It's talking about those who
grieve over wickedness. So here Jesus is encouraging his
disciples to mourn about wickedness.
He's telling them that it's a good thing to do that and when
they do that, they should have hope that God will vindicate
them because they will be comforted verse 6.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right, or a
better translation there is for righteousness.
Now, is in the Jewish mind, meant following God's
Commandments. That's what righteousness was to
be a righteous man was to follow God's commandments.
So here Jesus is talking about those who hunger and thirst
which means to seek something with your whole heart.
So, just hunger and thirst for righteousness.
It means someone who is totally devoted to doing God's will.
Jesus says these people are happy and he says, they shall be
satisfied. So, those who long to see God's
will followed on Earth, will see it happen in the final kingdom
of heaven and this should be a question for all of us.
Do we long to follow God's Will and see it done on Earth and
interesting here. Jesus uses satisfied and that
sort of completes the Metaphor. He started about hunger and
thirst, they hunger and thirst, but they will be satisfied.
In the final Kingdom of Heaven verse 7, happy the merciful they
shall have mercy shown to them. Mercy is essentially showing
kindness to those in need and that, teaching comes up a few
times in the gospels. Remember Jesus often says things
like the measure you use will be the measure which is used for
you. All through the New Testament,
there's this idea that God will show mercy and forgiveness to us
only to the extent that we show mercy and forgiveness to others.
Same basic teaching here, happy the merciful they shall have
mercy shown to them. Perhaps Jesus here is
contrasting with the Pharisees because the Pharisees in the
other Jewish leaders. Probably they weren't
particularly merciful and the implication would be that God
will not show Mercy to them. Verse 8, happy are the pure in
heart. Now, when we hear the word
heart, we might think of emotions.
But in the Bible heart was the seat of reason and will, as well
as the emotions it was considered to be the deepest
part of man. And we might almost equivocate
it to brain today or mind. So this teaching is not about
having nice emotions. Happy the pure in heart doesn't
mean being a nice person. Jesus teaching here is Is about
those who have a pure undivided dedication to following God.
Their whole reason will and emotions dedicated to God with
the out Mixed motives, this is an important reminder for Jesus
disciples that truly entering God's promises requires, not
only external Purity, which is what the temple rules said.
But Jesus reminds them that there's also a requirement to
have an internal disposition of a pure heart and that is taught
in Psalm 23. Versus 325 happy.
The pure in heart for they shall see God.
What does it mean to see God? This is almost certainly a
reference to this state of being, which Catholic theology
calls the beatific vision. Those who have purify themselves
from all sin according to Catholic teaching will enter the
glory of heaven and they will behold God as he is revelation,
22 verse 4 and it says here, they shall see God.
And I think that's what it means.
Is that one day they'll get to behold God.
And that's something we have to look forward to if we remain
pure in heart, if we remain undivided dedication to God.
Verse 9, happy the peacemakers. So people who encourage peace
rather than conflict, that's who Jesus is thinking of keep in
mind that for the Jews piece, didn't just mean the absence of
hostility for the Jews piece. Was almost a way of life that
you wanted to strive forward Shalom.
It referred to well-being, and rightly ordered personal
relationships and society. When the Jews dwelled in peace
in society, it was considered to be the ultimate shell on.
So Jesus here. Is probably telling his
disciples to make peace in their life, as far as they can, in
their own circles. It's probably not a political
kind of piece that he's thinking of here, and we're all called to
do that. It's hard, isn't it to make
peace with everyone in our lives, but that's the clear
teaching of Jesus. Here, happy or blessed are those
who make a peace, they shall be called sons of God.
Now, that would be groundbreaking, we can talk more
about sons of God as we go through The Sermon on the Mount.
But it implies deep intimacy with the father and that was a
very radical concept for the Jews.
They did not consider themselves to literally be God's Sons but
Jesus, he says that if you follow his Commandments then in
a sense he can become his son and it's an adopted son ship
where God chooses to bring people into his family and to
partake of his kingdom out of God's Own.
Love he chooses to adopt sons and daughters and that's an
incredible thing. That's well worth Reflecting on.
So here Jesus says the peacemakers will get to be sons
of God but as we go through The Sermon on the Mount will see
that other people can also be added to the category of sons of
God verse 10, happy those who are persecuted in the cause of,
right? Or literally, for righteousness
sake. So Jesus here is talking about
people who are persecuted for following God's will Jesus knows
that many of his followers are going to be heavily Secured by
the Jewish authorities in the coming years.
And of course, we see that in the book of Acts, he knows that
that's coming for them. So that's why he tells them
blessed, are you when you were persecuted for righteousness
sake, now, that might seem counterintuitive, why would that
make you happy or blessed to be persecuted?
Well, well, Jesus says, theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and
probably that means those who persecute them won't get into
the kingdom. Jesus nail develops.
This last beatitude a bit more in verse 11.
He says, happy are you when people abuse you and persecute
you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my
account. This is pretty similar to the
previous verse except now he directs it directly at his
Apostles. Notice he's using the word you
now, rather than that. Happy are you.
So maybe, at this point has turned to his closest followers
who were nearby as he says these words, perhaps Jesus tells his
followers here that when they're persecuted for following him and
he knows that they're going to be they should be encouraged
rather than disappointed. And he tells them a great reward
is waiting for them. When they're persecuted for his
sake, notice how extravagant and radical this claim is Jesus,
explicitly Ashok Associates being persecuted for
righteousness sake, with being persecuted, for my sake.
So, Jesus, he says that obedience to God's law.
And righteousness now means obedience to Christ himself
other. Rabbis at that time, would never
say anything like that. They would encourage persecution
for the sake of God or the Torah Jesus.
He says they're going to be persecuted because of him.
Jesus is claiming an authority that no Prophet or Rabbi in
Israel would ever claim to possess and it's actually a
Blasphemous claim. If he's not really the son of
God, he's saying that you're blessed to be persecuted for my
sake. And this underscores how the
Beatitudes that we've been looking at and not merely
ethical principles, they were about Jesus, they statements
about the unique authority of Jesus and what it means for
Christians to orient their lives around him.
So living the Beatitudes in a sense is actually imitating.
Christ's life. Jesus was persecuted.
His humble all the things that are said here.
Do apply to Jesus as our model and we get to share in his
sufferings and persecution. Verse 12, the final verse
rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven.
So this is attached to the previous one.
About those who are persecuted for his sake, notice the future
tense here, your reward will be great in heaven.
Jesus tells his followers that when persecution comes on his
account and they should Rejoice since they have a reward in
heaven. Now this verse might imply
possibly because he says your reward will be great in heaven.
Perhaps that implies that some people are going to have more
rewards than others in heaven. That's a legitimate
interpretation and Catholic teaching although it's not
explicit there. It does tend to lend tend to
lean in that direction that there are different Levels of
reward. That's not the only
interpretation of this passage though.
Because you could just say your reward in heaven will be getting
into heaven. That is the reward that not
everyone gets Jesus continues. This Is How They persecuted the
prophets before you, if, you know, your Bible all throughout
Jewish history. Profits appeared in Israel who
are doing God's will? However, their message was
usually rejected by the Jewish leadership and they were
persecuted and sometimes killed as a result.
Jesus, now tells his followers that they're going to face a
similar situation, they're going to follow God's Will and they're
going to try to Proclaim his truth and particularly they're
going to Proclaim that Jesus is the messiah.
Yeah, but the Jewish leadership is going to reject them and
persecute them in a similar way, to the way the Jewish leadership
has done to the prophets in the past.
So those are the eight Beatitudes as you can see.
There's a lot in them, there's so much that could be said about
them, but I think that gives you a decent sense of what is going
on in the literal sense. In terms of it being promises
about the future Kingdom of Heaven.
Now there's still a future question here that Scholars
raised about what's the point in Jesus saying this when he
speaking to the crowd, You see encouraging them by saying that
they're already blessed. That's one interpretation.
He's saying that this is you, you're you're in the good books,
you're being blessed, or is he telling the crowd of what they
need to do in order to become blessed?
So some Scholars really think that we shouldn't say that Jesus
would be, is being prescriptive here.
He's not saying this is what you should be like rather, what he's
doing is he's just being descriptive, so he's making a
contrast. Between his true disciples and
he's describing what his true disciples are like already and
his contrasting. That with the self-righteousness
of the Pharisees that I think is a reasonable interpretation.
Because a lot of The Sermon on the Mount is contrasting false
righteousness with true righteousness, still though,
even if we're saying, if we want to say that Jesus is being
descriptive, telling it like it is at his present time rather
than telling them what they have to do.
Even if If we go with that, the message for us is still the
same. The message for us is that for
us to get into the kingdom of heaven, we need to be like, what
Jesus is describing at that particular time.
So the message for us is the same regardless.
Now The Sermon on the Mount continues over the next couple
of chapters and we're look at that in the coming days as part
of the weekday cycle. So the next part will be read on
Tuesday of week, 10 in ordinary time.
Now, as you can imagine there's a lots of places or lots of
really, really interesting places in the catechism where
the Beatitudes get reference quite explicitly, there's
sections in the catechism about poverty of heart which is based
on what we see here. There's Sections there about
Christine Beatitudes about what it means to be pure in heart.
It gets summarized as part of the fifth commandment, and it's
linked to what Jesus says here about be a peacemaker and
there's all sorts of really interesting ones but in the
interest of time because I know this is a long episode, I'll
just read out paragraph 17 16 and 17 17 which is all about
this passage. It's a commentary on the
Beatitudes. So here's what the Catholic
Church teaches. Is about the Beatitudes that
we've heard today. The Beatitudes are the Heart of
Jesus preaching. They take up the promises made
to the chosen people since Abraham.
The Beatitudes fulfill the Promises by ordering them no
longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the
kingdom of heaven and then it goes on to list all the
Beatitudes And then it finishes by saying the Beatitudes depict,
the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity.
They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the
glory of his passion. And Resurrection, they shed
light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the
Christian Life. They are the paradoxical
promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations.
They proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured however,
dimly for Christ's disciples. They have begun in the lives of
the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
So that's paragraph. 17, 16 and 17 17.
I'll include all the paragraphs and they're well worth reading
all include those in the show notes.
Hopefully you learned something new today I certainly did as I
Was preparing this there's a lot of richness in the entire Sermon
on the Mount. If you think there's people in
your life, who would benefit from hearing this exegesis of
the literal sense of the Beatitudes, then please share it
with them. I would love it.
If you could do that more and more people could hear about the
podcast. Thank you.
And we'll continue tomorrow.