THE BEATITUDES

 

In an age when so many things lead to personal debasement and degradation, the Beatitudes are an invitation to an upright and worthy life (Orlandis, The Eight Beatitudes). On the other hand, trying AT ALL COSTS to throw off the weight of pain and tribulation, as though they were absolute evils, or to seek human success as an end in itself, are ways that God cannot bless, and which do not lead to happiness (Fernandez, In Conversation with God).
 
"Blessed means happy, fortunate, and each in one [of the Beatitudes] Jesus begins by promising happiness and pointing out the way of achieving it. Why should Jesus start by speaking of happiness? Because there is in all men [and women] an irresistible longing to be happy: its achievement is the end that all their actions propose to them; but they often seek happiness where it is not to be found, where they will only find wretchedness" (Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of Interior Life).
 
The ways of the Beatitudes: poverty, meekness, mercy, purity, and humility, lead to God and are the only ways to eternal happiness in Heaven and also to happiness in this present life. They form the acme of the well-being of a soul who tries to live his or her life in a very intimate relationship with God, and in total abandonment to His will. "Far from God we can only gather Dead Sea fruit, bitter in one way or another, and end up like the prodigal son, far from his Father's house, 'eating the husks and feeding the swine'" (Fernandez).
 
May God bless you and teach you how to remain resilient on the ways of the Beatitudes. Amen!