Imagine this: you pick six good numbers plus the red powerball. I have been blessed, you would shout. But Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Or you are coming out of the doctor’s office and someone asks, how did it go? You say, “I’m blessed. The doctor has given me a clean bill of health.” But Jesus says, “Blessed are they who mourn.” Or we might say, “I’m blessed. People are always nice to me and talk highly about me.” Jesus says, “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you.” What causes the gap between what we think of as blessings and what Jesus pronounces as blessings? After all, we are Christians. We are followers of Jesus. We strive to walk in his footsteps. Why would Jesus have such a different understanding of blessing than the one which we have? Are we missing something essential in having decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back? To answer that question, notice that the scripture calls Jesus “the blessed one.” It doesn’t say, Jesus was the blessed one only when things were going well. On the contrary, Jesus was always the blessed one. Jesus just as much the blessed one when a crown of thorns was forced upon his head as he was when “hosannas” were raining down on his head on Palm Sunday. Jesus was just as much the blessed one when he cried out in anguish in the garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if it is possible let this cup pass me by,” as he was when the heavenly voice said, “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased” at his baptism. Jesus was just as much the blessed one suffering a cruel death on Good Friday as he was triumphing over death on Easter Sunday. The blessedness of Jesus did not come and go according to circumstances. Just by being who he was he was the blessed one no matter what. Perhaps that provides the key to our understanding of what the beatitudes teach us.
As baptized Christians we can say, no matter what, “I’m blessed. I’m blessed because of who I am, a child of God. I’m blessed because of who I am, a member of the body of Christ. I’m blessed because of who I am, a sharer in the divine promise.” So when we are poor in spirit, when we do mourn, when we are being insulted and called everything but a child of God we remain people of infinite worth and dignity. Just in being who we are as Christians we are blessed and nothing or no one can take that away from us. None of those seemingly negative things can touch our inner core where we bear a family resemblance to Jesus. We don’t have to be rich to be blessed because the kingdom of heaven is already promised. We can accept the loss and mourning which are part of life because we have been given the blessed assurance of divine comfort. Abuse and insult do not daunt us because the one whose opinion really matters said to us on our baptismal day the same thing he said to Jesus, “You are my beloved child. I am well pleased with you.” The beatitudes are not a program of action, they are description of identity. Being blessed does not come about in acquiring something we don’t now possess but recognizing the One who has made us for an eternity of bliss. Our blessing comes not in what we have, but in who we are.
St. Paul makes the same point when he insisted that God chose the foolish, God chose the weak, God chose those who count for nothing. What St. Paul has in mind is the tendency that we all have to imagine that I’m just an ordinary Joe and that someone out there is the one who really matters. For St. Paul, we don’t have to make ourselves look good or feel good or sound good because all that we are comes as a gift from God. “It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus.” We don’t have to make ourselves out to be more than we are because “God chose the weak of the world” as fit receptacles of manifold graces and blessings. “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” It’s because of the Lord that I could put my shoes on this morning. It’s because of the Lord that I have three squares and a roof over my head. It’s because of the Lord that I am who I am.
It’s not too much of a stretch to say, therefore, that what Jesus was about in starting the Sermon on the Mount with the eight beatitudes was an effort to drive home the point that following him is a requires a certain attitude, a BE-ATTITUDE. In our country we often possess a Have-attitude. I’ve got to have this, that and the other in order to be happy. No, Jesus says, you need a BE-ATTITUDE that just in being who you are you can be happy. Sometimes we have a Do-attitude. I’ve got to do this, accomplish that, succeed at the other in order to be happy. No, Jesus says, all you have to do is BE who you God made you to be, then what you do will follow. There are some with a Me-attitude. I’ve got to look out for number one since there is no one else out there who will do so. No, Jesus says, if you hold onto the BE-ATTITUDE as a child of God then you will be able to treat everyone else with generosity and forgiveness. And we must be wary of the HE/SHE-attitude. That happens when we figure if he changed, if she did something different, then things would be better. Don’t be tempted by a Wait-and-see-attitude. I’ll do what I have to and not commit myself to anything. Jesus says, that is not helpful. No, says Jesus, the BE-ATTITUDE says that right today, right in yourself, you have all that you need in order to become the whole, healthy, happy, blessed individual that God intends you to be.
