Day 233: The Beatitudes (1716-1729)

• It’s Day 233!!

• ARTICLE 2: OUR VOCATION TO BEATITUDE

• We are going to talk about the actual Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel

• THE DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS

• CHRISTIAN BEATITUDE

• We can translate BEATITUDE into BLESSING and also HAPPINESS

• The BEATIFIC VISION is that happy vision of Heaven

• God has made us for Himself and God ALONE satisfies

• THIS IS SO SO CRITICAL FOR US TO UNDERSTAND!!

• AND YET…

• Because of concupiscence, we think that other things will make us happy

• This is because of our DARKENED INTELLECT and WEAKENED WILL

• AND YET…

• God calls us to Himself

• God calls us to true happiness

• God calls us to true beatitude

• This call NEVER CEASES

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we ask you to please send us an abundance of your Holy Spirit so that we can truly love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, that we can love you with everything. Lord God, the world presents to us so many alternatives to goodness, so many alternatives to truth, so many alternatives to true beauty. We ask you to please help us to choose you. Help us choose the Truth. Help us to choose beauty. Help us to choose goodness. So help us to choose you. God, you will never abandon us. Help us to never abandon you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• ARTICLE 2: OUR VOCATION TO BEATITUDE

• Beatitude means blessing, happiness, the ultimate good which God has called us to

• The words “blessings” and “happiness” are good and powerful

• BUT…

• Those words are inadequate

• Beatitude is the ULTIMATE GOOD to which God is calling us

• Beatitude is the ULTIMATE BLESSING that God desires for us

• Beatitude is the ULTIMATE HAPPINESS that God wants for us

• All of this springs from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Ch 5

• Paragraph 1716 says, “The Beatitudes are at 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: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 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.”

• Jesus goes on to talk about the other ways that we are called to live in the Kingdom of Heaven

• Paragraph 1717 says, “The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity.”

• What were God’s promises to Abraham?

• Worldwide blessing

• A dynasty

• Promised Land

• Jesus says this is all fulfilled in the Kingdom of Heaven

• It is fulfilled in HIM

• THAT IS SO INCREDIBLE!!

• Paragraph 1717 continues, “...they are paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations…”

• How did the Beatitudes end?

• “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 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.”

• True happiness is not the fleeting happiness of mere pleasure

• Paragraph 1718 says, “The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it…”

• Yes, there are levels of happiness

• There is immediate happiness in the sense of pleasure, like good yummy food

• There are different levels like accomplishments which lead to recognition

• Helping others is another level of happiness

• BUT…

• What God is talking about here and Christ is talking about and the Church is relating to us is not just those levels

• IN FACT…

• St. Augustine says in Paragraph 1718, “We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated. How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.”

• St. Augustine’s mom, St. Monica, was Catholic but Augustine ran away from that

• He checked out all these different philosophies and religions

• He finally came to know who Jesus is, to believe in Christ, and know the Catholic Church

• In his book, Confessions, he has this prayer, “How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.”

• This profound reality that we have been LONGING FOR THE LORD

• It’s not just about wanting to know what the words are in the Catechism or the Bible

• It is about so much more than that

• St. Thomas Aquinas says in Paragraph 1718, “God alone satisfies.”

• The whole goal of human existence is that God calls us to Himself

• THAT IS OUR DESTINY!!

• God wants us all to choose our destination

• That beatitude is eternal life with Him because He is the only one that satisfies

• In the Baltimore Catechism, the first question is: “Who made you?”

• The answer is, “God made me.”

• The second question is, “Why did God make you?”

• The answer is, “God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this life so as to live with him forever in the next.”

• Now look at Paragraph 1721

• Paragraph 1721 says, “God put us in this world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us ‘partakers of the divine nature’ and of eternal life. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life.”

• THIS IS SO GOOD!!

• SO CONSISTENT!!

• SO BEAUTIFUL!!

• Here is the goal

• Here is what God wants for you

• He is going to give His grace

• He is going to give all His goodness

• He is going to give every opportunity for you and I to choose Him

• He wants that goodness

• He wants that fullness of life

• Paragraph 1723 says, “The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement-however beneficial it may be-such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love.”

• We have to CHOOSE it

• Good and evil

• Life and death

• Darkness and light

• We have to seek the love of God above everything else

• How many times a day do we live to accrue wealth?

• How often do we strive for good health?

• If we don’t apply this to our hearts, it’s just a bunch of words

• It is good to know where we spend our time is where we place our heart

• Where we spend our money is what we place in our hearts

• If we find ourselves wanting to work out or to save money for whatever the thing is, but we are not willing to take time to make sure we are praying in a way that gets us closer to the Lord

• Then the big question is what do we love most?

• St. John Henry Newman says in Paragraph 1723, “All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth; and by wealth they measure respectability…It is a homage resulting from a profound faith…that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second…Notoriety, or the making of a noise in the world-it may be called ‘newspaper fame’-has come to be considered a great good in itself, and a ground of veneration.”

• His words are PRESCIENT

• This is what is in our hearts

• We bow down before wealth

• We want to seek after wealth

• We want to achieve it

• We want to gain it

• Because we think that if we are wealthy, we can do all things

• What about notoriety?

• These days it can be called “Instagram fame”

• Notoriety has come to be considered a great good in itself

• St. John Henry Newman said these words long before the invention of the internet

• Long before the invention of “influencers”

• Because the human heart has this

• This lives in ALL OF US

• We have many decisive moral choices

• What comes first?

• What gets my heart above everything else?

• Is it going to be the Lord?

• OR…

• Is it going to be anything else?

• What gets my heart?

• What gets my attention?

• What gets my time?

• What gets my money?

• What gets me?

• This is such an important question we need to ASK regularly

• This is such an important question we need to ANSWER regularly

• I hope that my answer is always going to be, “Ok, God, you are first. No matter what else there is in my life, you first.”

• Hopefully, with God’s grace, you and I can choose that with our lives

• It is very difficult, though

• So we need grace

• We need help

• We need prayers

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!