Blessedness and Faith

 Sermon on the Mount, Louis C. Tiffany (Luce Memorial window)

Fr. Tony’s Letter to the Trinitarians

July-August 2017

Blessedness and Faith

“How happy are you poverty-stricken:  The Reign of God is yours.

How happy are you overwhelmed with grief:  Comfort is yours.

How happy are you gentle:  The earth itself belongs to you.

How happy are you when you are starving:  God will surely fill your bellies.

How happy are you when dying of thirst: God will surely quench your need.

How happy are you when you weep:  God will surely make you laugh.

How happy are you when you show compassion: 

Others will surely show you compassion.

How happy are you when your heart is one:  You can see God at work.

How happy are you when you build peace:  God’s children you are indeed.

How happy are you when people treat you badly when you seek justice:  God’s prophets have always been treated that way.

(My paraphrase translation of the sayings

behind Luke 6:20-26 and Matthew 5.3-12.)

The spirituality of the beatitudes is counter-intuitive:  happiness, joy, and congratulation are found in the very conditions we normally think of as curses and torments.  It is our faith—simpleness (“purity”) of heart, our throwing away of preconceptions and expectations—that allows us to see God at work in the world about us, even when we are in what seems dire straits.   This is what Jesus means when he says “Rejoice! God’s Reign is right here!  Change the way you think totally!” (Mark 1:14-15), and when he says, “If you try to save your life, you’ll lose it.  But if you are willing to lose it, then you will gain it indeed!”  (Matt 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25). 

Zen Master Mumon expressed this same counter-intuitive truth thus: “The flower blossoms in spring; the bright moon in autumn; the cool breeze in summer; the white snow in winter—When the mind is not obstructed by anything, every season is a good season.” 

Opening our hearts to God, casting out our insistence on having things what appears to be our way—this is the faith that allows us to begin to see the beauty before us in all that God has made.   When Jesus teaches us to pray to God for the things we think we need, and trust that God will give us what we do need, he is not advocating some kind of magic recipe for convincing the Great Sky Deity to do our will.   He is saying that we need to be honest and intentional in our desires, willing to place them before God even as we hand our will and our lives over to God.  “Thy will, not mine” is the operative phrase.  Trust in God’s goodness and reliability even as we throw away expectations that God must conform to our desires is what finding “purity of heart” is all about. 

Grace and Peace,    Fr. Tony+