Poverty, mourning, hunger, and thirst, persecution and insult are hard things. It is difficult to see beyond them. Even relatively positive traits like meekness, mercy, and purity don't jump out and make us want them in the way that comfort, time, and treasure do. Jesus asks us to look more deeply. When we are poor are spirit we experience freedom. If we mourn earthly loss we can be comforted with heavenly blessings. Meekness may result in the powerful insisting on their way for the moment. But the ultimate truth is that the land belongs to one who is stronger than the strong. We experience that all that is his is ours when we stop insisting on what is ours apart from him. Even hunger and thirst have value. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness more than bread which does not satisfy and water which does not quench thirst for long we can know lasting satisfaction.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
The reward is perfectly experienced in heaven. But we taste it even now provided we don't get hung up on the apparent negative aspects of choosing to value heaven more than earth. We need to seek first the kingdom without worrying about all these other things besides.
The Father calls us his children. His love transforms us and makes us more like him. It is this love that helps us love things in proportion to their value. We love the things of heaven more than the things of earth because we love God most of all.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
We probably have no idea how amazing is the upward call given to each one of us. Our minds are so polluted with the earthly and the negative that we have a hard time seeing beyond the negative when we read the beatitudes. But the life that is to come, the life that we can taste even now, is worth so much more than any earthly good.
Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
In the saints we have examples of people who choose to live this life here and now. They are not the worse for it. The experience the deepest joy, the most complete peace, and the most perfect happiness. Let us ask them to intercede for us as we strive to imitate their reckless pursuit of God.
Such is the race that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
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