Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
The Beatitudes conveyed something like the opposite of the wisdom of this world. It was not obvious how being poor in spirit was going to gain anyone a kingdom. Earthly kingdoms usually went to the proud and the strong. Many Jews were expecting a Messiah who was both proud and strong to establish such a kingdom for them. Jesus, however, did not need to contend with the world on its terms. The Kingdom would belong to those whose spirits were small enough to enter it, not to those who were strong enough to conquer it.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
We might expect that it would be better to not mourn and so not need comfort. But in his wisdom Jesus made it possible that those who mourned could find a comfort so great that they would not begrudge the fact of their initial suffering. While the world could only look upon difficulty and hardship as evils, the Christian could enter into mourning together with Christ, and so experience his comfort in a way that made the trial worthwhile.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion and the God of all encouragement,
who encourages us in our every affliction,
so that we may be able to encourage
those who are in any affliction
with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.
The Beatitudes are the pathway to becoming Christlike, to entering into his Paschal mystery, to having in ourselves the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus, who emptied himself and took the form of a servant (see Philippians 2:5-7). Jesus himself was poor in Spirit and he mourned. But in doing so he perfectly demonstrated the way to rely on God for true riches of Spirit and true joy. He gave an example of meekness by not unleashing his strength or his army of angels when to us it might have seemed like an easy choice (see Matthew 26:53). His meekness was perfectly displayed by the the fact that he did remain on the cross, even when taunted (see Mark 15:30), although he clearly was strong enough to avoid or escape it.
For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us,
so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.
If we are afflicted,
it is for your encouragement and salvation;
The Beatitudes are more than guidelines, and the Paschal mystery is more than an example. The Beatitudes are descriptions of how Christ's life, his suffering, and his glory are meant be made present in our own lives, not as though we were simply repeating a formula, but rather as a people joined to Jesus himself who is living his very life within us.
Our hope for you is firm,
for we know that as you share in the sufferings,
you also share in the encouragement.
Their is something corrective about the Beatitudes, something which the reality of sin in the world makes necessary. We are prideful and so we must become poor. But there is a deeper reality even to poverty of Spirit that defines Jesus himself. For if there was not, he would not have humbled himself to come to us. There is a reality to the value of mourning, or he would not have been moved to shed tears for us, for Jerusalem, for Lazarus, for all peoples. And the same is true of the other Beatitudes. They are first of all the attitudes of Jesus himself. It is because he desires to live within us that he gives us these guidelines, these blueprints to his own heart.
Paul understood the reality of the Beatitudes at a deep level. This was why he could find encouragement in affliction or in joy. He could be abased or he could could abound. No matter what happened to him, he knew that God could work through it to do great things beyond imagining, to overflow for the salvation of the world.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
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