Jesus “lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: Blessed are you”!
He formally and publicly declared his disciples blessed, that is, righteous before God – over against the self-appointed judges of righteousness, usually represented in the Gospel by the Scribes and the Pharisees. And probably in their presence, as “a great multitude of people” surrounded them, we are told. Jesus declared “blessed” the very disciples who, just a few weeks before, “on a Sabbath, while he was going through the cornfields, plucked and ate some ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands”, because they were hungry. Something apparently unlawful. – They are with me and “the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”, said Jesus in their defence. These same disciples sat with him at table with tax collectors and sinners. – They are with me and “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance”, He said. They also did not seem to follow any set regime of fasting and prayer, by the looks of it. – They are with me and “can you make wedding guests fast when the bridegroom is with them?” As for prayer, it doesn't even get a mention, because Jesus would have to say something like: well, they talk to me, that is prayer.
So the disciples' observance of the Law was seemingly quite bad, their asceticism and piety unimpressive, and they mixed freely with unclean people. What made them blessed then? “Blessed are you who are poor, who are hungry now, who weep now”, Jesus declared instead. What a strange answer! Poverty, hunger and grief do not make people righteous before God, do they? That's not the answer then, but simply a description of the state in which the disciples find themselves. Poor, because they've left everything to follow Jesus. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He grew up in Nazareth, but his own people rejected him – “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his home town.” So Jesus doesn't have a home town any more. His disciples have to roam the countryside with Him. Being dependent on other people's charity, sometimes they go hungry. While at it, they also weep for their sins, because, like Peter, they feel unworthy to be in His presence: “depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” And yet He calls them, to repentance, “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
So what made them blessed? “Blessed are you” when these things happen to you “on account of the Son of Man”. That's the key. And yet there is still more to it. There is, first of all, an Old Testament depth to these terms. Over the centuries Israel had come to appreciate poverty, because the poor know that they are dependent on God and are therefore more likely to stay faithful. The rich become proud, they turn away from God to the various idols of this world. It's better to be poor then. Hunger for justice and groaning over the spiritual state of the world was characteristic of the prophets, and of the minority which remained true in times of apostasy and collapse of morals. But ultimately the description derives its significance from the fact that Jesus himself was poor, hungry and stricken with grief, of course. His disciples are blessed not just because they are with Him therefore, and in spite of all the hardship, but precisely because they were given to experience what He Himself experienced, to partake of His hardship. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. Our Lord's homelessness, exclusion and material poverty are but signs of something greater. As St Paul famously put it: “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself”. He made Himself hungry for our righteousness before God and thirsty for our love. On the Cross, “to fulfil the Scripture”, he said “I thirst”.
“God cannot suffer, but He can suffer with”, wrote St Bernard of Clairvaux. Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us, God who came down from heaven to suffer with us, and to die our death for us. It's a great privilege to suffer with Him, because then the relationship becomes mutual, we belong to Him and He belongs to us. “Blessed are you when people hate you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy!” Paradoxically it's a good sign when exclusion and oppression come, because it means that the world feels judged, accused and rejected by what we say and do. We are following Jesus, not rejecting the world, and He Himself loved the world, but the reaction is inevitable. What happened to Him must also happen to us. As St Peter wrote: “Beloved, rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” Pope Benedict XVI summarized it all in one sentence: “The Beatitudes are the transposition of Cross and Resurrection into discipleship”. Poverty, weeping over oneself, for our own sins, and over our fallen world, are mysteriously shot through with joy that cannot be explained. They are our Cross, yes, but through it the grace of Resurrection already pours into our lives. When we see that happen it's a sure sign that we truly belong to Him, that our consecration actually took effect, that we are getting it more or less right.
But that's just stage one, believe it or not – belonging to Jesus. It's the starting point, the launching pad. Through Our Lord we have access to the inner life of the Trinity, access to grace, to unconditional love. Real life only begins now, life that is fruitful, that is not wasted on pursuing fleeting things, life that brings heaven down to earth. Let's call that stage two. It's even more paradoxical than stage one. We will hear Jesus talking about it next Sunday: “I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, expecting nothing in return, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful”. Be God-like, in other words, that's what we are called to. God wants to act through us in this world. For that He is prepared to raise us to incredible spiritual heights, if only we let Him.
DSP