MY VIEWS ON THE BEATITUDES

Today I listened to the hymn sung at the end of Mass and the words were as follows:

These sentences are found in the Gospel of Matthew (5: 3-11) and in the Gospel of Luke (6:20-26). They are the opening statements of Jesus in his famous moral teachings called the Sermon on the Mount. 

Although the name of the mount is not mentioned in the Bible, it is thought to be the Mount of Beatitudes, a hill in northern Israel, in the Korazim Plateau.

The Sermon on the Mount is considered to contain the central tenets of Christian discipleship. 

Various moral and religious thinkers like Tolstoy and Gandhi have admired the message of the Sermon and implemented them in their movements and enshrined them in their writings. 

In the 5th century, St. Augustine began his book Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount by stating:

If anyone will piously and soberly consider the sermon which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke on the mount, as we read it in the Gospel according to Matthew, I think that he will find in it, so far as regards the highest morals, a perfect standard of the Christian life.

The Beatitudes are eight (or nine?) Blessings said by Jesus in Matthew's Gospel but in Luke's, it is four blessings followed by four woes that mirror the blessings. Each is a proverb-like proclamation, without narrative. 

In the Latin Vulgate, each of these blessings begins with the word 'beati' which translates to 'happy', 'rich' or 'blessed'. The Latin noun beatitudo was coined by Cicero to describe a state of blessedness and was later incorporated within the chapter headings written for the gospel of Matthew in various printed versions of the Vulgate. Subsequently, the word was anglicized to beatytudes in the Great Bible of 1540 and has, over time, taken on the preferred spelling of beatitudes.

Now let's look at the structure of each beatitude. Each Beatitude consists of two phrases: the condition and the result. For example, the phrase 'Blessed are the poor in spirit...' can be translated as a condition: 'If you are poor in spirit....' with the result: 'the kingdom of heaven belongs to them (you)'.

In Luke's Gospel, the four woes mirror the four blessings. For instance, 'Happy are you poor..' is mirrored in 'Woe to you who are rich..'. 'Happy are you who are hungry... ' is mirrored in 'Woe to you who are full now...'

In Christian teachings, we also see how the beatitudes are made applicable practically in the Works of Mercy, which have both corporal and spiritual components. These teachings have been continued in devotions such as the Divine Mercy in the 20th century. 

While searching for information on Wikipedia to add to this article, I found this insert which you might find useful. Pope Francis proposed six modern beatitudes during his visit to Sweden in 2016  on All Saints Day. 

They read: 

Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others and forgive them from their heart. 

Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness. 

Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to make others also discover Him. 

Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home. 

Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.

Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians. 

HOW DO I RELATE PERSONALLY TO THE BEATITUDES?

The key words for me are:-

1. Poverty of spirit. 

2. Purity of heart.

3. Humility and Meekness. 

4. Peacemaker. 

5. Comforter of the afflicted .

6. Merciful and Just.

7. Thirst for Holiness. 

Striving to achieve perfection in these 

areas and helping others to do the same is what I think is a Christian's lifelong mission. All the saints 

practiced and perfected them and

 so should we. 

You might like to use this to make a examen of conscience based on the beatitudes

https://www.catholiccompany.com/magazine/short-examination-of-conscience-beatitudes-6236