Transcript

For years in studying the gospels, I would come across certain passages that are often known as the hard sayings of Jesus.

He would say something that just didn't seem to make sense or was counterintuitive, at the least, that seemed to be contrary to natural ways of thinking.

Some people would even dismiss them as nonsense.

And I knew that Jesus was the son of God and he knew what he was talking about, so there must be something there deeper, richer, more nuanced than I understood, but I wasn't sure how to find it out.

And you occasionally come across, I would, a good Bible teacher who might help.

But it was in studying these, in particular, that I came to discover what the Catholic Church calls the Fathers of the Church.

Those teachers of the church, who in the early centuries lived the life of Christ, taught the life of Christ, thought deeply with powerful wisdom and, and love for God on the passages of scripture and were able to interpret them in ways that amazed me.

And with the Beatitudes, that was wh- the case with a couple of the Beatitudes.

I think right away of, Blessed are the poor.

Matthew says, Poor in spirit, Luke says, Blessed are the poor.

How is it that the poor could be blessed?

But reading the Church Fathers came to un- helped me to understand that to be poor in spirit or even just to be poor means, in particular, to be detached from things.

The whole notion of detachment was new to me.

I'd never heard of it before until I began reading Catholic authors.

But the notion that things can't possess us if we possess them, that we have to have detachment.

We have to let go.

We can't grasp them.

That that changes my whole attitude toward things, toward stuff.

And the Church Fathers had seen that centuries ago.

Blessed are the poor, because those are the ones who are detached from things.

And for us to be poor and poor in spirit means that we never really own the things.

They all belong to God.

We're only stewards.

Blessed are those who mourn was another one.

Until I heard one of the Church Fathers say, Blessed are those who mourn for their sins, who truly repent of their sins, who see the sorrow of having sinned.

And once I read that, it was liberating.

That's the kind of mourning that I can embrace.

My favorite Beatitude is, Blessed are the merciful, as your father is merciful.

And this fits beautifully with my, uh, devotion to divine mercy.

It encourages you to, um, to be merciful to the poor, to be merciful to your family, to, to anyone who, um, misuses you.

And the way I am reinforced by that is by the Divine Mercy, um, uh, Chaplet, by reading the, uh, Sister Faustina's, um, diary and of how she suffered, but also was always kind and merciful to those around her.

So, um, it's one Uh, it's difficult to live the Beatitudes, but you can hone in on them gradually as you reflect on your life.

My favorite Beatitude is, Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.

And that's for two reasons.

The first one, the first part, um, Blessed are the pure of heart.

As a mother with young children who's had young children continuously in my home for 16 years now, I get to see, I have the privilege of seeing what it is to be pure of heart on a daily basis.

Um, that's why Jesus tells us, You must be like these little ones if you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

And the second part of the Beatitude is, For they shall see God.

That's the good news.

That's what, um, that's what this life is about.

Attaining the ultimate beatific vision and being in heaven with God forever.