“In 800 feet, turn toward Heaven.”
God’s roadmap for the Christian journey
The Sacred Scriptures have a clever way of rhyming sometimes. If we recall, Moses climbs up the mountain to retrieve God’s law for us, and he returns with the Commandments. Jesus climbs up the mountain to teach us the law, and He gives us the Beatitudes. The Ten Commandments are God’s way of keeping us from hurting ourselves and others. The Beatitudes are God’s way of teaching us to love ourselves and others. But even more fundamentally, these eight little morsels not only give us a kind of “roadmap” for holiness, but a self-portrait of Jesus Himself. The Beatitudes build upon each other, making the Christian life easy and joyful. They begin with the poor in spirit – spiritual poverty.
Simply put, this means gratitude. It means lovingly recognizing that everything in your life is a gift from God. It means living what Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians: “What have you that you did not receive?” And even more importantly, it means humility. The first sin was, at its core, an act of pride, the decision to say, “I know better than God.” So Jesus gives us the first step toward holiness: to say, “God knows better than I.” And the reward for this humility? The kingdom of heaven is yours! What more could you want? Begin with humble, spiritual poverty, and everything you do can be an act of love for God. From that spiritual poverty, we begin to recognize just how far and how often we may stray from God, and we learn to mourn those moments of our ingratitude. In mourning, we learn to repent and receive His comfort and compassion. We learn meekness and patience, both with ourselves and with others. We feel the call to strive for the righteous and virtuous life, and we start to hunger for it. Learning just how challenging that walk can be, we begin to have mercy and compassion for those around us, inviting and encouraging them to strive as well.
This leads to the purity of heart that we are called to, to do all things for God and for God alone. That purity shines forth from us as a presence of peace for others. And all this, which is so countercultural in our day, means that we will be rejected and even persecuted by the world. But even there: the kingdom of heaven is yours! So there’s a very quick sketch of your map of holiness. But what do the Beatitudes look like in practice, then? I would invite you to look up at the Cross. See Our Lord, who is poor, afflicted, meek, hungry, thirsty, merciful, pure of heart, peaceful, and persecuted. Above all, see love incarnate, who looks back at you, inviting you and loving you.
-Br. Andrew
