Barron Beatitude

 

I’ve just started Bishop Barron’s book Catholicism (2^nd ed).  His explanation on the Beatitudes on pages 36-45 was a great presentation which was, for me, a new way of seeing them.  I started trying to summarize his words but found myself only quoting most all of them.  So, I’ll just note a few key points.

Bishop Barron calls the first four Beatitudes as being the “more positive” ones.  In short, they note that God is love, and we should try to imitate Him.  In writing of the last four Beatitudes, the good Bishop starts by quoting Thomas Aquinas, who “said the four typical substitutes for God are wealth, pleasure, power, and honor.  The last four then are statements about people who are able to overcome those “self” urges. 

Blessed in the poor in spirit describes those able to overcome the desire for wealth by a detachment to material things, not seeking to buy happiness here, now, on earth.  Blessed are those who mourn is a reference to those who can overcome good feelings or sensations, or other forms of real or imagined pleasures.  Blessed are the meek refers to those not focused on political or other powers (including pride and sexual powers), but rather live with a feeling of detachment.  And the last of the “negative” beatitudes is: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.  This one, as Barron gives a detailed explanation, refers to those not have a fixation on approval of others (being noticed, honored, endowed with titles).   

The Beatitudes, early in the Gospel of Matthew, are Jesus telling the people how they should be living good lives, seeking to become more like God and focused on eternal life, and not focused on ourselves and this earthly life.  It is a good way of looking at that lesson.  Early on in his public teaching, Jesus is saying to be focused on our eternal life, not the short time we live on earth.  He notes that in many ways this is against what may seem to be our nature.  But he calls those natural urges concupiscence or addiction, and with our free will we can defeat those urges, and create new “natural urges” to do good.