The Beatitudes

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the Beatitudes to His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Beatitudes, Christ presents a sublime synthesis of the New Covenant. The Beatitudes perfect and, in a sense, transcend (but do not abrogate) the Decalogue. For the Beatitudes describe the life of the Spirit of Love active in the soul of the true Christian.

In St. Matthew’s account (Matt. 5:1-12), each beatitude contains a meritorious act and a promised reward. And Christ imparts a blessing with each beatitude: supernatural happiness here as a foretaste of eternal life and in heaven the Beatific vision for all eternity. St. Luke reports four blessings to those who live the Beatitudes and four warnings to those who live the anti-beatitudes (Lk. 6:17-26).

The Beatitudes flow from the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; but they are more closely aligned to the gifts because at their summit they represent the Holy Spirit working in and through the soul. 

Living the Beatitudes is far beyond our nature’s limited powers, but by the grace of God we can live the supernatural life Christ calls us to live as expressed and embodied in the Beatitudes. Indeed, the Beatitudes have the power to transform society, constituting a prescription for a Christian Civilization of Love.

Our Lady, Immaculate spouse of the Holy Spirit, more than any other human person lived the Beatitudes. May she intercede for us, who are in so much need of her maternal intercession.