I read somewhere recently (and I’m paraphrasing here), that “almost all of theology is spent trying to get around the Beatitudes.” The idea being that the whole of our faith can be summed up in Jesus’ simple to understand—yet immensely difficult to follow—preachings in the Sermon on the Mount, but that almost all of our theological efforts are spent trying to drum up “higher” or more complex ways of loving and worshipping God. There is a lot to here, but I’m going to do my level best to unpack it in a brief and concise manner.
I’ll start with what I think this phrase doesn’t mean. I don’t think it means that theology—most simply, the study of God and religious belief and practice—as an intellectual exercise is a wholly unnecessary or futile endeavor. We know that studiousness is indeed a virtue, which imposes upon us an obligation to learn about and defend our faith. We also know that the more we come to know about God and the more we come to reverence Him in liturgical practices, the more we come (or should come) to love Him. Most often, the way that we grow in our love for God and neighbor is by studying (whether in a formal or informal manner) about him and partaking in right worship of Him. So to say that much of theology attempts to skirt the Beatitudes is not an excuse to forego theology altogether.
What I think this phrase really gets at is our tendency to pursue the theoretical over the practical, the exciting over the seemingly mundane, the complex over the simple. This leads us to “study” God more than we actively love Him (most often by loving the person in front of us). In other words, we grow to prefer the comfort of learning about God and thinking about how God wants us to live over the more messy (read: more difficult) and active state of loving God, loving our neighbor, and living according to his will. It is very easy to get enter a passive cycle of learning and discernment, but it is a much more difficult task to actually do what God wills for our lives. And what he wills for followers of Christ is simple: live, and thus be transformed by, the Beatitudes, which mandate an active, not passive, love.
The Beatitudes are indeed critically important. They are not merely a lofty set of ideals; they are the vocation of every professed Christian. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states definitively that the “Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ preaching” and that they “express the vocation of faithful” (CCC 1716-1717). The Beatitudes are a set of principles and characteristics that “shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life.” (CCC 1717). They call Christ’s disciples to be transformed from their old ways of seeing and doing into the life of Christ himself.
Although I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Beatitudes, I’ve copied them below along with my own spin:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who recognize their own sinfulness and their own spiritual poverty and who know that all grace comes from outside themselves—from God.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they who love until it hurts, who bear sufferings with courage, and who are saddened by the many souls wandering in darkness.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who are humble and gentle, for they will be exalted.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are they who seek virtue and avoid vice, for only the holy can come before God.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are they who forgive as they have been forgiven. For God has forgiven all a debt that we could never repay.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are they who seek nothing but God, for in choosing God in this life, they will surely receive Him fully in the life to come.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they who put their sword in its place, for those who take up the sword will surely perish by the sword.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are innocent yet maligned, for they share most fully in the suffering of our Lord.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Blessed are they who courageously endure suffering, for those who lose their life will save it.
Matthew 5:3-12.
Simply put, when we live according to the Beatitudes, we start to look, live, and love more like Jesus; this is the Father’s will for our lives. Not only that, but we begin to grasp the blessings and rewards that await us in eternity, if ever so dimly, as we become blessed ourselves. By living out our vocation to the Beatitudes, we become “partakers in the divine nature and of eternal life” (CCC 1721). “With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life.” (CCC 1721).
In the end, my brothers and sisters, we are confronted with the choice to look, live, and love like Jesus or to remain captives to our lower ways of thinking and doing: “The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love.” (CCC 1723).
What will we choose, God or mammon?
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The relationship to God changes the framework that you're setting up, here, Ben. Thought about this before responding. The theology, the study, and the active life of the Beatitudes follow the relationship, most of the time. That is, we can do those activity and contemplative things first, but eventually we need an in-the-moment, right now conversation with God within the study, acivity, and pondering.
It's my experience that many of us fall off the practice wagon if we don't fall in love, as you say, but in the next phase of love. Figuring out who God blows our minds. We rely upon a puppy love kind of thing that happens in retreats, but that passes quickly. We can just keep doing things that get that falling in love thing to happen. We need an actual love relationship that has us cooperating with God as brother, father, and Spirit.
It's the most difficult thing to explain, but experienciing the presence of God in both a personal and community way is the "thing." I'm not just talking about feelings, but an actual intervening, conversational, and even argumentative relationship.
Not criticising, here, just chatting about what I think you're reaching for.
I like your topics.