Fr. Thomas introduces us to the antidote to our programs for happiness — the Beatitudes. He says, “The beatitudes are the quintessence of the teaching of Jesus. They represent his comprehensive approach to happiness.”
The Beatitudes
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
— Matthew 5:3-12
The Beatitudes simply mean: “Oh, how happy you would be, if ….” That’s what “beatitude” really means. In other words, Jesus is saying, so to speak, “You folks don’t know what true happiness is. What you think is happiness is misery. If you’d like to know what it is, let me tell you!” “Oh, how happy you would be, if you are poor in spirit, then you would have the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, true happiness is to forget about security, to be free of it, to put your trust in God. And, “Oh how happy are the poor who don’t have all these symbols, like millstones around their necks, that prevent them from experiencing the joy and the freedom of trusting in God to protect them, to provide for them, to nurture them. They have perfect happiness.”
The next one: “Blessed are those who mourn. They shall be comforted.” Now whenever we let go of something we love—good, bad, or indifferent—there’s a period of mourning. There’s a hole in our heart for a while. But if we accept that pain of loss, then it heals in such a way that we either enter into a new relationship with what we lost that is better than the one we had; or we learn how to live without something that was actually harmful, that was really a straitjacket, that was really phony happiness.
The third Beatitude, “Blessed are the meek;” that is, those who don’t want to have power over other people, who couldn’t care less if they are insulted or mistreated because they know that that’s not their problem. That’s the problem the other guy has who is treating them that way. The meek are those who can put up with insults and find happiness in the freedom from wanting to control or to have power over people.
The other Beatitudes correspond to the higher stages of consciousness, all the way up to divine union and the Beatitude of the peacemakers. The Beatitude of the merciful and the Beatitude of hungering and thirsting for justice is addressed to the Mental Egoic level of consciousness, to full personhood and its corresponding acceptance of our own personal response to Christ, to life, and to the needs of others.
The Gospel, then, is a message that challenges our programs for happiness head on and invites us to change them. If we hear that message and follow it, this is represented as wisdom. If we don’t, then we have to rely on the tragedies of life to turn us around and finally convince us, as we wind up on the bar room floor or some other place, that our program for happiness was not so hot after all. Why wait until you have to be clobbered by life before getting this message? It’s as obvious as the nose on your face that this can’t possibly work. Not only that—it is destroying our relationships with other people. It’s making us miserable and hindering the good that we could be doing other people, because as long as we’re wrapped up in obtaining the happiness that these emotional energy centers are seeking, you can’t even hear what other people are saying, because their melodrama has to be filtered by yours. And so, they tell you something …your emotions start reacting and pretty soon you’re more involved in their melodrama than they are, maybe; I don’t know how it goes. But anyway, we don’t hear the clear call for help that somebody has when we don’t have the freedom from our own emotional selfish programs. To live out of these centers is to opt out of God’s process of human development into higher states of faith, love and consciousness.
Material from Spirituality and Practice
Session 21: Oh, How Happy you will Be…
The Spiritual Journey Formation in the Contemplative Christian Life with Contemplative Outreach.
The Spiritual Journey Formation in the Contemplative Christian Life “The Human Condition: The Pre-Rational Energy Centers, Part 1” Excerpted from The Spiritual Journey Part 2, The Human Condition Fr. Thomas Keating