Gospel Commentary: Beautiful Instructions

By Fr. Jack Riley
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His miracles and teachings had begun to attract the attention of the rich and the poor, fishermen and financiers, the arrogant authorities and the simple farmers and shepherds of the land. Crowds followed Him around and about the rugged terrain of Galilee, from the rugged central range to the shores of a harp-shaped sea. By mid-summer, perhaps early autumn of the year 28 A.D., Jesus is ready to take a bold step forward in His mission.

More than 1,000 years before Christ, Moses had ascended the mysterious thundering heights of Mount Sinai enveloped by darkness and fire and received the Ten Commandments carved by the fiery finger of God on dead tablets of stone as the Hebrews cowered in terror in shadows below, conceiving a darker genuflection before a gleaming golden calf. Now, on a gently rolling mountainside, the air clear, and the sea of Galilee sparkling like a jewel in the distance, Christ ascends the heights and sits in full view of the gathered crowds — the posture of a teacher in Jesus’ day. As the "new Moses," Christ, the Word of God "opens His mouth" to teach the New Law — speaking to the minds and hearts of men ... as a man Himself.

"How blest are the poor in spirit: the reign of God is theirs." In the Latin, "blessed" is "beati," hence the "beatitudes." As Jesus proclaims the eight beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew, He declares God’s recognition of the dignity of the poor, the sorrowing and the lowly, the hungry and the merciful, the peacemakers and the persecuted. He turns upside down the prevailing contemporary notions that those who are good are rewarded in this life, and reveals to the crowds the great truth that the Kingdom of God is a reality which only begins in this life — its true fulfillment is in heaven. In the next life we will behold the "Beatific Vision" — our direct participation in the sight, the light and the love of God in heaven. Jesus points out to the crowds that the sufferings, trials and tribulations of this life can actually serve as a means to attain our true destiny, our ultimate end — eternal life and love with God.

The eight beatitudes are the "spearhead" of Jesus’ great moral discourse in the Gospel of Matthew, which extends through Chapters 5, 6 and 7. Here we find some of the most difficult and challenging and beautiful instructions and commands on how the human person is to attain his happiness and fulfillment. The Old Law handed to Moses on Mount Sinai was merely a preparation and a foundation for this New Law, which challenges man to live, and act and love in a divine way... in imitation of God Himself. Jesus, the visible manifestation of divinity — God made man — came among us not merely to instruct us, but to exemplify in His own actions, His own life and His own sufferings what He commands us to do. Poor, sorrowful, lowly and persecuted, Jesus, the "suffering servant’ continued to live out concretely in His early life the very beatitudes He preached on that mountain as an ideal, until on another mountain He died, nailed to a cross.

Today these beatitudes challenge us across the centuries. Why not take 15 minutes and open the Bible to Matthew, Chapter 5. Read the beatitudes, together with the rest of Christ’s moral discourse through Chapters 6 and 7. Where do you find you are succeeding? Where in your life is there room for improvement? If you find you are falling short, don’t be afraid. These teachings of the New Law may seem impossible, but with God’s grace and Christ’s example, all things are possible.

Fr. Riley is associate pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Warrenton.

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