Dear Parish Family, this weekend’s Gospel is about the
Beatitudes. I found this article online and feel it is a good way
of explaining what the Beatitudes mean for us and how we
can apply them to our lives. Have a blessed rest of your
week and let us strive to always live the Beatitudes…
My love and prayers always, ~~Fr. Steve

Called to Beatitude

Perhaps you have never thought about what your goal
in life is. Lots of people don’t give it much thought. We just
go with the flow, doing whatever our family and friends
are doing. Advertising and social media often guide what

we want and how we act.

And then one day, something happens that makes us wake up
and ask: “What am I doing with my life? What is going to
bring me true happiness?” Hopefully, we ask these questions
sooner than later! Un-fortunately, for some people, this
doesn’t happen until they’ve experienced a great loss or
have gone into a deep depression. God doesn’t wish this for
us, of course. He’d much rather we seriously listen to the
truths He has revealed when we are young. An important
revealed truth is that the Beatitudes can help us find our pur-
pose in life and become the people God wants us to be. In
calling us to place our faith in Him, Christ calls us to an en-
tirely new vision of life. This vision is expressed in the Beati-
tudes. You will find these in Matthew 5:3–12 and Luke 6:20–
26. If you haven’t read them in a while, look them up and
read them again. They present a vision of life that is radically
different from the vision of life held by many people, both in
Jesus’ time and in our time. Just consider the meaning of the
first beatitude in Matthew: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Be-ing poor
in spirit is the opposite of being self-centered or egotistical. It
means putting other people’s needs before our own. It
means trusting in God, not that this is a painting from the
Church of the Transfiguration on the top of Mount Tabor in
Israel. The tablet that Moses is holding and the light around
his forehead symbolize the divine truth provided by God’s
Law just in ourselves, for what we need. And living this way
comes with a promise, that we shall be citizens of the King-
dom of Heaven, both in this life and for all eternity with God
in Heaven. The other seven beatitudes are just as radical in
their implications. They illustrate the paradoxes of God’s wis-
dom. It is only in looking to other people’s needs that our
deepest needs will be met. It is only in letting ourselves feel
grief that we shall know God’s comfort. It is only in being per-
secuted for doing what is right that we shall be worthy of
Heaven. As we begin to understand the meaning of each
beatitude, we start to see the incredible life that Christ calls
us to as His disciples. That life we might call a life of Beati-
tude. Which of the Beatitudes makes you feel most like you
have found your purpose in life? The Beatitudes teach us our
vocation as Christians, the goal of our existence. We call this
goal by different names: coming into the Kingdom of God,
the beatific vision, entering into the joy of the Lord, being
adoptive children of God (also called divine filiation), or enter-
ing into God’s rest. By living the Be-atitudes, we begin to
experience on Earth the happiness that God has wanted
human beings to know from the beginning of creation. A life
of Beatitude puri-fies our hearts and prepares us for the eter-
nal happiness and joy that will come when we enter into per-
fect communion with the Holy Trinity in Heaven. Living the
Beatitudes is our vocation as Christians, the goal of our exist-
ence. It is a true blessedness or happiness that we experi-
ence partially here on Earth and eventually perfectly in Heav-
en.