Sermon on the Eight Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. A wonderful beginning, brethren, of heavenly doctrine! It begins not with terror, but with blessedness; producing not terror, but rather desire. For, in the manner of an umpire or a giver of rewards, He sets before the contenders in this spiritual arena a great prize; so that while they look upon the prize, they may neither fear labors nor shrink in dread from perils. Blessed, then, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He did not simply, nor confusedly, say blessed are the poor, but added, poor in spirit. For not every poverty is blessed: because it often comes from necessity, sometimes from the worst habits, and sometimes even from divine indignation.

Blessed poverty, then, is the spiritual kind: namely, of those men who make themselves poor in spirit and will for God's sake, renouncing the goods of this world, freely giving away their substance: these He rightly calls blessed, because poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: for by voluntary poverty they obtain the riches of the heavenly kingdom. Then He says: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. Wonderfully, after the first step, the second is shown: Blessed, He says, are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. But just as it is impossible, without breaking the order, to stand on the second step unless you have ascended the first; so a man cannot be meek unless he has first become poor in spirit.

How, then, can a mind set among riches, among cares and worldly anxieties, from which business dealings, lawsuits, provocations, angers, exasperations arise without ceasing—how, I say, amid these things can the mind be meek and gentle, unless it has first, by renouncing them, cut off from itself all causes of wrath and occasions of strife? The sea does not become calm unless the winds cease; a fire is not put out unless you take away the fuel of the blaze and the brushwood of thorns: so neither will the mind be meek and quiet unless the things that arouse and inflame it have been renounced. Rightly, then, is step joined to step, because those who are poor in spirit already begin to be meek.

There comes also a third: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. What mourning are we to understand here as salutary? Certainly not that which arises from loss of goods, not that which comes from the loss of loved ones, nor that which comes from the loss of worldly honors: for all these things, one already made poor in spirit will not grieve over. This is the salutary mourning, which is done for sins, for the remembrance of the divine judgment. For because the mind, previously set amid countless worldly occupations and hardships, could not think about itself; now, having been made secure and meek, it begins to look upon itself more closely, to examine its acts by day and by night: and thus the wounds of past sins begin to appear, and then mourning and tears, salutary ones, follow, and so wholesome that soon heavenly consolation comes to meet them: for true is He who said: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Let us come, brethren, to the fourth. Blessed, He says, are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled. Truly, after repentance, after mourning and tears for sins, what other hunger and thirst is born, but that for justice? For just as one who has passed through the darkness of night now longs for the approaching light; and one who has purged bitter bile desires food and drink: so also the mind of the Christian man, after it has purged its sins through mourning and tears, now hungers and thirsts for the justice of God alone: and rightly, it shall rejoice in the fullness of that which it desires.

Let the fifth step also come forward: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. No one will be able to show mercy to another, unless he has first shown it to himself. After, therefore, he has obtained for himself mercy, and the fullness of justice, he begins now to grieve over the wretched, begins now to entreat on behalf of other sinners: having become merciful even toward his very enemies, he will by such piety prepare for himself a greater accumulation of mercy at the coming of the Lord: therefore it is said: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Behold, the sixth step is present: Blessed, He says, are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Clearly, they are already pure in heart, clearly they will already be able to see God, who, being poor in spirit, being meek, having lamented their sins, having been refreshed by justice, being merciful, carry an eye of the heart so sincere and clear even toward their adversaries, that without any dimness of malice they behold, without hindrance, the inaccessible brightness of God. For purity of heart and cleanness of conscience will allow no cloud to obstruct the beholding of the Lord.

There follows, brethren: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Great is the dignity of those who pursue peace, since they are reckoned worthy of the title of children of God. Good indeed is also that peacemaking which occurs between brothers who contend over worldly substance, or over vainglory, or over rivalries: but this reward is small; for the Lord had said, giving us an example: Who made me a judge or a divider over you? For He had already said before: ask not again the things that have been taken from you. And in another place: How can you believe, who receive glory one from another? A better and more sublime peacemaking, then, must be understood by us; I mean that by which men of the nations, who are enemies of God, are brought to peace through the persistence of teaching; by which sinners are corrected, and reconciled to God through repentance; by which rebellious heretics are set right; by which discordant churches are shaped into unity and peace.

Truly, indeed, those who are such peacemakers are not only blessed, but are worthily called children of God: for imitating the very Son of God, Christ, who is our peace and was proclaimed by the Apostle as reconciliation, they obtain fellowship in His name.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. There is no doubt, brethren, that a good deed is always accompanied by envy. For, setting aside the cruelty of persecutors, once you have begun to hold fast to strict justice, to strike back at insolence, to call the unbelieving to the peace of the Lord; once you have begun, in short, to differ from worldly and erring men, persecutions arise at once: hatreds must needs rise up, jealousy must tear at you. Thus, finally, to that highest step, to the very head and summit, Christ leads His hearers, not only that they may endure by suffering, but even that they may rejoice together by dying.

Blessed, He says, are you when men shall persecute you, and reproach you, and speak all manner of evil against you, for justice' sake, lying: Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is very great in heaven: for so did they persecute the prophets that were before you. It is a perfect virtue, brethren, after all the ministrations of justice, to bear reproaches from men for the sake of truth, to be afflicted with torments, and finally to be struck down by death, and not to be terrified, with the example of the Prophets set before us, who, torn in various ways for justice's sake, deserved to be conformed to the sufferings of Christ and to share in the reward. This is the loftier step, in which Paul, gazing upon Christ, used to say: But one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the supernal calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And still more openly to Timothy he says: I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course. As one who had ascended all the steps, he added: I have kept the faith: as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice. Truly, indeed, with the whole course completed, this remained: that Paul, rejoicing through tribulations and sufferings, might attain to the more sublime step of martyrdom. Rightly, therefore, does the Lord persuade His servants: Rejoice, He says, and be glad, for your reward is very great in heaven; and He plainly shows that it grows through the increase of persecutions. There have been shown, brethren, eight Evangelical steps, built, as I said, of precious stones. There has been shown that ladder of Jacob, whose top, reaching from earth, touched heaven, by which whoever ascends finds the gate of heaven, and having entered through it, will stand joyfully without end in the sight of the Lord, to praise the Lord with the holy angels forever.

This is our market, this our spiritual trade-fair. Let us give, ye blessed, what we have; let us offer poverty of spirit, that we may receive, according to the promise, the abundance of the heavenly kingdom; let us offer meekness, that we may possess the earth and paradise: let us weep over sins, both our own and those of others, that we may deserve consolation from the goodness of the Lord: let us hunger and thirst after justice, that we may be more abundantly filled: let us give mercy, that we may obtain true mercy: let us live as peacemakers, that we may be called children of God: let us offer a pure heart and a chaste body, that with clear sense we may be able to see God: let us have no fear at all of persecutions for justice' sake, that we may be made heirs of the heavenly Kingdom: reproaches, torments, and finally death, if it should come to pass, let us embrace rejoicing and glad for the sake of God's truth, that abundant reward may be granted to us with the Prophets and Apostles in heaven.

But that the end of my words may agree with the beginning: if merchants have joy over present and fleeting gains, let us all the more rejoice together and be glad, because today we have found such pearls of the Lord, to which no goods of this world can be compared. That we may deserve to acquire, obtain, and possess them, help and grace together with virtue must be sought by us from the Lord Himself, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.