Some years ago New York magazine listed outstanding New Yorkers. Only one Catholic was mentioned, Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement. For fifty years, she practiced the Beatitudes daily in her House of Hospitality in New York City. She fed, clothed, and housed the poor. She practiced the Beatitudes so well that secular editors saluted her. She was our “tainted nature’s solitary boast.” Why weren’t there more Catholic New Yorkers on the list? After all, there are over a million Catholics in New York City.
Dorothy Day understood something about the beatitudes that many of us don’t. This wasn’t intended to be a “feel good” litany. Meant to challenge our basic values, the beatitudes sum up what our attitudes ought to be here and now if we want to be blessed by God. The Beatitudes are the owner’s manual Jesus gave to each of us at Baptism for living the Christian life. Blessed are they who, like Dorothy Day, realize what Jesus is promising his followers can be experienced in this lifetime, provided we abide by his teachings.
The beatitudes can be seen as many slices of one brilliant diamond. Jesus could have added or subtracted one of them and still the total message would be the same. He gave us the Beatitudes not to increase our knowledge but to change our lives. They express ideal conclusions for courageous behavior.
Undoubtedly, those who first heard Jesus speak these words were surprised. In biblical times, the good Jew attained holiness by diligently following 613 man made laws that elaborated the Ten Commandments. Ignoring any of them rendered you a sinner in the eyes of others. This sort of high expectation put holiness out of reach for the ordinary Jew. Jesus turned things around, asserting that simply following laws is not enough to please God. He expressed the beatitudes not as commands, but as pathways to holiness that anyone could travel.
Jesus wasn’t the first to enunciate these principles. Cicero, who died in 43 BC, penned, “There is nothing that makes a man more like God than mercy.” The root meaning of mercy is to give compassionate care to others, even when they have done nothing to deserve it.
The spinal cord of the Beatitudes is love; our love of God as well as belief in His love for us. But the Beatitudes, as Dorothy Day so ably demonstrated, also include love of neighbor. Important too is love of one’s self. It is difficult and perhaps impossible to love others if we dislike ourselves.
With the Beatitudes, the modus operandi for being a Christian evolved to a new level. We are being asked to help others even though they may not deserve it. We are being invited to be generous with money even though we have mortgage payments and bills to pay. I believe it was Arthur Ashe, the tennis star, who once said, “From what we get, we make a living. From what we give we make a life.”
Why was Dorothy Day a modern day saint? She was cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful, patient when difficult to be patient, pushed on when she wanted to stand still, kept silent when she wanted to talk, and stayed agreeable when she wanted to be disagreeable.
The requisite for sainthood was quite simple and always will be.
Saints are those who see and act on what they see. They see with the eyes of Christ. They see what is important, what matters, what takes priority and hints at the divine. They grasp the message of the Beatitudes and live by them accordingly.
Jesus began by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The remaining eight Beatitudes are really echoes of this primary one. Those who “mourn” are those who dare to become vulnerable through loving…and thereby find the secret of happiness. The “meek” renounce power and violence as a means of acquiring happiness…and thus are candidates for true happiness. Those who “hunger for justice” have a passion for the reforms that will enable everyone to live and dream. Those who are “merciful” renounce anger and vengeance as they offer forgiveness. The “clean of heart” are the sincere and truthful ones who reject all that is mere sham and pretense in life.
The “peacemakers” promote forgiveness and reconciliation as the only sure way to peace. And those who are “persecuted” are those who persevere as did Dorothy Day in the pursuit of these ideals in spite of ridicule from others who seem to be the wise and prudent ones. Thus, the Beatitudes represent a program for true holiness and happiness through the wisdom of the gospel rather than through the misguided wisdom of purely secular philosophy.
If you need courage to practice the Beatitudes, consider this advice from US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: “We are fools for Christ’s sake…We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world. Jesus is greater than our greatest problem.”
To paraphrase the British author, GK Chesterton, one cannot argue that the Beatitudes have been tried and found wanting. Rather, they have been found hard and not tried. Try them and see for yourself that they indeed will make a difference in your life and your relationship with God.