Franciscan priest Richard Rohr is a very popular Catholic spiritual writer. He has run the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM since the 1980s. In his book Falling Upwards: A Spirituality Through the Two Halves of Life, he wrote the following: “I have always wondered why people never want to put a stone monument of the Eight Beatitudes on the courthouse lawn,” like they do for the Ten Commandments. As Christians, we know the ten commandments very well and they are relatively easy to understand, such as honoring our father and mother and not stealing. But, perhaps we do not give the same honor to the Beatitudes because they are not as straight forward and not as understandable. The Beatitudes are blessings that Jesus proclaims, but how can it be a blessing to be hungry, to be poor, to weep, and to be hated by others? Many of those things seem to go against things that we see as blessings.
However, we need to appreciate the Beatitudes, because they help us look at our life of discipleship in a way that is different from our secular world. For example, the first Beatitude tells us: blessed are the poor. In a secular world that values material possessions, where material wealth can be used as an idol, the Beatitudes challenge that assumption. In the spirit of Blessed are the poor, we might ask ourselves if we are humble enough not to value ourselves by our material possessions, to depend solely upon God and not our material things. In the midst our material wealth and all the technology and knowledge we have, can we admit that we do not have all the answers and that God is greater than us? In a world where our material wealth often gives us the arrogance and pride to think that we are never wrong and that the other person is always to blame, can we admit our mistakes and take responsibility rather than trying to blame someone or something else?
Think of these situations described in the Beatitudes: when we are poor, when we weep, when we are hungry, when others hate us or exclude us or insult us. Those situations describe times when we are thrown out our comfort zone, when we are pushed or stretched. Often, those situations are difficult or challenging, but they are often the times of great growth and enrichment. The Beatitudes challenge those things that we assume to be the foundation of our culture and our values. And it is good for us to be challenged sometimes, to reflect upon what we believe and what we stand for in a critical way, and to challenge our comfort and our complacency. Perhaps we don’t quite know what to make of the Beatitudes, even though we are familiar with them from Sacred Scripture. Perhaps the wise elders that we have in society are the ones who exemplify the Beatitudes to us. They are not the rich reality stars or sport stars that we see on TV. Those who exemplify the Beatitudes are not the ones who bring attention and accolades to themselves, who think that they speak for others and who think they have it all figured out. The Beatitudes describe the humble, unassuming individuals who quietly go about living the values of the faith in their lives.
On March 12, 1622, five Spanish men and women were canonized saints by Pope Gregory XV. The first four announced as saints that day are very famous figures in the Church who were acclaimed and honored during their own lifetimes: St Ignatius of Loyola, St Teresa of Avila, St Francis Xavier, and St Phillip Neri. Everyone wondered who the fifth saint would be. Finally, the fifth saint was named as Isidore. Many people thought: the only Isidore we know is Isidore, the Bishop of Seville, Spain who was a great theologian and scholar from the 7th century. But, Isidore of Seville had been honored as a saint many many centuries earlier. Yes, this is a different Isidore, a poor farmer from Madrid who was born in the 11th century, someone who was unknown to just about everyone outside his community. As a youth, Isidore’s parents were so poor that they were unable to provide for him financially, so he was sent as a youth to a rich landowner near Madrid, Spain to work as a laborer. Isidore lived a very humble, holy life as a farm laborer, praying constantly and going to daily mass. He loved the poor and loved animals. In the spirit of Jesus’ miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, Isidore worked a miracle of the multiplication of food when he fed an entire flock of starving birds with a small portion of food. On another occasion, Isidore shared his small ration food with a large group of beggars, with the food being enough to satisfy all their hunger. Isidore’s everyday holiness included him in this group of famous saints who were canonized on the same day in 1622. In his simplicity of spirit, Isidore the Farmer exemplifies the spirit of the Beatitudes. He holiness speaks to us as strongly as those other famous saints.
Yes, the Beatitudes are challenging indeed. They are certainly not easy for us to understand. But the Beatitudes challenge us in a good way. They challenge us to live the values of the Kingdom of God.
