Blessed

02-17-2019Weekly Reflection

When we think of the word “Beatitude” we think of today’s discourse from Luke’s Gospel or the more familiar one from Matthew (which begins “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . ”). Actually, beatitudes occur throughout the prophets and Gospels.

Today in Jeremiah (with an echo in the psalm) we hear, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:7). Following his resurrection in John’s Gospel, Christ proclaims, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29). The evangelists placed these sayings throughout the Gospels as short reminders about the characteristics that one will find in a follower of Christ, characteristics that will help spread the Good News in this life and lead to eternal blessings in the next. In Latin, the saints are called the Beati, the “Blessed,” for they are the ones who lived the “blessed” life as described by Jesus throughout the Gospels. How blest are we, when we also strive to make our own days a living beatitude!