Khao Khát Lời Chúa

In Greek, the word for "blessed" is makarios. People once used that word for the happiness of the gods, a happiness that seemed untouched by suffering.

That word is also used for human beings. But listen to whom Jesus calls blessed: the poor, those who weep, those who are persecuted.

He calls them blessed even while their lives are still full of hardship.

Today is the Solemnity of All Saints, and the Gospel is the Eight Beatitudes. Jesus sat down on the mountain and began to speak: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who mourn.

Listen carefully, and something seems strange. Poverty, mourning, persecution: these are the very things we ask the Lord to spare us. Every night in prayer, we all ask for our families to have enough to eat, to be healthy, and to be at peace.

The saints once lived amid worries like these.

When we look at the statues of the saints in church, we usually see peaceful faces, eyes raised to heaven, halos shining bright. But statues only show them once they have arrived. Statues do not show the nights they lay weeping, or the times they had to clench their teeth not to say a bitter word.

Before they stood on altars, they too were people learning to love, just like us.

This time, try reading the Eight Beatitudes in a different way. Do not start with what we must do. Look at Jesus himself.

He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," and we remember the Son of God born in a manger, who all his life relied only on the Father.

He says, "Blessed are the meek," and we see him standing before his accusers without retaliating.

He says, "Blessed are those who mourn," and we remember his tears before the tomb of Lazarus, and the night he sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemane.

He says, "Blessed are the merciful," and we see him on the cross, asking the Father to forgive those who are crucifying him.

Read this way, the Eight Beatitudes are a portrait of Jesus. He walked this road first, and only then invited us to follow.

The first beatitude ends with the promise: "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

The eighth beatitude ends with exactly the same words.

Both speak in the present tense.

The six beatitudes in between point to the future: they will be comforted, they will be satisfied, they will see God.

Those two identical promises are like two sides of a frame, holding the Eight Beatitudes together.

The frame is ready. The painting is still being finished.

The saints are people who let that painting show clearly in their lives. Some are famous for mercy, some endured persecution and kept the faith. And countless others, known to no one, spent their lives quietly loving others, and now only their names remain on small tombstones in a cemetery.

That painting is also being painted in each of our lives. Some strokes are already becoming clear. A person who used to snap at their child now knows how to sit down and listen until the child has finished speaking. A person who has forgiven a sibling after years of not speaking to each other.

Other strokes are still very faint. We still flare up easily, and still like to come out on top.

An unfinished portrait is not a failed portrait. The Lord is still painting, even on days when we cannot see ourselves changing at all.

At the end of the Gospel, after saying "Blessed are they…" eight times, Jesus suddenly changes how he addresses them:

"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you because of me…"

From "they," the Lord turns to "you." As if he turned to the disciples sitting before him and said: "I am talking about you."

Today, through this Gospel page, he turns to each of us in the same way.

We may not have done anything great. But every time we make peace first even when we are not wrong, or sit and listen to someone who is sad without rushing to advise, one feature of Jesus becomes a little clearer.

Perhaps what others will remember about us one day is simply one time we held back and did not say the words that would have hurt them.

This week, try noticing whether, in the way we speak and treat the people in our homes, others can see any feature of Jesus.

Prayer

Lord Jesus,

You lived the Eight Beatitudes before inviting us to follow You.

Do not let us grow discouraged before our weaknesses. Keep painting Your face in our souls, so that each day we may become gentler, more merciful, and more loving.

Through the intercession of all the saints, help us walk faithfully on the path to holiness, so that one day we may share the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven with them.

Amen.