Jesus does not begin his teaching with a command or instruction, but with the announcement of complete happiness: (see the Beatitudes, the "Blessed!" which resounds 9 times like a pounding and almost unstoppable refrain. Jesus knows that this is the real and main problem of every person: the problem of happiness. And he wants to ensure that happiness is possible and offered to everyone, no one excluded. But He also reveals the content of happiness. Who is happy? Who is really blessed? The one who is a billionaire, who is successful, who enriches by deceiving, who dominates and ensures his life by crushing others? Is there a way that leads to happiness?
Jesus' answer to all these questions displaces and haunts the current mentality and common expectations. In the Beatitudes, Jesus reveals the true face of God, the Father. It is He and only He who makes us happy He will console, satiate, use mercy, etc., and His greatest joy is that of making us happy. For Jesus, happiness is found in the relationship with the Father, in communion with Him. But who can experience the relationship with the Father and therefore full happiness? The poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful etc., that is, those who live as and with Jesus, the poor, meek, pure in heart, merciful ... In proclaiming the Beatitudes, in fact, Jesus outlines the portrait of himself and, on this basis, the physiognomy of the disciple. But before that, Jesus intends to offer us a message about God. He announces to us how God will act towards people. Listening to the Beatitudes, we should therefore first try to understand what they tell us about God. Just because God is what He is and acts for our salvation, can Jesus call people "blessed" in the full sense. Essentially, the message of Jesus is a message about God, our Father, who gives us bliss, which consists in communion with him.
However, God wanted to bind himself to people with a covenant relationship, which the Bible compares to the nuptial covenant. For this reason, His action that will make us happy, and already makes us anticipate this happiness, supposes the free response of the human partner.
Lord Jesus, open our hearts to understand the new law expressed in the beatitudes and help us to live it in the attitudes of our daily journey.
God bless you.
Abba Meskel