Patrick Comerford
The 50-day season of Easter, which began on Easter Day (20 April 2025), came to an end yesterday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (8 June 2025), and we return in the Church Calendar today to Ordinary Time. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Saint Columba (597), Abbot of Iona, Missionary, and Saint Ephrem of Syria 373), Deacon, Hymn Writer, and Teacher of the Faith.
Later this morning, I have an appointment in London. But before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 5: 1-11 (NRSVA):
1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’
Today’s Reflection:
The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Matthew 5: 1-11) begins a series of weekday readings from the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes. The scene opens with Christ leaving the crowds and climbing up the mountain, like Moses in the Book Exodus leaving the crowd behind him, and climbing Mount Sinai. In the Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5 to 7, Saint Matthew presents us with a covenant renewal document.
The Beatitudes are a declaration of the happy or fortunate state of the children of God who possesses particular qualities, and who, because of them, will inherit divine blessings.
It is interesting to compare the delivery of the Beatitudes to the delivery of the Ten Commandments. Here we have the renewal of the covenant, and a restatement, a re-presentation, of who the Children of God are.
Just as we sometimes find the Ten Commandments grouped into two sets, so we might see the Beatitudes set out in two groups of four, the first four being inward looking, the second four being outward looking.
We might see the first four Beatitudes as addressing attitudes, while the second four deal with resulting actions.
Are they ethical requirements for the present?
Or are they eschatological blessings for the future?
Or are they are statements of present fact, identifying the qualities of a child of God and the consequent blessings that follow?
Few among us, I imagine, are ever going to commit murder.
But we all get ‘angry with a brother’ sooner or later.
The Sermon on the Mount exposes our own present reality in a very stark and real way, and the Beatitudes are a core text for Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship and in the writings of towering Christian figures such as Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton and Oscar Romero.
Father Brian D’Arcy once recalled during a radio interview how Dorothy Day once spoke of how her fellow Roman Catholics went to confession regularly and confessed to ‘breaking’ one of the Ten Commandments, but she wondered how often they confessed to ‘breaking’ one of the Eight Beatitudes.
Μακάριοι (Makárioi): Does this mean ‘blessed’? Archbishop Makarios was the President of Cyprus in 1974 when he was deposed in a coup that was followed by the Turkish invasion of the island. ‘His Beatitude’ is a term of respect for archbishops and metropolitans in the Orthodox Church.
The word ‘blessed’ is not the best translation for μακάριος (makários). ‘Fortunate,’ ‘well off,’ or ‘happy’ might fit better.
Christ is telling those who hear him that they are fortunate to be this way. They are fortunate to possess these qualities of life. Why? Because it means they inherit the blessings or fortunes of God’s promised kingdom.
The Beatitudes are culturally embedded in our society, in our literature, in our arts. They are so familiar that we all understand the irreverent humour found in a scene in Monty Python’s The Life of Brian.
‘Blessed are the Meek’ – which means the humble, patient, submissive and gentle – is misheard in The Life of Brian as: ‘Blessed is the Greek – apparently he’s going to inherit the earth.’ When they finally get what Jesus actually says, a woman says, ‘Oh it’s the Meek … blessed are the Meek! That’s nice, I’m glad they’re getting something, ’cause they have a hell of a time.’
The political activist and agitator Reg then says: ‘What Jesus blatantly fails to appreciate is that it’s the meek who are the problem.’ This sums up the growing annoyance of the violent with the peaceful attitude of Christ. But it also highlights that the Beatitudes are about ordinary, everyday people.
Too often we see the saints celebrated by the Church as martyrs and apostles, missionaries and hermits, bishops and theologians. How often do we see them as ordinary, meek, everyday people, the people who too often are dismissed as problems, who are living with problems, who often go without attention from politicians and activists alike?
The mother and child separated at birth in the ‘mother and baby’ home and blocked at every stage as they tried to find each other.
The middle-aged mother who hopes that life is going to get better as the years move on, but then finds instead every waking hour is devoted to an adult child with special needs, or to an elderly parent who now needs to be looked after like a child.
The couple filled with faith but afraid to come to church, marginalised because of their colour, class, language, marital status or sexuality.
The lone protester who stands outside a government office or embassy, ignored by those inside and berated outside by passing, hooting motorists, but who knows right is on her side … ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.’
If the Church is a sign of the Kingdom of God, a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy, how does our life as the Church, in the parish and in the diocese, offer solace, comfort, a foretaste, hope for the meek, the downtrodden, the lonely, the oppressed, who are praised in the Beatitudes and who are invited as part of the great multitude, the countless number from every nation, tribe, people and language, to gather before the Lamb on the throne?
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit … those who mourn … the meek … those who hunger and thirst …’
May theirs be the kingdom of heaven, may they be comforted, may they inherit the earth, may they be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers … those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake …’
May we be generous in showing mercy, may we see God, be called children of God, find ourselves in the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are we even when others revile us for standing up for these values … when we stand up for those values, may we rejoice and be glad.
Writing on the Financial pages of The Guardian many years ago (17 January 2011), Terry Macalister wrote: ‘From Tolstoy to Dostoevsky to Chekov, if anyone can tell a good story it’s the Russians.’ Well, in Chapter 2 of Boris Pasternak’s great Russian novel Doctor Zhivago, we meet Larissa Feodorovna Guishar, who ‘was not religious’ and ‘did not believe in ritual,’ but was startled by the Beatitudes, for she thought they were about herself.
How do we apply the Beatitudes to ourselves, to our own lives?
The reredos in the Unitarian Church, Dublin, is inscribed with the Beatitudes, one on each panel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Today’s Prayers (Monday 9 June 2025):
‘Pentecost’ is the theme this week (8-14 June) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced yesterday with reflections by Dr Paulo Ueti - Theological Advisor and Regional Manager for the Americas and the Caribbean, USPG.
The USPG prayer diary today (Monday 9 June 2025) invites us to pray:
Heavenly Father, we praise you for sending your Holy Spirit, connecting our hearts to you and igniting them with courage, hope, and love for a world in need.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who filled the heart of Columba
with the joy of the Holy Spirit
and with deep love for those in his care:
may your pilgrim people follow him,
strong in faith, sustained by hope,
and one in the love that binds us to you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Columba and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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