Irish Jesuit Province

The Beatitudes. IAuthor(s): William SuttonSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 16, No. 182 (Aug., 1888), pp. 499-502Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20497781 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 14:13

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Jesuit Province is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Monthly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:13:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Beatitudes. 499

THE BEATITUDES.

ONE thinig all want, and there is but one way of getti-ng it. It

may be had in greater or less degree, and the way to it may

vary in a similar manner, but in the end it is essentially the same.

Hcappiness is the universal longing of men, aild for it God created

them. What it consists in was the highest question of ancient philosophers, and it is still the question of all philosophy. After all investigation, it remains to be asked, what then are we to live for, what are we to do ? The beatitudes are the answer given by

the Wisdom of God Himself. They are an exhaustive answer, containing the solution of the problem, replying to its difficulties, and reconciling in the only possible way all that has been said on

the subject. We will first consider how men are said to be happy (for that

is the meaning of b5eath;r blessed) while still toiling along the road which leads to their ultimate end, which is happiness. A well

grounded hope of obtaining what we want is a kind of possession

of the object. Akin to this is what Aristotle says, that young

people are happy because of hope, and St. Paul (Rom. viii., 24):

WVe are saved by Hope." Hope of securing what we desire

springs from the proper steps being taken for the purpose. The

means must be proportioned to the end. Thus only is anything properly said to move towards and approach its destinationi. In hlie natural order human happiness would be obtained by the

practice of the moral virtues. In the supernatural, to which we

hav_e been raised, happiness comes through the works of grace,

that is, through the supernatural virtues anti gifts of the Holy

Ghost, which direct and perfect all the faculties that are capable of

habits of virtue. The beatitudes express the acts and the effects

and the rewards of the use of these virtues and gifts.Y The names

of the virtues and gifts are often puLt for their acts, as meekness for

acts of meekness. This figure is of frequent occurrence. Thus

faith is defined, assent on the authority of another.

The rewards that are promised belong in their perfection to the

future life, but they may be partially attained to in this. All who

* In our May number the "; Vituwes anid Gifts of Grace " was the subject of an

article.

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:13:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

500 The Irish Monthly.

perform anly of thle mneritorious works mentioned in the beatitudes are happy tlhrough hope, because in so acting, they are taking the proper steps to secure happiness. Hlope of attaining ultimata happiness is had in two ways. One by reason of our preparing ourselves for it by meritorious acts, the other when, through the habit of holy living, a certain imperfect beginning of the happiness of lheaven takes possession of saintly people. Tlhe hope of a good harvest is different during a favourable spring from what it is when the golden autumn begins. This state of the beginning of happiness is -a state, too, of peculiar suffering. St. Paul says:

" Ourselves, also, who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we, ourselves, groan withini ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God " (Roini. viii., 23).

The bearing of tlhe beatitudes on the idleas of men, regarding

happiness, must be niext pointed out. A very common notioni is

that it conisists in a life of pleasure, surrounded by, and possessing

and enjoying, all that the world prizes. A more elevated view places it in a life of aetivity, (levoted to actioin that is honourable,

and, at the same time, specially serviceablel to ones country or

kind. A third onception mnakes a life spenit in intelletugal pur

suits and conitemplatioin, the ideal of human happiness. Now these three kind(Is are, ve-,ry differently related to perfeet fe lieity, the

hope of whieh conVstitutes the only soli(l happiness of eatrth. That which regards it as conisisting of worldly plenty and(I pleasure, of luxury and splendoui, is utterly false, contrary to reason, alnd a

fearful impediment to securing tlhe real thing. The active life, in its true Inatulre, is inltimately connected with happiness, but only as

a preparation for it. Tlhe essential bliss of heaven is contemplation, the vision of God, and(I its imperfect beginning inl this life is that uniion witli and contemplttion of God attnainable by a ltoly life.

It was -necesstary, therefore, that the false felicity of a life of plea

sure and splendid luxury should be exposed, in ordler to remove

the obstacles to the true way to be happy, and then that the right

directioni aiiwl explanation of tle active andl contemnplative lives

should be triught to men. The voluptuous life in its m-iserable

ideal consists in two tlhings, first in abundance of exterior goods,

whether riches or holnours, anid seconidly in the indulgence of the passions, bothi coilcupiscible and irascible. By mioral virtue, wlhose rule is right reasont, use is mnade of all such things with due modera

tion, through the gifts of the Holy Ghost; a vast deal more is

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:13:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Beatitudas. 501

done. The three first beatitudes are directed against the fascina tions of riches and honours, and indulgence of passion. The first, 4' Blessed are the poor in spirit," can be referred to contempt of

riches or of honours, that is, humility. The second, " Blessed are

the meek," is opposed to the indulgence of the irascible passions: and the third, " Blessed are they who mourn, calls them really

happy who, so far from enjoying all they can, go in the opposite direction and mourn over moral miseries ancd all their woeful results. This mourning is not sadness. Sadness is inordinate indulgence of passion, unless it be resisted, and we are commanded to drive it

away from us, and exhorted to rejoice always. The mourning, therefore, which is called blessed, is really the fountain of spiritual joy and cheerfulness and solid content, so wonderfully does the wisdom of God combine and fuse what at first sight seems contra dictory.

The active life is especially devoted to the service of others, either in fulfilment of their great claims upon us or in freely doing

them good. Moral virtue makes us ready to satisfy all claims of justice; the gift of the Holy Ghost, which perfects the virtue,

makes us yearn, fills us, as it were, with hunger and thirst for the

perfect doing, of all in any way we ought to do. And so the

fourth beatitude is, " Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice." In the matter of free doing good to others, virtue makes us prompt in serving those whom reason points out as the natural recipient of our benefits, namely, friends and relations, those with

whom we ha-ve particular ties. Such benefits belong- to the virtue

of liberality, but the gift of the Holy Ghost, through reverence for God, regards only their need in those we help. Therefore, we are exhorted in St. Luke, xiv., 12, 13, 14: " When thou makest a

dinner or supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, ior thy neighbours who are rich, lest, perhaps, they also invite thee again, and a recompense be made to thee. But when thou makest a feast call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the

blind, and thou shalt be blessed, because they have not wherewith to make thee recompense, for recompense shall be made thee at the resurrection of the just." Hence the fifth beatitude is, "Blessed are the merciful."

What belongs to the contemplative life is either final happi ness or that beginning of it spoken of before. All the rewards

mentioned in the beatitudes belong to it one way oi the other, for

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:13:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

502 The frish kIont/dy.

it is because of the rewards we are happy in meriting. The prac

tice of the virtues and gifts of the active or 1)repaxatory life produees

certain effects, owing to which human acts acquire l)urity, perfee

tion and peacefuln es, in its performancee, which are the immediate

dispositionis anld prepa,ration for the contemiiplative life. Tho effect

of the active life as reg,ards the virtuies aind gifts by wlhieh a man

is perfected ini himself is (eleannosss of heart, so that the mindl is no

longer stained or rendered foul by passion. llence the sixth beatitude is, " Blessed are the clean of heart." As to the virtues

and gifts producing perfection in regard to others, the effoet of the

active life is l)eaee, cecording to wha(t Isaias says (xxxii., 17), " the work of justiee shlall be peace, and the service of justice

quietness and security for ever." Accordinigly, the seventlh beati tude is, " Blessed are the peace-minakers," or the pecaceful. The

eighth beat.itude, " Blesseod are, they who suffer persecution for

justieo sake," is a confirmiation and manifestation of all the others.

When the acts of the other beatitudes have produced their effects,

when one is well grounded in humility, meekiness, &c., persecution

will not drive himn from the true way to be lhappy, biut will make

him cling to it tall the iore, and bring out imore clearly his love of

what is really good.

The foregoiing is littlo more than an imperfect renidering of

portionis of St. Trihoiias's doctrine on the beatitudes in the Suniiinia,

I., Ii., Q. (1)9. A grecat deal more renmains to bo saidl OIe them in their relations to the giflts of the Iloly Ghost, and to the3 ideas of

men regarding happineSs.

WILLIAM SUTTON, S.J.

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:13:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions