Living Radically

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5: 3

Blessed are…
the poor in spirit…
they who mourn…
the meek…
they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…
the merciful…
the clean of heart…
the peacemakers…
they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness…
you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me…

Not a laundry list of ingredients for success according to the world is it? And yet it was with these words that Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount. It was with these blessings that He began to teach the people in earnest. It was with these “beatitudes” that He used to show us how are hearts and dispositions should be towards our God, our neighbors and ourselves. These few, short utterances give us the blueprint for how to think and act in our lives.

But they are so radically different from what the world is calling us to, aren’t they? The world is calling us to be arrogant, full of ourselves and rich in material possessions. The world tells us to gain as much as we can for ourselves without much thought for others, especially if they are in our way. The world wants us to live however we want, to do whatever feels good, regardless of the consequences. The world says that we should take and eye for an eye, not show mercy. The world seeks to pollute our eyes, minds, hearts and souls with the filth of pornography and every impure and violent act to the point we couldn’t even imagine it on our own. The world does not court peacemakers as much as warmongers and the world most certainly says that if we are persecuted for our faith than we deserve it because we are too narrow-minded.
And yet Jesus still calls us to meekness and to have a clean heart and to make peace in our world. How can one hope to live so radical a life as the one called to by Jesus? With His grace!! By our own power alone, we would never begin to think in the ways of the beatitudes, let alone live them. But with His grace, we can put others first and be humble. We can mourn as those who are far from home, we can hunger and thirst for goodness and Truth and we can show mercy, even to those who deserve it the least or who have hurt us the most. With His grace we can stay pure in our thoughts and actions, we can bring peace to our families and friends and we can love and persevere in our faith no matter what others do to us.

You want to live a life of greatness? You want to be radical? Then live the beatitudes. Everything else is following the crowd of mediocrity.

Dear Jesus, I want to be like You, I want to think like You, I want to act like You. Thank you for showing me how and for giving me the grace to do it. Make my heart like Your heart. Amen.