A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 4

 Chapter 4 – Blessedness

 

The pursuit of happiness. Isn’t that what life is all about? The constant pursuit of that one thing, that one item, that one activity, that one person, that one event that will bring us the happiness that we long for. The search for the next best thing that will bring us perfect happiness. Social media is the perfect medium to show us all of the ways we should be happy, and all of the reasons we’re not. We envy what others have and the perfect life you see in their pictures and their posts, and we do everything we can to emulate those supposed perfect lives. But what we see on social media are the edited and filtered images of strangers and acquaintances that we know nothing about. Just because you see someone smiling on their latest Facebook or Instagram post, do you know if they are truly happy? To bring it back inward, consider how many times you may have posted a smiling picture of yourself, but you weren’t really feeling like smiling? Or how many times you’ve bought, chased, or pursued something you though would make you happy, but in the end, that one item, that one activity, that one person, that one event didn’t bring you the happiness you were expecting?

 

Jesus’ beatitudes are sometimes considered a happiness checklist. If you just did the things on Jesus’ list, you would find happiness. But, according to one of this week’s authors, James Howell, “to be ‘blessed’ isn’t catchy advice on how to go and be happy; ‘blessed’ is being swept up in God’s decisive movement in the world.” (23-24) Being blessed means to accept the gifts God has given you, even if they aren’t the gifts you expected. You might feel blessed to have a lot of money or plenty of material possessions, but they won’t necessarily bring you happiness. However, you could feel blessed to be alive, to have a roof over your head, or to have friends and family in your life, and those things might bring you all the happiness in the world.

 

The beatitudes are meant to help us build our relationships, not our happiness. Although, doing so will almost certainly raise our level of happiness. The beatitudes are meant to show us how to treat our fellow human beings and to remind us that even when we are feeling at our lowest, we know that God calls us blessed. As Saint Francis of Assisi states, “be unassuming in speech, be grave in your manner, and grateful for the favors and benefits you may receive. The kingdom of God, which is eternal, will be your reward.” (27)