On this Fourth Sunday per annum the Eucharistic liturgy offers us the great fresco of the Beatitudes. At first sight, they seem impossible, paradoxical, exaggerated, a program for exceptional men and women and for special vocations. But in fact, they were written for us, in our mediocrity and weakness. Moreover, the Beatitudes are a proposal of happiness for everyone, requiring at the same time a transition from one way of thinking and living to another; indeed they assume a world of new values, values that undermine the old values that were deemed to be absolute. We would like to offer our readers seven keys to enter this real Magna Carta of Christianity.
The Christological key. We read in the CCC at n. 1717: “The Beatitudes give us a picture of the face of Christ and describe charity”. In the Beatitudes we find outlined the face of Christ and his historical itinerary from birth to death up to the resurrection. A marked track of an unbiased and total charity.
The Theological key. It is evident that the Beatitudes speak to us of God, of the logic of the Kingdom that Jesus has initiated and established in the realities of the world.
The Soteriological Key. The Beatitudes are the masterpiece of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of disciples of Christ. If, in Jesus, they are all lived in the highest way, in his disciples they shine differently. It is no coincidence that the Church venerates various categories of saints, from apostles to confessors in whose personalities the Beatitudes have a variegated reflection.
The Ecclesiological Key. If it is true that the Beatitudes trace the profile of the disciple of the Gospel, yet in them we also see the face of the Christian community, always called to grapple with the Beatitudes in order to grow in authenticity and fullness.
The Eschatological Key. The fulfillment of the Beatitudes is eschatological; this makes us understand how the Church advances in history between the already, and the not yet. The Christian does not escape the reality of the present (and therefore the commitment to build history) but builds history by keeping himself constantly tied to the ultimate goal that gives his life value and direction.
The Moral Key. Mario Rollando wrote that the Beatitudes are not ethical conditions to enter the Kingdom but a manifestation of the ethical existence of those who already belong to the Kingdom. The Christian’s departure point is the life of Christ.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Santa Maria – Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey