THE CERTAINTY OF A NEW WORLD

Why the Beatitudes? The reason for the Beatitudes is only one: in Jesus of Nazareth, God inaugurated his Kingdom. A Kingdom that has overturned all common values ​​to the point that people contradicted by history with situations of suffering are blessed. But the Beatitudes paint above all a face, that of Jesus. We could then say that by proposing this page to the disciples, Jesus self-proposes, that is, suggests an existence centered on the Kingdom as was his from birth to death. For this reason the life of the disciple, his morality, starting from the Beatitudes:

• is a morality of interpersonal relationship;
• is a morality of participation in the dynamism of the very life of Jesus;
• is a morality of assimilation-conformation to the Master.

Christian life is a life of communion in the image of the Trinity. Only from a communion experience with God, the supreme good, does a choice of values ​​arise. We must never forget that Christian morality, which even reaches love towards the enemy, is not and can never be induced from the outside by any law but sprouts from the interiority, from the relationship, as we have said, with God. This is why Christian morality is also a morality of participation, that is, the Holy Spirit, an active principle in the Trinitarian life becomes an active principle in the life of the disciple and therefore of the Church. Last but not least, it is a morality of assimilation. one-conformation to Christ and the Gospel. It is important to know that the content of the Beatitudes is at the end of a long journey. There are essential foundations that precede them and without which they could not withstand the impact of time. Let us see two of them, one relating to the word of the Gospel and the second to the sacraments. Saint Leo the Great said in this regard: “We become the one we contemplate (in his word)” and: “We change into the one we celebrate” (Sermones 63,7). What does it mean? That it is not enough to orient oneself to Christ, but it is necessary to let oneself be assimilated to him. How? Through his word (which has a revelatory and performative character) and the sacraments (effective signs of his saving presence). This process is called in Eastern theology theosis or transfiguration in Christ. The new man thus becomes the man of the Beatitudes.

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

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey