The True Joy of the Beatitudes
It may often seem that even when the prayers we have made for the Beatitudes have been in some measure answered this very answer evokes in us only feelings of disgust. And in the face of this—the enthusiastic request on the one hand, and the rejection of what we had requested on the other—we are overcome with disgust at ourselves. We should be ready in advance for this experience even if our joy is currently in good shape….
“Enter into the joy of your Master” (Mt 25:23) is said to the good servant when he has finished his serving. This is the joy that beatitude or happiness consists in. This is the joy that is no longer fragile, a sun that shines steadily with no changes or eclipse. Our joy, the joy that we experience in our human hearts is fragile and comes and goes.
As for the Beatitudes, they are the absolute opposite of what people call joy; as soon as they are separated from Faith they are seen to be contradictions. Each one of them carries within it either its own cross or the threat of a weighty, tangible, certain cross; but at the same time each brings with it its own hope which is either the hope of a good that is present but invisible or a good that is in the future. But we never succeed in bearing our cross without it remaining a mystery.
If all the great virtues of the Gospel can, by the grace of God, be activated by us through our own good will, they are only Jesus’ virtues when the Spirit of Jesus gives them to us fully through giving them those new dimensions which are those of the cross and only of the cross.
Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl
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