The Seventh Beatitude 

“Blessed are the peacemakers:

for they shall be called the children of God”.

 

To fulfil the Beatitude one must:

1)  Be friendly with everyone and

2)  Reconcile others

 

The fulfilment of the Beatitude brings heaven itself down to earth and gives peace instead of hatred and wrath.  The peacemakers attain a good influence and people imitate their love for neighbours.  To become a peacemaker we must find in our neighbour something good and approach his soul from this side.  St. Paul did it like this:  “To the Jews I became as a Jew, to the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak” (1 Cor 9:20-22). To see this good side in our neighbour, we must:

1)  Not judge our neighbour (Keep our tongue)

2)  Pray for him (or her)

3)  Drive away from our soul vanity and ambition.

All are called to be peacemakers, but especially the pastors.

 

The reward is that the peacemakers shall be called the children of God, because our Lord, the Son of God was a great peacemaker.  He reconciled sinful mankind of God.

 

The Eighth Beatitude 

“Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake:

for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven”.

 

Two kinds of persecution:

1)  By our neighbour (8th Beatitude)

2)  By our Government (9th Beatitude)

 

The world hates the servants of Christ because by their pious life they convict the world of unrighteousness.

The reward for the persecuted is the same as for the poor in spirit, because the humble person rejects evil things from their heart and those who are persecuted reject the wicked world from their life.

 

The Ninth Beatitude 

“Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you

and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven”.

 

Not only heathens and Jews persecute the righteous but even bad Christians (as happened to St. John Chrysostom).  The world is hostile to Christians because they condemn the sinful customs of impure ideas of the world.  The world persecutes the righteous in three ways:-  1) hatred,  2) calumny,  3) persecution. 

 

Hatred: (the world reviles you). Our Lord was hated and reviled by Jews.  Once He was nearly stoned and another time the Jews wished to throw Him down from the rock.

Calumny: The Jews called our Lord a glutton and a wine drinker.  They said that He cast out the demons by the power of Beelzebub.  They calumniated Him before Pilate (Lk. 23:2).

Persecution: Our Lord was crucified and the martyrs tortured and killed.  Those who desire beatitude must be ready to accept with joy, abuse, persecution and even death for Christ.

 

The virtues necessary for a martyr are:

1)  Trust in the nearness of Jesus Christ to us (Lk. 21:13)

2)  Obedience to God and our conscience because the world passes away but righteousness abides for ever (1 Jn. 2:12)

 

The reward:  It is possible to rejoice amidst persecution. The Apostles rejoiced being beaten, the martyrs also.  St. John saw under the Altar the souls of those who were slain for the word of God, white robes were given to them (Rev. 6:9-11)

 

Conclusion

All these virtues must be regulated by a new virtue which is judgment (nearly prudence); that is why the spiritual life of a Christian must be directed by a spiritual father.

 

The Beatitudes are a spiritual ladder.

1)  The decision to enter the way of salvation comes from the consciousness of ones spiritual poverty.

2)  This consciousness moves the Christian to sorrow for his sinfulness, i.e. mourning.

3)  For a mourner for his sins, it is easy to preserve meekness.

4)  Those who repent wish to establish good and truth around themselves, i.e. they hunger and thirst after righteousness.

5)  And become merciful to their brethren.

6)  Mercy for others drives out of our heart self-loving lusts and serves towards the purifications of the heart.

7)  A pure hearted man is filled with tenderness and brings everywhere peace as a peacemaker

8)  Around such a good man arise envy and the hatred of the evil world.  Society, which is sinful, drives him away.

9)  If his zeal for God increases the hatred of the wicked grows around him, and he is persecuted.

 

We have to fulfil all the beatitudes at one time but we must examine ourselves to see if we have not sinned against the more fundamental of them and try to fill such a gap in our soul.  We must also obtain virtues:  1) the absence of hypocrisy and 2) hope in God.

1)  Hypocrisy is connected with vanity, therefore we must hide our good deeds which are not obligatory.  But what ones are obligatory? (e.g. prayer in church or passing the church in the morning, etc.)

2)  Hope in God is prescribed in the Gospel, we must not hide it (Mt. 6:31-34).  It does not mean that we must not work for our future.  We must not require miracles. But God forbids only unrest of soul and anxiety about future deeds.

If we have a thought that we have fulfilled all the commandments, we must know that this thought is evil.  Because our ideal is God, and we must approach this perfection the whole of our life.  And if it appears that somebody does all these commandments, he must know that he only did that which was his duty to do. (Lk. 17:10).