Mt 5,1-12a – Monday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time
The speech of Beatitudesspoken by Jesus on today’s Gospel page, is a great lesson on the way we should look at our lives.
Very often we are convinced that what we lack is the cause of our unhappiness. We think that if we had more, if we were stronger, more confident, more fulfilled, then we would finally be happy. Jesus instead turns this logic on its head and tells us that precisely what we lack can become the space in which God works the greatest things. Those who are full no longer want anything and risk losing the taste for essential things. Those who always feel strong struggle to understand the fragility of others. Those who are full of themselves leave no room for anyone, not even God. Those who live only to defend their own balance often give up on spending themselves for justice and love. Those who continually wear masks end up no longer recognizing the authentic face of reality or even that of God.
The Beatitudes are not the praise of suffering, poverty or tears. Jesus is not saying that pain is a good in itself. Instead, he is saying that each of our shortcomings, each wound, each hunger for meaning can become the place of an encounter. The poverty that the Gospel speaks of is the willingness to let oneself be filled by God. This is why the poor, the hungry, the meek, the merciful and the pure of heart are called blessed: not because they have less than others, but because they still have room to welcome what really matters.
The real tragedy is not being missing, but believing we are enough for ourselves. When we fill every void with something, when we anesthetize every desire, when we avoid every fragility, we deprive our life of the possibility of a turning point. The Beatitudes teach us that God almost always enters through our cracks. And what we consider a weakness can become the most fruitful place of his grace.
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