Revealed and Hidden

Gospel: Matthew 11: 25-27

The difference between the Commandments and the Beatitudes is the same difference between the learned and clever on the one hand, and the merest children on the other hand.  Clever lawyers will argue the law all day, looking for loopholes, ambiguity of meaning, vagueness of intent - all to justify behaviors that are not ethical or just.  This is the weakness of law.

However, the one who follows the path of the Beatitudes seeks the very depths of goodness.  There are no squabbles over the intricacies of law for one is plunging to the very core of what it means to be good: what is in our hearts, what is our very character.  For the Beatitudes are ultimately founded on love, and love is the only virtue where we only fail by having a defect or lack of love.  We can never sin against love through excess, for God is love.

The one who is merciful, pure of heart, poor in spirit, peace making, meek, empathetic to others - she does not have a measuring stick seeking limits to these things.  It is to the one who seeks the way of the Beatitudes that all has been revealed, while the one still parsing over commandments will have things hidden from him until he leaves that path and follows the way of the Beatitudes, the way of the children of God.