Beatitudes and Commandments

Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12

Every Sunday school class is required to memorize the ten commandments, but never the eight beatitudes.  There is the constant clamor to erect monuments to the ten commandments, to have them displayed in every classroom in the country, but not so with the eight beatitudes.  People have seen how Christians have created loopholes and various work arounds to all the commandments; they have no real meaning. People also see our total neglect of the eight beatitudes that form the real basis of Jesus' teachings.

Whenever a question arises on how to enter the kingdom of God, the first appeal is to the commandments. Yet in every conversation on this matter we find that the commandments are not enough.  Something else is necessary - sell your possessions and give to the poor, show mercy to the man who fell in with robbers, have pity on the poor man Lazarus.  In every instance the necessary thing for salvation is the beatitudes.  

In the upcoming passages that follow the beatitudes, Jesus will take each commandment and see them through the lens of these beatitudes.  It is the beatitudes that are our path to salvation and happiness. That we neglect them in the Christian life is a reflection on our lack of happiness, an indictment on our hypocrisy on the commandments.  May we rediscover the beatitudes and find in them the path to happiness and salvation.