Blessed are those who…

As my daughter and I study the teachings of Christ, we are looking at his first public sermon which includes The Beatitudes.   Christ launches his public ministry, speaking to several thousand people, with a tender discourse full of compassion. Unlike the ‘gods’ of the day whose piety was unpredictable at best and non-existent at worst, Christ’s message speaks to the heart and not to outward behaviors. He does not chastise or encourage the hearers to work harder at being good. Instead he defines God’s intent to bless those who think themselves unworthy of blessing. Those striving souls, like me, who simply cannot work harder to be better. Those people who are so downtrodden and beaten up by life and cannot improve their outward condition much less their broken and sinful inner self.  Those who believe the goodness of God is unattainable due to poverty and being “less than” their neighbor.  Those who find themselves at war with the World and desperately long for peace.  A friend of sinners and outcasts, Christ identifies with the down and out from the beginning.  He came for me.  He came for you.

Oh, dear Lord and Savior, may I bring this hopeful message to the downcast and broken hearted, the persecuted and mournful, those who long for peace and hunger for mercy. Thank you that you did not say that you bless our doing but that you bless us in our most pitiful state of being.