Reading 1 Jer 17:5-8 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20 Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Alleluia Lk 6:23ab R. Alleluia, alleluia. Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven. R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 6:17, 20-26 Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”
At the centre of the Gospel of today’s Liturgy are the Beatitudes (cf. Lk 6:20-23). It is interesting to note that despite being surrounded by a great crowd, Jesus, proclaims them by addressing “his disciples” (v. 20). He speaks to the disciples. Indeed, the Beatitudes define the identity of the disciple of Jesus. They may sound strange, almost incomprehensible to those who are not disciples; whereas, if we ask ourselves what a disciple of Jesus is like, the answer is precisely the Beatitudes. Let us take a look at the first one which is the basis for all the other ones: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God” (v. 20). Blessed are you poor. Jesus says two things of his people: that they are blessed and that they are poor; indeed, that they are blessed because they are poor.
In what sense? In the sense that Jesus’ disciples do not find their joy in money, power, or other material goods; but in the gifts they receive every day from God: life, creation, brothers and sisters, and so on. These are gifts of life. They are content to share even the goods they possess, because they live according to the logic of God. And what is the logic of God? Gratuitousness. The disciple has learned to live in gratuitousness. This poverty is also an attitude towards the meaning of life, because Jesus’ disciples do not think they possess it, that they already know everything, but rather they know they must learn every day. And this is poverty: the awareness of having to learn every day. Because they have this attitude, Jesus’ disciples are humble, open people, far from prejudice and inflexibility.
There was a good example in last Sunday’s Gospel reading: Simon Peter, an expert fisherman, accepts Jesus’ invitation to cast his nets at an unusual time, and then, filled with wonder at the miraculous catch, he leaves the boat and all his goods to follow the Lord. Peter shows himself to be docile by leaving everything, and in this way, he becomes a disciple. Instead, those who are too attached to their own ideas and their own securities, find it difficult to truly follow Jesus. They follow him a little, only in those things in which “I agree with him and he agrees with me”, but then, as far as the rest is concerned, it goes no further. And this is not a disciple. And so, they fall into sadness. They become sad because things don’t add up, because reality escapes their thinking patterns and they find they are dissatisfied. Disciples, on the other hand, know how to question themselves, how to humbly seek God every day, and this allows them to delve into reality, grasping its richness and complexity.
--->In other words, the disciple accepts the paradox of the Beatitudes: they declare that those who are poor, who lack many things and recognize this, are blessed, that is, happy. Humanly speaking, we are inclined to think in another way: happy are those who are rich, with many goods, who receive plaudits and are the envy of many, who have all the certainties. But this is a worldly mindset, it is not the way of thinking of the Beatitudes! Jesus, on the contrary, declares worldly success to be a failure, since it is based on a selfishness that inflates and then leaves the heart empty. Faced with the paradox of the Beatitudes, disciples allow themselves to be challenged, aware that it is not God who must enter into our mindset, but we into his. This requires a journey, sometimes wearisome, but always accompanied by joy. Because the disciple of Jesus is joyful, with the joy that comes from Jesus. Because, let us remember, the first word Jesus says is: blessed, hence the name of the Beatitudes . This is the synonym of being disciples of Jesus. By freeing us from the slavery of self-centredness, the Lord breaks our closures, dissolves our hardness, and opens up to us true happiness, which is often found where we do not expect it to be. It is he who guides our life, not us, with our preconceptions and our demands. Disciples, in the end, are those who let themselves be led by Jesus, who open their heart to Jesus, who listen to him and follow his path.
We might then ask ourselves: do I — each one of us — have the disciple’s readiness? Or do I behave with the rigidity of one who believes him or herself to be right, who feels decent, who feels they have already arrived? Do I allow myself to be “inwardly unhinged” by the paradox of the Beatitudes, or do I stay within the confines of my own ideas? And then, with the logic of the Beatitudes, setting aside the hardships and difficulties, do I feel the joy of following Jesus? This is the decisive trait of the disciple: the joy of the heart. Let us not forget the joy of the heart. This is the touchstone for knowing if a person is a disciple: does he or she have joy in their heart? Do I have joy in my heart? This is the point.
May Our Lady, the first disciple of the Lord, help us live as open and joyful disciples.
FEBRUARY 14, 2010 Divine Justice Woe to you that are full now… Jesus, lifting up his eyes to his disciples, says: “Blessed are you poor…. Blessed are you that hunger…. Blessed are you that weep…. Blessed are you when men hate you… when they cast out your name” on account of me. Why does he proclaim them blessed? Because God’s justice will ensure that they will be satisfied, gladdened, recompensed for every false accusation in a word, because from this moment he will welcome them into his Kingdom. The Beatitudes are based on the fact that a divine justice exists, which exalts those who have been wrongly humbled and humbles those who have exalted themselves (cf. Lk 14: 11). In fact, the Evangelist Luke, after repeating four times “blessed are you”, adds four admonitions: “Woe to you that are rich…. Woe to you that are full now…. Woe to you that laugh now” and: “Woe to you, when all men speak well of you”, because as Jesus affirms, the circumstances will be reversed; the last will be first, and the first will be last (cf. Lk 13: 30). This justice and this Beatitude are realized in the “Kingdom of Heaven”, or the “Kingdom of God”, which will be fulfilled at the end of times but which is already present in history. Wherever the poor are comforted and admitted to the banquet of life, there God’s justice is already manifest. This is the work that the Lord’s disciples are called to carry out also in today’s society.
REDEMPTORIS MISSIO- J. PAUL II Characteristics of the Kingdom and Its Demands The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions. The kingdom of God is meant for all mankind, and all people are called to become members of it. To emphasize this fact, Jesus drew especially near to those on the margins of society, and showed them special favor in announcing the Good News. At the beginning of his ministry he proclaimed that he was “anointed … to preach good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18). To all who are victims of rejection and contempt Jesus declares: “Blessed are you poor” (Lk 6:20). What is more, he enables such individuals to experience liberation even now, by being close to them, going to eat in their homes (cf. Lk 5:30; 15:2), treating them as equals and friends (cf. Lk 7:34), and making them feel loved by God, thus revealing his tender care for the needy and for sinners (cf. Lk 15:1–32).
The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions. Two gestures are characteristic of Jesus’ mission: healing and forgiving. Jesus’ many healings clearly show his great compassion in the face of human distress, but they also signify that in the kingdom there will no longer be sickness or suffering, and that his mission, from the very beginning, is meant to free people from these evils. In Jesus’ eyes, healings are also a sign of spiritual salvation, namely liberation from sin. By performing acts of healing, he invites people to faith, conversion and the desire for forgiveness (cf. Lk 5:24). Once there is faith, healing is an encouragement to go further: it leads to salvation (cf. Lk 18:42–43). The acts of liberation from demonic possession—the supreme evil and symbol of sin and rebellion against God—are signs that indeed “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28).
FAUSTI - "Blessed are you ." It is the good news that Jesus has given to the poor, to whom He announces the fulfillment of the promise. It is God's judgment on the world. It reveals His way of evaluating the reality, opposite to ours, and His way of saving us, so different from what we think. The Beatitudes constitute the Manifesto of the Kingdom of God, the New Law, a new code of life for those who welcome the Kingdom. The fruits of life and salvation are linked to it. This proclamation of the Kingdom is what Jesus accomplished in His Life, culminating in His Passion-Resurrection for us. The Beatitudes for the poor and the lamentations for the riches shouldn't be read in a moralistic key, as if they were saying what man "must" do. Rather, they say what God does and how He acts in human history. In the descent from the mountain, Moses revealed what man must do, now, in the descent to the plane, Jesus reveals what God Himself does. It is important to know this in order that we can listen to it, welcome it and bear fruit! The intent of the proclamation is to reveal to us the Face of God in Christ, so that the very Glory of His, which is that of the obedient Son, may be revealed on our own. The Life and the Work of Jesus manifest the true face of God that "no one has ever seen" (Jn 1:18). In His mystery of death/exaltation, we see how God gives the Kingdom. In His Passion, Jesus, hated, banned, insulted, rejected and defamed, solidarizes with the poor and identifies Himself with them, Himself who was already poor and hungry before. In His Resurrection, He realizes the Beatitude in the first person: identifying to Himself all the poor, in the fullness of the Messianic banquet and in the laughter of victory. Luke's speech is understandable only to the disciples. It is a Word addressed to those who, having discovered the treasure, wish to live its fruits to the full, willing to abandon all that is an obstacle to it. Jesus addresses those real poor people, of all sorts, whom He has taken care of. His "taking care" of all misery is His messianic sign. He will satisfy these hungry people with His Bread and will dry their tears with His Consolation. We also listen to the same Word, because, in obedience to Him, we are transferred and kidnapped in God, in whom salvation is offered to all the lost. It is to be noted the present time of the first Beatitude and of the first lamentation. Already "now" the Kingdom is of the poor and already "now" the rich are excluded from it with a surrogate of consolation... The other two beatitudes/consolations are in the future simple: they are respectively the fruits/surrogates of the Kingdom that will mature in the future. This means that with Jesus the present history is definitive, but not closed, it is indeed definitively open towards its term of salvation. This present/future tension, between an hour and an after, is the very space of history, a place of human decision to welcome the freedom of Christ. The last beatitude/lamentation indicates a future situation, but one that will soon become actual, in the time of persecution. Then it will be for the disciple his present of participation or not to the Passion of the Lord. The Beatitudes can only be understood by knowing God who is Love for all His children. His justice is to take away from those who have and give to those who do not have, so that the fraternity may be lived in concrete terms. Our concept of justice, "to each one his own" is based on human injustice and codifies the selfishness that originates it. It is useful to note that the distinction between poor and rich is easy to read outside. It is very difficult to read it within the heart of man: only the Word that penetrates into us discerns between bliss and alas, painfully cutting evil in us from good. Each of us is torn between having, power and appearance on the one side and the Lord's call to poverty, service and humility on the other.
Reading 1
RispondiEliminaJer 17:5-8
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
but stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Reading 2
1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Brothers and sisters:
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Alleluia
Lk 6:23ab
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice and be glad;
your reward will be great in heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with a great crowd of his disciples
and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false
prophets in this way.”
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 13 February 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
At the centre of the Gospel of today’s Liturgy are the Beatitudes (cf. Lk 6:20-23). It is interesting to note that despite being surrounded by a great crowd, Jesus, proclaims them by addressing “his disciples” (v. 20). He speaks to the disciples. Indeed, the Beatitudes define the identity of the disciple of Jesus. They may sound strange, almost incomprehensible to those who are not disciples; whereas, if we ask ourselves what a disciple of Jesus is like, the answer is precisely the Beatitudes. Let us take a look at the first one which is the basis for all the other ones: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God” (v. 20). Blessed are you poor. Jesus says two things of his people: that they are blessed and that they are poor; indeed, that they are blessed because they are poor.
In what sense? In the sense that Jesus’ disciples do not find their joy in money, power, or other material goods; but in the gifts they receive every day from God: life, creation, brothers and sisters, and so on. These are gifts of life. They are content to share even the goods they possess, because they live according to the logic of God. And what is the logic of God? Gratuitousness. The disciple has learned to live in gratuitousness. This poverty is also an attitude towards the meaning of life, because Jesus’ disciples do not think they possess it, that they already know everything, but rather they know they must learn every day. And this is poverty: the awareness of having to learn every day. Because they have this attitude, Jesus’ disciples are humble, open people, far from prejudice and inflexibility.
There was a good example in last Sunday’s Gospel reading: Simon Peter, an expert fisherman, accepts Jesus’ invitation to cast his nets at an unusual time, and then, filled with wonder at the miraculous catch, he leaves the boat and all his goods to follow the Lord. Peter shows himself to be docile by leaving everything, and in this way, he becomes a disciple. Instead, those who are too attached to their own ideas and their own securities, find it difficult to truly follow Jesus. They follow him a little, only in those things in which “I agree with him and he agrees with me”, but then, as far as the rest is concerned, it goes no further. And this is not a disciple. And so, they fall into sadness. They become sad because things don’t add up, because reality escapes their thinking patterns and they find they are dissatisfied. Disciples, on the other hand, know how to question themselves, how to humbly seek God every day, and this allows them to delve into reality, grasping its richness and complexity.
--->In other words, the disciple accepts the paradox of the Beatitudes: they declare that those who are poor, who lack many things and recognize this, are blessed, that is, happy. Humanly speaking, we are inclined to think in another way: happy are those who are rich, with many goods, who receive plaudits and are the envy of many, who have all the certainties. But this is a worldly mindset, it is not the way of thinking of the Beatitudes! Jesus, on the contrary, declares worldly success to be a failure, since it is based on a selfishness that inflates and then leaves the heart empty. Faced with the paradox of the Beatitudes, disciples allow themselves to be challenged, aware that it is not God who must enter into our mindset, but we into his. This requires a journey, sometimes wearisome, but always accompanied by joy. Because the disciple of Jesus is joyful, with the joy that comes from Jesus. Because, let us remember, the first word Jesus says is: blessed, hence the name of the Beatitudes . This is the synonym of being disciples of Jesus. By freeing us from the slavery of self-centredness, the Lord breaks our closures, dissolves our hardness, and opens up to us true happiness, which is often found where we do not expect it to be. It is he who guides our life, not us, with our preconceptions and our demands. Disciples, in the end, are those who let themselves be led by Jesus, who open their heart to Jesus, who listen to him and follow his path.
EliminaWe might then ask ourselves: do I — each one of us — have the disciple’s readiness? Or do I behave with the rigidity of one who believes him or herself to be right, who feels decent, who feels they have already arrived? Do I allow myself to be “inwardly unhinged” by the paradox of the Beatitudes, or do I stay within the confines of my own ideas? And then, with the logic of the Beatitudes, setting aside the hardships and difficulties, do I feel the joy of following Jesus? This is the decisive trait of the disciple: the joy of the heart. Let us not forget the joy of the heart. This is the touchstone for knowing if a person is a disciple: does he or she have joy in their heart? Do I have joy in my heart? This is the point.
May Our Lady, the first disciple of the Lord, help us live as open and joyful disciples.
Benedict XVI
RispondiEliminaApril 19, 2005 – February 28, 2013
FEBRUARY 14, 2010
Divine Justice
Woe to you that are full now…
Jesus, lifting up his eyes to his disciples, says: “Blessed are you poor…. Blessed are you that hunger…. Blessed are you that weep…. Blessed are you when men hate you… when they cast out your name” on account of me. Why does he proclaim them blessed? Because God’s justice will ensure that they will be satisfied, gladdened, recompensed for every false accusation in a word, because from this moment he will welcome them into his Kingdom. The Beatitudes are based on the fact that a divine justice exists, which exalts those who have been wrongly humbled and humbles those who have exalted themselves (cf. Lk 14: 11). In fact, the Evangelist Luke, after repeating four times “blessed are you”, adds four admonitions: “Woe to you that are rich…. Woe to you that are full now…. Woe to you that laugh now” and: “Woe to you, when all men speak well of you”, because as Jesus affirms, the circumstances will be reversed; the last will be first, and the first will be last (cf. Lk 13: 30). This justice and this Beatitude are realized in the “Kingdom of Heaven”, or the “Kingdom of God”, which will be fulfilled at the end of times but which is already present in history. Wherever the poor are comforted and admitted to the banquet of life, there God’s justice is already manifest. This is the work that the Lord’s disciples are called to carry out also in today’s society.
REDEMPTORIS MISSIO- J. PAUL II
Characteristics of the Kingdom and Its Demands
The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions.
The kingdom of God is meant for all mankind, and all people are called to become members of it. To emphasize this fact, Jesus drew especially near to those on the margins of society, and showed them special favor in announcing the Good News. At the beginning of his ministry he proclaimed that he was “anointed … to preach good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18). To all who are victims of rejection and contempt Jesus declares: “Blessed are you poor” (Lk 6:20). What is more, he enables such individuals to experience liberation even now, by being close to them, going to eat in their homes (cf. Lk 5:30; 15:2), treating them as equals and friends (cf. Lk 7:34), and making them feel loved by God, thus revealing his tender care for the needy and for sinners (cf. Lk 15:1–32).
The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions. Two gestures are characteristic of Jesus’ mission: healing and forgiving. Jesus’ many healings clearly show his great compassion in the face of human distress, but they also signify that in the kingdom there will no longer be sickness or suffering, and that his mission, from the very beginning, is meant to free people from these evils. In Jesus’ eyes, healings are also a sign of spiritual salvation, namely liberation from sin. By performing acts of healing, he invites people to faith, conversion and the desire for forgiveness (cf. Lk 5:24). Once there is faith, healing is an encouragement to go further: it leads to salvation (cf. Lk 18:42–43). The acts of liberation from demonic possession—the supreme evil and symbol of sin and rebellion against God—are signs that indeed “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28).
FAUSTI - "Blessed are you ." It is the good news that Jesus has given to the poor, to whom He announces the fulfillment of the promise. It is God's judgment on the world. It reveals His way of evaluating the reality, opposite to ours, and His way of saving us, so different from what we think.
RispondiEliminaThe Beatitudes constitute the Manifesto of the Kingdom of God, the New Law, a new code of life for those who welcome the Kingdom. The fruits of life and salvation are linked to it.
This proclamation of the Kingdom is what Jesus accomplished in His Life, culminating in His Passion-Resurrection for us.
The Beatitudes for the poor and the lamentations for the riches shouldn't be read in a moralistic key, as if they were saying what man "must" do. Rather, they say what God does and how He acts in human history. In the descent from the mountain, Moses revealed what man must do, now, in the descent to the plane, Jesus reveals what God Himself does.
It is important to know this in order that we can listen to it, welcome it and bear fruit!
The intent of the proclamation is to reveal to us the Face of God in Christ, so that the very Glory of His, which is that of the obedient Son, may be revealed on our own.
The Life and the Work of Jesus manifest the true face of God that "no one has ever seen" (Jn 1:18).
In His mystery of death/exaltation, we see how God gives the Kingdom.
In His Passion, Jesus, hated, banned, insulted, rejected and defamed, solidarizes with the poor and identifies Himself with them, Himself who was already poor and hungry before.
In His Resurrection, He realizes the Beatitude in the first person: identifying to Himself all the poor, in the fullness of the Messianic banquet and in the laughter of victory.
Luke's speech is understandable only to the disciples. It is a Word addressed to those who, having discovered the treasure, wish to live its fruits to the full, willing to abandon all that is an obstacle to it. Jesus addresses those real poor people, of all sorts, whom He has taken care of.
His "taking care" of all misery is His messianic sign.
He will satisfy these hungry people with His Bread and will dry their tears with His Consolation.
We also listen to the same Word, because, in obedience to Him, we are transferred and kidnapped in God, in whom salvation is offered to all the lost.
It is to be noted the present time of the first Beatitude and of the first lamentation.
Already "now" the Kingdom is of the poor and already "now" the rich are excluded from it with a surrogate of consolation... The other two beatitudes/consolations are in the future simple: they are respectively the fruits/surrogates of the Kingdom that will mature in the future.
This means that with Jesus the present history is definitive, but not closed, it is indeed definitively open towards its term of salvation.
This present/future tension, between an hour and an after, is the very space of history, a place of human decision to welcome the freedom of Christ.
The last beatitude/lamentation indicates a future situation, but one that will soon become actual, in the time of persecution. Then it will be for the disciple his present of participation or not to the Passion of the Lord.
The Beatitudes can only be understood by knowing God who is Love for all His children.
His justice is to take away from those who have and give to those who do not have, so that the fraternity may be lived in concrete terms.
Our concept of justice, "to each one his own" is based on human injustice and codifies the selfishness that originates it.
It is useful to note that the distinction between poor and rich is easy to read outside.
It is very difficult to read it within the heart of man: only the Word that penetrates into us discerns between bliss and alas, painfully cutting evil in us from good.
Each of us is torn between having, power and appearance on the one side and the Lord's call to poverty, service and humility on the other.