The Beatitudes: Transforming Hearts and Societies


Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 1, 2026

The 20th century rabbi, author and novelist, Chaim Potok, wrote the following with regards to a brilliant son:

 

Yahweh, Master of the Universe, blest me with a brilliant son. And he cursed me with the problems of raising him. Ah, what it is to have a brilliant son. Joshua, a boy with a mind like a jewel. Ah, what a curse it is, what an anguish it is to have a Josh whose is mind is like a pearl, like a sun.

 

Yahweh, when my son Joshua was six years old, I saw him reading a story, he swallowed it as one swallows food or water. There was no heart in my Joshua, there was only his mind. He was a mind in a body without a heart. It was a story about a poor old man and his struggle to get to Jerusalem before he died. Ah, how this man suffered! And my Joshua enjoyed the last terrible page because when he finished it, he realized for the first time what a splendid memory he possessed. He looked at me proudly and re-told the story from memory, and I cried inside my heart.

 

I went outside and shouted to the Master of the Universe, “Why? What have you done to me? A mind like this I need for a son? A heart I need for a son. A soul I need for a son. Compassion I want from my son. Righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain, that I want from my son, not a mind without a soul, without a heart.”

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In today’s gospel, we have listened to a central part of Jesus’ teaching, a summary of his entire message. You could describe these Beatitudes as Jesus’ desire for his followers to have heart, to have a soul, to be loving and compassionate.

 

Being “poor in spirit” is at the heart of it. The poor in spirit are humble people who know they need God, and who want to live according to the pattern God has placed before our lives. These Beatitudes, which are counter-intuitive and counter-cultural, basically enumerate the attitudes, the lived attitudes that will put us in touch with the heart of Jesus Christ.

 

Blessed are those who mourn. Why? Because you feel incomplete; you know something is missing; you realize that there is a big hole in your heart that needs healing. And so, you are not self-sufficient and self-contained. You need God, and you need others, to become whole again.

 

Blessed are the meek. Why? Because you probably don’t have a swelled head, a runaway, self-righteous ego. You are open to others; you treat people with gentleness. You have a compassionate heart.

 

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Why? Because your compassionate heart enables you to see how other people are treated. You can sympathize with their lot in life. You know when they are not treated fairly, or when they are used by others. You hate to see little, powerless people treated as if they have no dignity, as if they are little more than pests who get in the way of the schemes and plots of others.

 

Blest are the merciful. Why? Because, basically, they have found that terrorizing others leads to hatred, anger, and a disrespect for another person made in the image and likeness of God.

 

Let’s take a concrete example. A lot of people are really upset about what is happening in Minneapolis. And let me say, I’m not talking about the politics of it, so much as the morality of what is taking place. Some time ago, when the people of the world saw the video of how George Floyd was treated, there were demonstrations, not just here in our nation, but all around the world. Conscience was awakened when people felt that this just wasn’t right. Feeling the need to be heard, to give voice to the moral outrage they were feeling, they felt they had to do something. And now, the same thing is happening with the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Many of those who are poor in spirit are mourning because of those deaths. They are seeing the opposite of mercy and meekness on display. They are hungering and thirsting for justice in a situation in which they feel justice is being denied.

 

Now, let me be clear: Not once have I used terms like politics, or Democrat or Republican. Some things are right or wrong no matter which party happens to be in power. I’m quoting the most basic teaching of Jesus as found in the Beatitudes. I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean for us to put these values into practice only for the one hour we spend in church. These are powerful attitudes that are meant to transform both individual hearts and whole societies. Showing mercy, compassion, sorrow, and a desire for justice and peace are not just a Christian agenda. They are a human agenda. They are right, not because they are Christian, but because they are true.

 

Somebody else will have to figure out the legal aspects of what is going on. But I am mourning with our brothers and sisters in Minneapolis. I am mourning with people right here in our own community who are afraid. And I’m ready to be judged, and even persecuted, because I am speaking the truth of the gospel as I see it. By nature, I am not a demonstrator at the drop of a hat. But I am passionate about how people are treated, and whether or not they have their dignity respected. And I feel that, if we don’t do that, our society could fall apart.

 

You know, faith and religion can be hijacked so that they become the servant rather than the master. In the first instance, I do not turn to the approach of one political party or another. I turn to something more basic, something at the heart of the gospel: love. Love is the standard given to us by Jesus Christ and his earliest followers. Convention may tell me to stay out of politics, but no one can tell me to stay out of love, or goodness, or compassion or truth. These are the core values that make us “blessed.” These are the standards by which we live.

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