Kathleen Rushton writes that Matthew 5:1-48 describes the way Jesus acted in proclaiming God’s reign.

Matthew 5:1–48 is situated within the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7). The chapter begins with Jesus teaching the beatitudes (Mt 52-11). He began each beatitude with “blessed are” — makarios, the first word of the Book of Psalms in the Greek Scriptures. Jesus had gathered the sentiments of the beatitudes from the prophets, psalmists and rabbis, so that they while they were familiar to his listeners, in his format they were entirely new and challenging.

Psalm 1 lays out human “happiness” or “blessedness”, a theme that continues through the psalms. In Psalm 1 the blessed are those who delight in the law of God and meditate on it day and night. As the psalms progress, the blessed are described as “the poor”, “the suffering” and “the little ones” who take “refuge” or “shelter” in God who is their “rock” and “hiding place”. The blessed are the ones who trust in God. The psalms speak of them living among “the scoffers” or “the wicked”. The “wicked” does not mean “evil” but those who do not trust in God.

The Sermon is not a step-by-step, how-to book. Jesus offers “examples” for engaging in God’s present and future reign. The beatitudes involve not just personal qualities or emotions but concern God’s favour for certain human situations and actions. The Sermon, indeed the whole Gospel, informs and forms disciples in their commitment of discipleship. It shapes and confirms their identity as a minority and marginal community in a new future that will come about through God’s power and faithfulness.

Guide for Discipleship

Jesus lived and preached God’s basileia which is translated as “reign” or “kingdom”. The word basileia is used also for the Roman “empire”. But Jesus is describing an alternative to the empire and the beatitudes sum up the reign of God. Theologian Gerald O’Collins says that the beatitudes are a self-description of Jesus. They are the programme he set himself and the way he acted in ministry. Joseph Ratzinger (the late Benedict XVI) wrote in Jesus of Nazareth that the beatitudes are “the transposition of the cross and resurrection into discipleship”. They are a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus. We can see the beatitudes as a road map for the Church for what the Church is called to be. These directions for discipleship apply to all those who respond to their Christian calling.

Call to Engagement

Jesuit Monty Williams says that as contemporary disciples of Christ, we are pilgrims who give our lives to the Mystery we call God “not in some abstract way, but here and now, concretely” in the situation of our lives and immediate communities. Being poor in spirit “allows us to discover community, which is the kingdom of God in our midst”. It enables us to imagine and form structures of grace in the midst of structures of sin which according to John Paul II “are rooted in personal sin, and thus always linked to the concrete acts of individuals who introduce these structures, consolidate them and make them difficult to remove.” The real responsibility lies with individuals “who cause or support evil or exploit it; who could in some way eliminate or limit harm but do not do so through fear, laziness or the silence of complicity or indifference; or who shelter under the supposed impossibility of changing the world or who sidestep the effort and sacrifice required.”

Just as for the first listeners Jesus’s words were challenging, we can find that the beatitudes reawaken our interior dimension to structures of grace and solidarity. The Sermon on the Mount contrasts a culture of affluence with a culture of inner freedom committed to creating conditions for social and environmental justice. “The Sermon on the Mount is not a social programme per se ... But it is only when the great inspiration it gives us vitally influences our thought and our action, only when faith generates the strength of renunciation and responsibility for our neighbour and for the whole of society – only then can social justice grow, too” (Benedict XVI).

Responding Now

The sermon involves three “parties”: Jesus, the disciples (Church) and the afflicted crowd. The sermon informs and forms us in God’s way by shaping and confirming us as a community of disciples in our own context who are committed to living in such a way that brings about God’s mission — to humanise/divinise the world.

De La Salle Brother Peter Bray, Vice-Chancellor of Bethlehem University in Palestine, was recently in Aotearoa speaking about how Kiwis can help bring peace to the Holy Land. He said that 2022 was the deadliest year for the oppression of Palestinians that he’d experienced in his 14 years in the Holy Land. He discussed his concerns for the students and their families living in this situation. Their desire to strike back and react is real, as is the pull to dehumanise all Israelis. Peter is a New Zealander and is clear that he does not know what it is like to be a Palestinian. It would be arrogant of him to tell the Palestinian students what to do. But he can support ways of responding that are grounded in peace that is not dependent on the outcome. Non-violence does not mean being passive. Just as Jesus showed, it is about responding to evil with good, being resistant to violence — "to exist is to resist."

South African Bishop Desmond Tutu said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressors.” When he visited the Holy Land Pope Francis said: “May we dedicate ourselves prayerfully and actively to banish violence from our hearts, words and deeds and to become non-violent people building non-violent communities caring for the common good.” New Zealanders, too, are invited to discern how to be in solidarity with Palestinians and help bring peace to the Holy Land.

This election year particularly we will have opportunities to discern and promote directions and policies that will best serve the common good — to become informed about policies that will reduce the suffering of the poor rather than increase the wealth of the already well-off. We need to discern in the rhetoric of speechmaking and electioneering the voices of those who offer challenging and hopeful ways forward.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 278 February 2023: 24-25