Beatitudes – there are 8 which are best known to us in the text entitled: ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ (Mt.5:1-10).
There is another one, less known and prompted by a woman who said to Jesus:
“Happy (or, blessed) the woman who gave you birth and nursed you” (Lk.11:27).
To which Jesus replied: “Happier (or, blessed) still are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Lk.11:28).
And there is the beatitude in today’s gospel (2nd Sunday of Easter, Year B – Jn.20:19-31) where Jesus says:
“Happy (or, blessed) are those who believe without seeing.”
This one can speak especially to us because it concerns us in a very immediate fashion.
It reaches us precisely where we are – in our ‘here and now’ condition…
It describes the situation which is ours:
that of people who cannot see, cannot hear, cannot touch the Risen Lord.
Many of us to whom this beatitude, this blessedness, is addressed, will not say they experience it!…
Many people will say they do not ‘feel’ any special happiness at not seeing Jesus with their own eyes nor hearing him as they do the voice of their loved ones.
I can truly say I share in their predicament.
I sympathize with their experience of ‘absence’ more than that of presence…
No cozy feeling of closeness, of immediacy, of rewarding intimacy.
Yet… as I write this, I recall the words of Jesus saying:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mt.24:35).
So, his assurance that we are happy and blessed remains, it cannot go away…
And what remains also, on our part, is this need to… believe –
a gift, yes, a blessing, given to those who dare ask for it, again, and again, and again…
Note: Another reflection is available in French on a different theme at: https://image-i-nations.com/2e-dimanche-de-paques-annee-b/
Source: Image: purplelovesorange – WordPress.com
Historique
Un sage a dit :
There is so much that is wrong in our world today, is it not so?
La crainte fait place à la joie.
