Blessed May You Be

For a Wedding Mass

What do you think the beatitudes would teach us if we got together, talked it out, took a vote, updated our standards for living the good life?

Maybe something like this:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.

He began to teach them, saying:

Blessed are those who live in nice houses, with 3 or 4 bedrooms, a low-interest rate mortgage, a good yard with a deck, maybe a swimming pool; for theirs is the life of contentment.

Blessed are those who enjoy financial security and health benefits in a career that allows for long-term growth; for theirs is the life of worthy ambition.

Blessed are those who suffer no illnesses or physical burdens, and who live a life longer than the national average; for theirs is the absence of anxiety.

Blessed are those who love their 2.4 children, gifted athletes whose lives are determined by commitments to travel sports teams; for theirs is the life of pride.

Blessed are those whose consciences are justified by a good voting record in state and federal elections; for they will be morally upright.

Blessed are those whose desires are satisfied with the minimum amount of interference from social institutions; for theirs is a happy life.

Blessed are those who invest wisely and find the wherewithal to retire early; for they shall know the goodness of a proper work-life balance.

Blessed are those who give expression to their own personal vision for what gives life meaning; for they shall know true liberty.

Blessed are you when you are praised and complimented and have every aspect of your life affirmed because of your accomplishments.

Rejoice and be glad, because your reward will be great for the next 18-76 years.

Maybe you do not think that is a fair assessment of our culture today, but that is the life that many of us would want for ourselves: A long life; a long life without pain and suffering; a long life of stability and security; a long life that is not overburdened by difficult realties; a long life filled with satisfied desires; a long life of comfort and security; a long life that is yours, that does not belong to anyone else, for you to do with as you see fit.

My guess is that many of us would want that kind of life for ourselves. My guess is that many people on the day of their wedding would want that kind of life for themselves.

The kind of life that Jesus describes in the beatitudes is different. He talks about a life that is hard. Five of the nine beatitudes get at the harsher edge of human life: Poverty in spirit, meekness of heart, mourning, persecution, bearing insults. The kind of life that Jesus describes in the beatitudes is a hard life; not a life of comfort and security; not a life without pain and suffering.

Why would anyone want to live the life of the beatitudes? Maybe a more relevant question for today: Why would anyone want to hear the teaching of the beatitudes at a wedding Mass? The beatitudes don’t really talk about the kind of blissful and perfect future that most people, I imagine, would want to hear about on the day of their wedding.

I asked Graham why he and Erika chose the beatitudes for the Gospel today and he said because the teachings of the beatitudes is what they feel most strongly about the Christian faith. When I asked Graham to tell me more about that, to flesh out his answer a little bit, he told me that he couldn’t really say anything more without simply quoting the beatitudes back to me. Graham said that of the many, many teachings found in scripture, the teachings of the beatitudes are the easiest for he and Erika to embrace, that these are the teachings about which they most remind themselves as they try to live good lives together.

Maybe we should ask the question: What is it that the beatitudes teach us? That there is blessedness to be found in the middle of a hard life. The kind of blessedness that anyone would want for themselves. The kind of blessedness that anyone would want for themselves on the day of their wedding, as they imagine a future filled with possibility and goodness and joy and happiness and love. The kind of blessedness that Christ talks about in the beatitudes is not a promise about the future. He isn’t saying to us, “Hey, hang in there, tough it out, and you will receive your reward one day, and life won’t be so hard anymore.” The blessedness of which Christ speaks is a blessedness that we experience now, in the middle of a hard life.

Maybe we should ask a second question: What is the blessedness of which Christ speaks? To my mind, I think we find the blessedness of the beatitudes in those four teachings that get at the more beautiful edge of human life: a hunger and thirst for righteousness, the practice of mercy, cleanliness of heart, the work of pursuing peace in a broken world. I think that what we see in the beatitudes is Christ teaching us that in the middle of a hard life we get to live a little bit like God if we want that for ourselves. The hardness of life, the pain, the suffering, the carrying of burdens, all that breaks us down and opens us up to a deeper relationship with Christ because we will want Christ there with us as strive and struggle and fight the good fight. And then, all the sudden, now that we are living in this space of deeper relationship with Christ, we find that we can live like him. We can hunger and thirst for righteousness, we can practice mercy, keep our hearts pure, and help others to know the peace that comes from resting in God in the middle of a life that is hard.

To live a little bit like God, that is the kind of blessedness of which Christ speaks.

Maybe, just to be clear, we should ask a final question: What does it mean to live like God? My answer is that to live like God is to give yourself away to other people. Christ is equal to the Father, St. Paul tells us, but he takes that equality with God, with all of its power and knowledge, and he lets it go and he gives it away and he comes into the life of this world and he lives among us and he teaches us how to live and he suffers and he dies so that we don’t die an eternal death. To live like God is to give your life away to other people, it is to want to give your life away to other people. To take everything you have been given, everything that you have accomplished, and to let it go and to give it away for the sake of someone else—that is a life of real love and real humility, and that is what it means to live a little bit like God. And that kind of life is blessed.

Graham and Erika, you guys have an opportunity to live a life that is remarkably, profoundly blessed. Everyone who talks about you, almost as if by instinct, says something about your accomplishments and your respective brilliance and the degrees you have earned and the job offers you have received and the awards you have won. And what are you doing, a month after the conclusion of college careers defined by so many awards and accomplishments? What are you doing with your respective brilliance and the open field of possibility that is your future? You are making the choice to give yourself away to someone else, to let go of some of that future possibility for the sake of someone else. You are making a choice, today, to live a little more like God—to live a life of real love and real humility.

And that kind of life will be hard. You are not making a choice for the life of comfort and security that most people would want for themselves. Your life together will not be perfect—there will be burdens to carry, pain and suffering to get through. But you will carry those burdens together and you will hold each other accountable and you will make one another into better people who live in relationship with Christ and who thirst for righteousness and practice mercy and keep their hearts pure and work for peace. You will live that kind of life together, and that kind of life will be blessed, indeed.

Most of us know that Graham loves the study of language, so let me conclude with a note on biblical translation. There is a commentator on the Gospels who points out that the Hebrew equivalent of the word ‘beatitude’ “indicates the thrill of the wayfarer who is about to reach his goal, in other words, the joy of the pilgrim who never halts in his movement toward the sanctuary of the heavenly homeland where God his Father awaits him.” The commentator says that the word ‘beatitude,’ therefore, carries with it this sense of being on a journey, of rejoicing in the conviction that one will “reach God by this road and no other.” He says that as far as translations go, the Spanish bienaventurado is more helpful to us than the word ‘blessed.’

Bienaventurado are the poor in spirit . . Bienaventurado are they who mourn . . . Bienaventurado are the meek . . .

You know the list. And what does the word mean in Spanish that is missing in English? The word in Spanish most literally means a ‘good adventure.’ The life of the beatitudes is an adventure, a good one, a movement toward God. And adventures get hard. Life gets hard. But there is a blessedness to be found in a hard life. It is good, to live a little more like God. Graham and Erika, you guys are setting out on an adventure together. Make it a good adventure. Blessed may you be.

Homily delivered on June 24th, 2023 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary