The Beauty of Blessedness

Reflection by Fr. Earl Valdez for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Icon of the Sermon on the Mount | Photo from The Whole Counsel of God

Part of our language and worldview as Filipino Catholics is our recognition of the many things that we receive in life as “blessings.” Whether it’s money, property, an opportunity, or mere luck, there is this innate recognition that we do not really deserve some things and yet we get to receive them in our lives. And in a way, there is an equivalence with blessings and blessedness with having more or less a good life. 

But in the gospels today, we see how Our Lord’s use of blessedness challenges our conceptions. Why would he say blessed to people who think and feel that they really do not have anything in life? Why would those who go to unsafe places of war and conflict be truly blessed? Why would those who fight for justice and peace, even at the expense of their own lives, be considered blessings? It seems that the things that they confront in life would exactly be the opposite of a life of blessings. Parang wala namang blessing doon. 

Bernard Vista, “Bayanihan” | Photo from Galerie Joaquin

It is, however, a reminder for us that our faith understands blessedness and blessing as the very presence of God in our lives. It could never be reduced to things or events in our lives, and it definitely does not mean that the lack of those constitutes a lack of blessings and blessedness. True blessedness, especially in the way the Lord says it, is that even in our lives full of change and struggle, the Lord joins us, consoles us, and accompanies us. In fact, it is truly when we do not have anything at all that the Lord becomes truly present. And it takes much faith because it’s not easy to see and experience the Lord when we are overwhelmed with so many things that seem so burdensome to carry: our own concerns, the problems of the world, the values that we uphold, the people that we hold dear. 

And if we see it at that, then we understand what the Gospel means. The poor are blessed for they recognize nobody to provide for them except God, aiding them on the little effort that they could have. The peacemakers and the clean of heart are blessed with seeing God because of what they strive to work for. The persecuted ones are blessed because in experiencing persecution, Our Lord shares in the hurts and pains that they experience, carrying with them the promise that the Lord will never abandon them. 

Renata Sciachi, The Icon of the New Martyrs and Witnesses of the Faith of the 20th Century | Photo from the Basilica di San Bartolomeo all’Isola

I wonder, then, how we look at our blessings in life: all that we are, all that we own, all that we become. Perhaps they are called blessings not so much because we enjoy them, but because the Lord gives us the task of becoming the blessing that the poor and the persecuted need. We become the living signs of the Lord’s blessings, and He calls us to be as such, to join the “blessed” people and actually remind them that the Lord blesses them especially because they work for the Kingdom and rely not on their own strength and wealth, but God’s. 

And that is what we pray for in the Holy Eucharist, when we recognize fully what blessedness is in receiving Christ Himself. May we recognize that first and foremost, the true blessedness in life is the presence of Christ that continually challenges and transforms us to be the blessing to those who continue to struggle in life, an assurance that He will never abandon us and will always be with us most especially when our lives proclaim the Kingdom of God.