Beatitudes-Family Feud

One of my favorite game shows is Family Feud. I love that the top10 answers most people would say is one of the categories that I think would be neat for today.The question is “What are the top 10 things that parents want for their children?” I will pretend to be Steve Harvey and you be the Family Feud contestants. Raise your hand. What do you think the top 10 answers are that people gave? What are the top 10 things they want for their children? Number One is happiness! Happiness. That is the number one answer they want for their children – yes, to be happy! What? Safety? Okay. Yes. They want their children to be safe! Love of God did not appear on the Family Feud answers. That might be the correct answer. It did not appear on Family Feud. Yes. Educated. Very good, yes! Good health. We have health already. Hopefulness or Faith did not appear on the Family Feud answers but it is a good answer, yes! Great decisions. Okay you are missing an obvious one. Right they want their kids to make money. Anything else? This is Family Feud remember? To be successful, to make a good living, yes! To love themselves, very good, yes. To move out! That is a great one. Yes! Have a family, and what goes along with that? To have a spouse right and to bring about grandchildren. Okay. Those were a lot of the answers on the top 10. Number one is that they wanted their children to be happy.

I have to say everybody loves the Beatitudes. Whenever I do a funeral, they say, “Oh, we have to have the Beatitudes. It has to be the Beatitudes, because we know that the Beatitudes mean happiness. However, it is a deeper kind of happiness. These Beatitudes I guarantee are not going to make the top 10 list of Family Feud answers. Nor are they going to be the first things that come to your mind that you want your kids to have. However, Jesus is saying this is. This is what we want for our children. This is what we want for our families. Think about it. The Number One answer. I want my kid to be poor. Does that ever appear on the top 10? Yes, what does Jesus say? Blessed are the poor, for they will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Who would say I want my children to mourn? May they be sad all the time? Did not show up on Family Feud answers. Yes Jesus said, “Blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted.” I want my kid to be a benchwarmer. Did that show up? No, but Jesus says Blessed are the Meek, for they will inherit the land. I want my child to go hungry, how about that, shared no one. Yet Jesus said, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

We go on and on, and we continue to see that these Beatitudes are not what we normally associate with what we want for our children or for ourselves, or for our loved ones. Yet Jesus gives us this recipe for blessedness. This is what it means to be chosen by God. I am going to review them very quickly and give you a little modern-day understanding of what that means.

First of all, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? To be poor in spirit ultimately means that we realize we are so weak that we depend completely on God. When we go through difficult times, the first thing that we turn to is not money. It is not the medicine cabinet. It is not anything else. We might turn to all of those things but first of all, to God. We are so poor in spirit, that we say “God, I need your help.” If you are having a difficult time in life, the first person you go to is God, the Father. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. The second is “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” We live in a society that likes to completely hide. We do not want to go through the process of mourning. We make wakes as quick as we can. Now we are cremating. We are doing anything we can to minimize the idea of death. And Jesus is saying, “Blessed are you who mourn, for you will be comforted.”

I think about this country, especially the young deaths that we have with heroin overdoses. The reality that we have the “holocaust” of abortion. We ought to be a country that feels that. You know that we mourn that loss. We suffer because it is going to motivate us to want to do something and address that, and God will comfort us. This one does not go with America. “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land.” The meek are the lowly ones. You know the meek is the kid that is not chosen to be first in his class. He is not the “All Star.” He is not the one that is going to be chosen. He is ultimately the benchwarmer. He is the kid with the lowest grades in the class. He is the kid that is left out. And Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, blessed are the lowly, for they will inherit the land.”

“Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God.” We certainly do not live in a chaste society. We live in a society that constantly tries to tease us with sexuality. Yet Jesus said, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.” That is what we teach our children. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.” It is not about the one that is going to be stronger. It is not about the one that’s going be tougher. It is not about the one that can take control and take power. “Blessed are the peacemakers. They will be called children of God.” I love this one. “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.” You know the most blessed Christians today, are the persecuted Christians in Syria. They are being persecuted because of their faith. If you have seen the movie “Silence” recently, it is all about the persecuted Christians in Japan. We are blessed when we are persecuted. I have to tell you, it is coming in this country. We are going to be persecuted for our faith. “Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” And then finally, “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of Me.” Could you imagine that on Jeopardy? Or on Family Feud, number ten answer, “I want my child to be persecuted and insulted. Every kind of evil uttered against them because of his faith. Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in Heaven.”

See, the Beatitudes flip our perspective upside down. I think that is why Jesus went to the mountain to teach it, because He wanted to flip everyone’s idea of God upside down.

In the beginning, as I talked about Family Feud, the number one answers were success, money, happiness, safety, and health. None of these are the priority. The priority of the Beatitudes ultimately is embracing the Cross. Blessed are you when your child misses a game, or misses a game because of Sunday Mass, and is persecuted by his fellow teammates. Blessed is that child. Blessed are you when your faith takes precedence over anything else and you are persecuted because of it. Blessed are you when you are the odd ball family that goes to Mass on your vacation. Blessed are you every time somebody rejects you or persecutes you because of your faith, for your reward will be great in Heaven.

The question is, “Have you been persecuted for your faith? Have you been brought low for your faith? Have you missed opportunities because of your faith?” If you have, rejoice, and be glad for your reward will be great in Heaven. The idea is not to make it in this world and to be number one in this world. The idea is to be the meek and humble in this world so we can ultimately be in eternal life. The number one answer may not be what you think it is. The number one answer ultimately is the answer of humility. It is through true humility that we will find ultimate blessing, ultimate happiness, and one day the Kingdom of God.