The four Beatitudes

St Luke Chapter VI : Verses 20-26

Contents

• Luke vi. 20-26.  Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate).
• Annotations: Cornelius A Lapide
• Douay-Rheims 1582 text

Luke vi. 20-26.

Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

20 And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Et ipse elevatis oculis in discipulis suis, dicebat : Beati pauperes, quia vestrum est regnum Dei.

21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for you shall laugh.

Beati qui nunc esuritis, quia saturabimini. Beati qui nunc fletis, quia ridebitis.

22 Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

Beati eritis cum vos oderint homines, et cum separaverint vos, et exprobraverint, et ejicerint nomen vestrum tamquam malum propter Filium hominis.

23 Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets.

Gaudete in illa die, et exsultate : ecce enim merces vestra multa est in caelo : secundum haec enim faciebant prophetis patres eorum.

24 But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation.

Verumtamen væ vobis divitibus, quia habetis consolationem vestram.

25 Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep.

Væ vobis, qui saturati estis : quia esurietis. Væ vobis, qui ridetis nunc : quia lugebitis et flebitis.

26 Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.

Væ cum benedixerint vobis homines : secundum hæc enim faciebant pseudoprophetis patres eorum.

Annotations from the Great Commentary

    20. Blessed are ye poor … in spirit (see S. Matt. v. 3), for poorness of spirit is a rich and precious virtue. Therefore S. Ambrose rightly concludes that poverty, privations, and sorrow, which the world counts evil, not only are no hindrances, but on the contrary have been declared by Him who could neither deceive nor be deceived, to be of great assistance towards the attainment of a holy and a happy life.

    The same writer goes on to give the reason why S. Luke has reduced the number of the beatitudes to four. He was content that they should include the four cardinal virtues. 

• Justice, which, coveting not the possessions of others, rejoices in holy poverty; 
• temperance, which had rather suffer want than be full; 
• prudence, which chooses to sorrow here, in hope of the joy which shall be revealed; and 
• fortitude, which for sake of Christ and His Gospel, endures persecution and so triumphs over every enemy. 

    Hence we read that the poor, the temperate, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (S. Matthew), the just, those who weep, the prudent who despise earthly things and seek heavenly, those hated of their fellowmen, not because of any misdeeds but for the Gospel’s sake, who, steadfast in the faith, seek for future happiness by pleasing God rather than men—that these are indeed blessed.

    24. But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation.. To the four beatitudes Christ, by antithesis, opposes as many states of misery and unhappiness.

    The poor are blessed for all eternity, but the rich receive in this world their consolation; the hungry shall be satisfied with good things, but those that are full now shall be sent empty away. They who weep here shall hereafter rejoice, but for those who laugh now there is reserved a future of mourning; and those that are spoken well of by their fellow men, are laying up for themselves an eternity of woe.

    woe. For Οὐαλ, Latin væ, as S. Gregory points out (Hom. 9. on Ezekiel), oftentimes in Scripture denotes the wrath of God and everlasting punishment. Hence this word is here used by Christ partly as a lament over the future and eternal misery of the worldly, (S. Chrysostom, Hom. 44 ad pop.); partly as a prophecy of it (Titus); partly as threatening and decreeing such punishment against them (Tertullian, bk. iv. against Marcian).

    you that are rich. As by poor we understand those poor in spirit who love poverty because thereby they are the better able to please God, so we may take the word rich to mean those who, greedy of gain, heap up riches by any means in their power, and look upon wealth as their sole happiness and the one object of their life. Hence mortal sin, robbery, extortion, unfair dealing, and other such like sins. Therefore the denunciation of Christ. But those who are rich by inheritance and honest labour, as long as they are not corrupted by their riches, but use them for the glory of God and the good of their fellow men, in reality are poor, as were the patriarchs, David, and many other of the saints of old.

    For it is not the amount he possesses, but the use a man makes of his riches which is accounted sin. So “For they that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition.  For the desire of money is the root of all evils;” See 1 Tim. vi. 9,10.

    for you have your consolation. Ye set your heart on your riches, use them for your own evil gratification, and put them in the place of your God. Therefore ye are allowed the enjoyment of them in this life, but in the life which is to come ye will, as Christ has here declared, come short of everlasting happiness, for those who have in this world received their consolation will lose their eternal reward.

    Hence S. Hieronymus (Epist. 34), when endeavouring to persuade Julian, a rich nobleman, to give up the world and devote himself to a holy and religious life, uses this powerful argument. “It is difficult, if not impossible,” he says, “to enjoy happiness in both worlds—to give ourselves up to our evil lusts and passions here, but to become spiritually minded after death—to pass from one state of happiness to the other—to acquire glory both in this world and in the next, … and to be distinguished equally in heaven and on earth. Hence Abraham returned none other answer to the rich man than this, ‘Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.’ ” See chapter 16:25.

    So also Christ is said to have offered S. Catherine of Siena two crowns, one set with jewels, the other begirt with thorns, bidding her choose which she would wear in this life, which in the life to come. She chose the thorny crown, and, regardless of the anguish, pressed it firmly on her head.

    25. Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger.—ye who live only for eating and drinking, for ye shall hunger in eternity.

    Actual evil-doers will indeed endure heavier punishment; but those who are gluttonous will suffer torment from the absence of those things wherein they delighted. Hence Dives prayed for but one drop of water to cool the tongue which he had accustomed to the richest food and the choicest wine. S. Euthymius.

    For, as S. Basil writes, to live for pleasure alone is but to make a God of one’s belly: Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things. Phil. iii.19. From the one vice of gluttony spring innumerable others which war against the soul. Subdue then this one vice, and you will at the same time subdue many others, for innumerable are the promptings of lust, which following in the train of gluttony, hold out promise of enjoyment, but lead to everlasting misery. S. Gregory in lib. regum, lib. v. cap. 1.

    The mind which is always accustomed to pleasure, and never weeded of evil by discipline, contracts much moral defilement (S. Bernard, Epist. 152); and again (Serm. 48, in Cant.), “A life spent in pleasure is both death and the shadow of death, for as a shadow follows close on that by which it is cast, a life of pleasure, beyond dispute, borders on destruction.”

    On the contrary, fasting and abstinence give rise to chaste thoughts, reasonable desires and healthful counsels, for by voluntary self-denial the flesh is mortified and spiritual virtues are strengthened and renewed. S. Leo, (serm. 11, de jejunio).

    Hence Christ gave S. Catherine this rule of life, “Choose that which is bitter as sweet, avoid that which is sweet as bitter.” See also Eccles. ii.1.

    Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep.—in this life, and much more in the life to come S. Basil seems in his rules to forbid all laughter, because this is a life of penitence and sorrow, but the future one of joy and gladness. Certain it is, as S. Augustine points out, that Christ is never said to have laughed, although He often wept.

    Mirth in moderation, however, is not forbidden to the followers of Christ. “A fool lifteth up his voice in laughter: but a wise man will scarce laugh low to himself.” (Ecclus. xxi. 23); and (Eccles. ii. 2), “Laughter I counted error: and to mirth I said: Why art thou vainly deceived?” Commenting on which passages, I have shown that it is immoderate laughter which is condemned, and not that moderate mirth which is the mark of a kindly disposition and well-regulated mind.

    Woe to you that now laugh: i.e. to you who laugh with the drunken, and make merry over sinful enjoyment, for you will weep and lament for ever in hell.

    26. Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets. When men, who for the most part are carnally minded, speak well of you as setters forth of that which is pleasing to their ears, for they hate the truth, and persecute those who rebuke vice and restrain the evildoer, but praise them who excuse iniquity, whom God abhors. 

    for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets, and therefore they all have entered into condemnation. I also condemn you inasmuch as ye follow after their example. This “woe” is the contrary to the blessing promised to the true prophets, who for the gospel’s sake endure persecution, v. 22. So S. Paul: “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” See Gal. i.10. For he who preaches false doctrine and things pleasing to the carnal mind, causes his hearers to continue in wickedness and commit many sins, and therefore will receive greater damnation.

    Again, the preacher who seeks the applause rather than the conversion of his hearers, and looks upon this as the end and object of his ministry, will be condemned; because he sought to obtain the praise of men rather than to advance the glory of God, and made the vainglory of the world the one object of his life, thus destroying the souls of those committed to his care. [Cf. false ecumenism]

    Such were the false teachers whom Jeremiah and the other prophets so often were called upon to refute. “The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things:” Jer. v. 31.

Douay-Rheims : 1582 text

20. And he lifting vp his eyes vpon his Diſciples, ſaid: Bleſſed are ye poore: for yours is the Kingdom of God.

21. Bleſſed are you that now are an hungred: becauſe you ſhal be filled. Bleſſed are you that now doe weepe: becauſe you ſhal laugh.

22. Bleſſed ſhal you be when men ſhal hate you, and when they ſhal ſeperate you, and vpbraid you, and abandon your name as euil, for the Sonne of mans ſake.

23. Be glad in that day and reioyce: for behold, your reward is much in Heauen. For according to theſe things did their Fathers to the Prophets.

24. But woe to you that are rich: becauſe you haue your conſolation.

25. Woe to you that are filled: becauſe you ſhal be hungrie. Woe to you that now doe laugh: because you ſhal mourne and weep.

26. Woe, when al man ſhal bleſſe you: For according to theſe things did their Fathers to the falſe-Prophets.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.