The Pursuit of Happiness - God's Way - Living the Beatitudes

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Note: Page numbers in this digital version do not coincide with the printed book page numbers. When we think of happiness, we have to admit that our idea is at times worldly and self-centered. Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount showed us that true happiness will elude us, however, if we follow that kind of thinking. And, in the form of a series of promises and challenges which we have come to know as the Beatitudes, He told us how to find perfect happiness both here and hereafter. In a world that is capable of the best and the worst, we all have reason to be concerned about the very possibility of ever finding happiness in our lifetimes. The good news of the Gospel message is that we can. Even more, it teaches a way based not on rules and obligations so much as one founded on love, a way that depends upon and leads to the blessings of God Himself. These pages have been written in the conviction that every seeker should make the Sermon on the Mount the primary source of what will and will not make them happy. In His approach to the question, Jesus insists from the outset that we face up to the inevitable trials of poverty, tears, hunger and thirst, and shows us how we can find God as the source and object of our joy in the midst of them. Servais Pinckaers, professor of moral theology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland examines Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, commending it as the primary source of what will and will not make human beings happy PREFACE 8 BIBLICAL ABBREVIATIONS 10 Old Testament 10 New Testament 10 THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS — GOD'S WAY 11 1. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 12 The power of the Sermon on the Mount 12 The role of the Sermon on the Mount in Christian morality 13 A too familiar text 13 Does it still bear fruit? 14 "Realistic" exegesis 14 Situating the Sermon in St. Matthew 15 Jesus and Moses 15 Rooted in the Law and in ancient history 16 The New Law, work of the Holy Spirit 16 The role of the Sermon on the Mount 17 Promises rather than commands 18 The depth of meaning in the Sermon 18 To perceive the face of Christ 19 Those for whom the Sermon on the Mount is intended 19 Divisions of the Sermon on the Mount 20 2. THE BEATITUDES 21 St. Matthew and St. Luke 21 Blessed! 21 God's first word 22 The promises and faith take precedence over the commandments 22 The God of happiness 23 The Kingdom of heaven 23 The Kingdom, object of Jewish hope 24 The Kingdom and human hopes 24 The paradox of the beatitudes 25 The challenge of the beatitudes 26 The work of the plow 26 The timeliness of the beatitudes 26 3. BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT 28 The Good News proclaimed to the poor 28 Material poverty 29 Poverty of spirit 29 The multiple forms of poverty 30 The choice between rebellion and acceptance 31 Christ present in poverty 31 Liberation through poverty 32 Poverty and love 32 Voluntary poverty and poverty that is imposed 32 Poverty, harbinger of faith 33 Poverty and justice 34 4. MEEKNESS AND THE MENAGERIE WITHIN 35 Meekness in the Old Testament 35 Meekness in the New Testament 35 The paradox and challenge of the second beatitude 36 The power of meekness 37 Meekness and tigers 37 The sources of meekness 38 Meekness and suffering 38 Meekness and injustice 39 Meekness and the experience of forgiveness 39 Jesus' violence toward the Pharisees 40 The meekness of Jesus in the Passion 40 The beatitude of the meek 41 5. FOR THOSE WHO MOURN 43 The beatitude of consolation 43 An unbelievable beatitude 44 The beatitude of courage 44 A word to guide us 45 The instrument God chose 46 The voice of suffering 46 Faith in Christ's Passion and Resurrection 47 Suffering and love 48 Various kinds of sufferings 49 6. HUNGER AND THIRST 51 A hunger which moves from the physical to the spiritual 51 Desire for God 52 Justice in Scripture 52 Cold justice 53 The virtue of justice 54 A subjective concept of justice and law 55 Justice and charity 55 The justice of God and His mercy 56 Our representation of the judgment of God 56 Hunger and thirst for justice 57 The justice of God in the trial of Jesus 57 A new view of the last judgment 58 7. THE QUALITY OF MERCY 60 The theme of mercy in the Scriptures 60 Mercy in the New Testament 60 The word "mercy" has fallen upon evil days 61 Mercy transcends emotion 62 The power of mercy 62 Mercy in the interests of justice 63 The source of mercy 63 A daily mercy 64 The mercy of God 64 Mercy as opposed to sin 64 The presence of the Trinity in mercy 65 Happiness through mercy 65 8. I WILL GIVE YOU A NEW HEART 67 Only the pure in heart... 67 Cultic and moral purity 67 Interior purity in the Gospel 68 Purity challenged 69 Purity and chastity 70 Purity, a quality of love 70 Victorious purity 71 The purity that enlightens 71 Purity, light-bearer in a dark world 72 The battle for purity 72 The Holy Spirit and purity 73 9. IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCES OF PEACE 75 Apple of discord? 75 The meaning of the word "peace" 75 Peace in the Old Testament 76 Peace in the New Testament 77 The yearning for peace 79 Two kinds of peace 79 Various levels of peace 80 Toward the sources of peace 80 Peace in repentance 81 Active peacemakers 81 They shall be called the sons of God 82 10. A BLESSING FOR THE PERSECUTED 83 A Gospel for the persecuted 83 The persecuted prophets 84 The persecution of Jesus and His disciples 85 The mystery of persecution 86 A paradoxical beatitude 87 A spirituality of martyrdom 87 At the heart of all Christian spirituality 88 Martyrdom and Christian courage 89 Witness to a new life 89 A witness for us 90 This beatitude is urgent 91 Building the Kingdom here and now 91 11. THE COMMENTARIES OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND ST. THOMAS ON THE BEATITUDES 93 The Commentary of St. Augustine 93 St. Augustine's commentary on the beatitudes 93 The entire spiritual life contained in the beatitudes 93 The beatitudes related to the gifts of the Holy Spirit 94 Reading the beatitudes realistically 95 The Commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas 95 All of Christian morality can be found in the beatitudes 95 Freedom and convergence 96 A glance at my own commentary 97 Experience goes beyond ideas 97 A human and Christian word 98 BIBLIOGRAPHY 99