The Mystery of Christ
The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience

by Father Thomas Keating

Chapter 4 Part II

Ordinary Time

A New Kind of Consciousness

    Jesus then came down with his apostles and stopped on some level ground. A large group of his disciples, besides a great many people from all over the Jewish country, including Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, had come to hear him and be cured of their diseases. Everybody in the crowd endeavored to come and touch him and power was going out from him and healing everyone. It was then that he raised his eyes and fixed them upon his disciples and spoke as follows: "How blest are the poor in spirit; the reign of God is theirs. Blest are the meek; they shall inherit the land. Blest are the sorrowing; they shall be consoled." 
[Luke 6:17-20; Matt. 5:3-5]

    In this rendering of the Sermon on the Mount, we are told that a great crowd had gathered. Many of the people had come to be healed of their diseases and had no concern for spiritual instruction. Jesus simply presented his teaching to everyone who happened to be present. We can be sure, therefore, that his words were also intended for us.

    We saw that the poor in spirit are those afflicted for God's sake. People who are cut off from the normal symbols of security in society have the ideal disposition for the reign of God because they have nothing to lose. One who has nothing to lose obviously is much more willing to allow God into one's life. Jesus in his teaching suggests that the healing of our security center comes when we trust God to take care of all our needs. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus elaborates on what he means by letting go of the anxious search for more and more possessions to assuage our feelings of insecurity:

    Do not fret about what to eat and what to drink or about what to wear on your bodies. Is not life more precious than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't sow or reap or store provisions in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Observe the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil or spin, yet even Solomon in all his glory did not dress like one of these.
[Matt. 6:25-30]

    "Blest are the sorrowing; they shall be consoled." Love distorted by selfishness wants to cling to ephemeral or illusory projects for happiness. When we let such things go, we are bound to feel loss and the corresponding emotion of sorrow. This sorrow is not the same as that which comes from the unwillingness to let go of what is being asked or taken from us and which may give rise to discouragement, depression and even despair. The willingness to let go and bear the loss of what we love gives rise to a new inner freedom that enables us to live without what we previously thought was so essential. That freedom with its accompanying peace is the consolation that is promised in this beatitude. We have to allow for the grieving period to run its course and not run away from it. Nor should we think there is something wrong if we sometimes cast a backward glance at something we left behind or are overtaken at times by a backlash of emotional turmoil. In actual fact, we never lose anything that truly deserves to be loved; we simply enter into a more mature relationship with it.

    "Blest are the meek; they shall inherit the land." The meek are those who do not get angry in the face of insult or injury and who have begun to dismantle their need or demand to control other people, events, and their own lives. When they experience an insult or humiliation, they do not feel it as a loss of power. Hence, they are free to continue to show love. The meek refuse to injure others regardless of the provocation. They are not judgmental. They may not approve of someone's conduct or principles, but they refuse to make a moral judgment about the person in question. Rather, their freedom from their power/control center enables them to have great compassion for those who are still imprisoned in the straightjacket of power needs that never rest and that can never be fulfilled.

    The teaching of Gandhi, who preached abimsa (usually translated as "the practice of nonviolence"), points to a new kind of consciousness in which, instead of returning an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, one goes on showing love. Abimsa is not a passive attitude but one that actively shows love no matter what happens. The love is so delicate and sincere that it refuses to take advantage of one's persecutor when he is vulnerable.

    The meekness proposed in this beatitude is not passivity but the firm determination to go on loving no matter what evil another person does to us. It believes that to show love is the true nature of being human. This behavior undercuts violence at its roots. Violence tends to beget violence. When people feel attacked, they defend themselves. There is no end to the chain of violence until one of the contenders refuses to respond in kind. The determination to go on loving in spite of immense provocation is the only way to achieve peace among families, communities and nations. It presupposes and manifests the inner freedom to which the Gospel invites us.

More information can be obtained by reading the book The Mystery of Christ by Fr. Thomas Keating.  It is offered in our Book Store.