The Beatitudes

Compliments
Today's Gospel reading contains the Beatitudes. Years ago one of the lead catechists at RCIA described the Beatitudes as the positive compliments to the 10 Commandments. What he meant was that the Beatitudes expand on the commandments by requiring us to act. This view is consistent with the teaching in the Catechism:

God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life (CCC, 1721).

Navarre Commentary
According to the authors of the Navarre Study Bible the Beatitudes have a view for the kingdom of God:

All the Beatitudes have an eschatological meaning, that is, they promise us definitive salvation not in this world, but in the next. But the spirit of the Beatitudes does give us, in this life, peace in the midst of tribulation. The Beatitudes imply a completely new approach, quite at odds with the usual way man evaluates things: they rule out any kind of pharisaical religiosity, which regards earthly hap- piness as a blessing from God and a reward for good behavior, and unhappiness and misfortune as a form of punishment. In all ages the Beatitudes put spiritual goods on a much higher plane than material possessions. The healthy and the sick, the powerful and the weak, the rich and the poor – all are called, independently of their circumstances, to the deep happiness that is experienced by those who live up to the Beatitudes which Jesus teaches.

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