Beatitudes

 
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom
of Heaven
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
Heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt. 5:3-12).
 
On this road to life, the Ten Commandments summarizes a kind of minimum, or what is
necessary, and the Beatitudes summarizes a kind of maximum, or what is sufficient.
The beatitudes describe the perfection of charity and supreme happiness. Beatitude is
supernatural in three ways: It is beyond human nature, beyond human reason, and
beyond human power.
 
Beatitude makes us partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. With beatitude,
man enters into the glory of Christ (Rom. 8:18) and the joy of the Trinitarian life (CCC
1721). Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from
an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural (CCC 1722).
 
This supernatural end gives Catholic morality a greater hope and a greater joy than any
other. True morality is a prescription for joy-in Heaven and also on the way to Heaven.
The Church will not canonize a saint without evidence of heroic, supernatural joy in his
life as well as heroic virtue. It is secular, godless morality that is joyless and dull.
Catholic morality is something more full of joy than the joy of sex. It could rightly be
called the joy of love.
 
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

"Poor in spirit" means to be humble. Humility is the realization that all your gifts and
blessings come from the grace of God. To have poverty of spirit means to be completely
empty and open to the Word of God. When we are an empty cup and devoid of pride,
we are humble. Humility brings an openness and an inner peace, allowing one to do the
will of God. He who humbles himself is able to accept our frail nature, to repent, and to
allow the grace of God to lead us to Conversion.

It is pride, the opposite of humility, that brings misery. For pride brings anger and the
seeking of revenge, especially when one is offended. If every man were humble and
poor in spirit, there would be no war!

"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

If we are humble and appreciate that all of our gifts and blessings come from God, we
grow in love and gratitude for Jesus Christ our Savior. But this can only produce
mourning and regret over our own sins and the sins of this world, for we have hurt the
one who has been so good to us. One also mourns for the suffering of others.

St. Gregory describes another reason to mourn: the more one ascends in meditation of
Divine Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and then realize the poverty of human nature,
man can only be left in sorrow. When one contemplates that we were made in the
image and likeness of God and lived in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, and compare
that to our present state after the Fall, one can only mourn our present condition. But
the sentence continues that they shall be comforted, by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit,
and hopefully one day in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mourning in this context is called a blessing, because mourning our fallen nature
creates in us a desire to improve ourselves and to do what is right!

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

St. Gregory of Nyssa taught that the Beatitudes build one upon another. A humble
person becomes meek, or becomes gentle and kind, and exhibits a docility of spirit,
even in the face of adversity and hardship. A person that is meek is one that exhibits
self-control. St. Augustine advises us to be meek in the face of the Lord, and not resist
but be obedient to him. Obedience and submission to the will of God are certainly not in
vogue these days, but they will bring one peace in this world and in the next.

"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

A continuous desire for justice and moral perfection will lead one to a fulfillment of that
desire - a transition and conversion to holiness. This is true for all the virtues - if you
hunger and thirst for temperance, you will head towards the goal you have in mind. St.
Augustine called the Beatitudes the ideal for every Christian life! In his discourse on the
Lord's Sermon on the Mount, he noted the correspondence of the seven gifts of the
Holy Spirit and their necessity in fulfilling the Beatitudes. For example, one must have
the gift of fortitude so one may be courageous in seeking justice.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

Mercy is the loving disposition towards those who suffer distress. Love, compassion,
and forgiveness towards one's neighbor will bring peace in your relationships. We say in
the Lord's Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against
us. As we are merciful to others, so our Heavenly Father will be merciful with us! Jesus
reminds us that whatever "you did to the least of my brethren, you did it to me (Matthew
25:31-46)." St. Paul calls for the obedience of faith in the beginning and end of his
Letter to the Romans (1:5, 16:25-27). The following are ways to be merciful to your
neighbor as well as to be obedient in faith to Christ our Savior.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

1  Feed the Hungry
2 Give drink to the thirsty
3 Clothe the naked
4 Shelter the homeless
5 Comfort the imprisoned
6 Visit the sick
7 Bury the dead

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

1 Admonish sinners
2 Instruct the uninformed
3 Counsel the doubtful
4 Comfort the sorrowful
5 Be patient with those in error
6 Forgive offenses
7 Pray for the living and the dead

"Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God."

Moses (Exodus 33:20), John (1:18), and Paul (1Timothy 6:16) all say that no one can
see God here on earth! But Jesus says the pure of heart shall see God! To be pure of
heart means to be free of all selfish intentions and self-seeking desires. What a beautiful
goal! How many times have any of us performed an act perfectly free of any personal
gain? Such an act is pure love. An act of pure and selfless giving brings happiness to
all.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."

Peacemakers not only live peaceful lives but also try to bring peace and friendship to
others, and to preserve peace between God and man. St. Gregory of Nyssa calls a
peacemaker a man who brings peace to another; but one cannot give another what one
does not possess oneself. Hence the Lord wants you first to be yourself filled with the
blessings of peace and then to communicate it to those who have need of it. By
imitating God's love of man, the peacemakers become children of God.

"Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

Jesus said many times that those who follow Him will be persecuted. "If they persecute
me, they will persecute you" (John 15:20-21). Stephen, Peter and Paul, nearly all of the
Apostles, and many Christians in the Roman era suffered martyrdom. Oppressive
governments and endless conflicts in the last one hundred years, such as World Wars I
and II, and the Middle East Wars in Iraq, Egypt, and Syria have seen their share of
martyrs, such as Maximilian Kolbe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Latin American martyrs,
and Middle East Christians. The Central American Martyrs include the 38 recognized
martyrs of La Cristiada, the Cristero War from 1926 to 1929, when the Mexican
government persecuted priests of the Catholic Church, such as St. Christopher
Magallanes, St. ToribioRomo Gonzalez, and the 14 year old martyr Blessed Jose Luis
Sanchez del Rio. St. Maximilian Kolbe offered his life in place of a stranger at the
Auschwitz death camps on August 14, 1941. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor
who was hung on April 9, 1945 for condemning the leadership of Hitler in Nazi
Germany. Another Central American martyr was Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San
Salvador, who was assassinated while saying Mass at Divine Providence Hospital on
March 24, 1980 for speaking out against government human rights violations. Middle
Eastern Christians have suffered severe persecution since the Iraq War. At least 58
Christians were slaughtered at Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Salvation
SyriacEastern Catholic Church in Baghdad on October 31, 2010. The present turmoil in
Syria has left 500,000 Christian refugees displaced from their homes, having fled to
Jordan, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries. But the Lord promised those that
suffer for his sake will be rewarded with the Kingdom of Heaven!
 
The importance of the beatitudes.
 
Those who yearn for the Kingdom of God look to Jesus’ list of priorities: the Beatitudes.
 From Abraham on, God made promises to his people. Jesus takes them up, extends
their application to Heaven, and makes them the program for his own life: the Son of
God becomes poor so as to share our poverty; he rejoices with those who rejoice and
weeps with those who weep (Rom. 12:15); he employs no violence but rather turns the
other  cheek (Mt. 5:39); he has mercy, makes peace, and thereby shows us the sure
way to Heaven. 
 
Happiness
 
God has placed in our hearts such an infinite desire for happiness that nothing can
satisfy it but God himself. All earthly fulfillment gives us only a foretaste of eternal
happiness. Above and beyond that, we should be drawn to God.
 
“God wants us to be happy. But where the source of this hope lies? It lies in a
communion with God, who lives in the depths of the soul of every man” (Brother Roger
Schultz).
 
“Happiness is not in us, nor happiness outside of us. Happiness is in God alone. And if
we have found him, then it is everywhere” (Blaise Paschal

Malala Yousafzai
Facts
Photo: K. Opprann
Malala Yousafzai
The Nobel Peace Prize 2014
Born: 12 July 1997, Mingora, Pakistan
Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom
Prize motivation: "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young
people and for the right of all children to education."
Prize share: 1/2

Life
Malala Yousafzai was born in the Swat district of northwestern Pakistan, where her
father was a school owner and was active in educational issues. After having blogged
for the BBC since 2009 about her experiences during the Taliban's growing influence
in the region, in 2012 the Taliban attempted to assassinate Malala Yousafzai on the
bus home from school. She survived, but underwent several operations in the UK,
where she lives today. In addition to her schooling, she continues her work for the
right of girls to education.

Work
Much of the world's population, especially in poor countries, is made up of children
and young people. To achieve a peaceful world, it is crucial that the rights of children
and young people be respected. Injustices perpetrated against children contribute to
the spread of conflicts to future generations. Already at eleven years of age Malala
Yousafzai fought for girls' right to education. After having suffered an attack on her
life by Taliban gunmen in 2012, she has continued her struggle and become a leading
advocate of girls' rights.

Malala Yousafzai
Biographical
Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, the largest city in the Swat
Valley in what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. She is the
daughter of Ziauddin and Tor Pekai Yousafzai and has two younger brothers.
At a very young age, Malala developed a thirst for knowledge. For years her father, a
passionate education advocate himself, ran a learning institution in the city, and
school was a big part of Malala’s family. She later wrote that her father told her
stories about how she would toddle into classes even before she could talk and acted
as if she were the teacher.
In 2007, when Malala was ten years old, the situation in the Swat Valley rapidly
changed for her family and community. The Taliban began to control the Swat Valley
and quickly became the dominant socio-political force throughout much of
northwestern Pakistan. Girls were banned from attending school, and cultural
activities like dancing and watching television were prohibited. Suicide attacks were
widespread, and the group made its opposition to a proper education for girls a
cornerstone of its terror campaign. By the end of 2008, the Taliban had destroyed
some 400 schools.
Determined to go to school and with a firm belief in her right to an education, Malala
stood up to the Taliban. Alongside her father, Malala quickly became a critic of their
tactics. “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” she once said
on Pakistani TV.
In early 2009, Malala started to blog anonymously on the Urdu language site of the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). She wrote about life in the Swat Valley
under Taliban rule, and about her desire to go to school. Using the name “Gul Makai,”
she described being forced to stay at home, and she questioned the motives of the
Taliban.
Malala was 11 years old when she wrote her first BBC diary entry. Under the blog
heading “I am afraid,” she described her fear of a full-blown war in her beautiful Swat
Valley, and her nightmares about being afraid to go to school because of the Taliban.
Pakistan’s war with the Taliban was fast approaching, and on May 5, 2009, Malala
became an internally displaced person (IDP), after having been forced to leave her
home and seek safety hundreds of miles away.
On her return, after weeks of being away from Swat, Malala once again used the
media and continued her public campaign for her right to go to school. Her voice grew
louder, and over the course of the next three years, she and her father became known
throughout Pakistan for their determination to give Pakistani girls access to a free
quality education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International
Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National
Youth Peace Prize. But, not everyone supported and welcomed her campaign to bring
about change in Swat. On the morning of October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala
Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban.
Seated on a bus heading home from school, Malala was talking with her friends about
schoolwork. Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus. A young bearded Talib
asked for Malala by name, and fired three shots at her. One of the bullets entered and
exited her head and lodged in her shoulder. Malala was seriously wounded. That same
day, she was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar and four days later
to an intensive care unit in Birmingham, England.
Once she was in the United Kingdom, Malala was taken out of a medically induced
coma. Though she would require multiple surgeries, including repair of a facial nerve
to fix the paralyzed left side of her face, she had suffered no major brain damage. In
March 2013, after weeks of treatment and therapy, Malala was able to begin attending
school in Birmingham.
After the shooting, her incredible recovery and return to school resulted in a global
outpouring of support for Malala. On July 12, 2013, her 16th birthday, Malala visited
New York and spoke at the United Nations. Later that year, she published her first
book, an autobiography entitled “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education
and Was Shot by the Taliban.” On October 10, 2013, in acknowledgement of her
work, the European Parliament awarded Malala the prestigious Sakharov Prize for
Freedom of Thought.
In 2014, through the Malala Fund, the organization she co-founded with her father,
Malala traveled to Jordan to meet Syrian refugees, to Kenya to meet young female
students, and finally to northern Nigeria for her 17th birthday. In Nigeria, she spoke
out in support of the abducted girls who were kidnapped earlier that year by Boko
Haram, a terrorist group which, like the Taliban, tries to stop girls from going to
school.
In October 2014, Malala, along with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash
Satyarthi, was named a Nobel Peace Prize winner. At age 17, she became the
youngest person to receive this prize. Accepting the award, Malala reaffirmed that
“This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It
is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who
want change.”
Today, the Malala Fund has become an organization that, through education,
empowers girls to achieve their potential and become confident and strong leaders in
their own countries. Funding education projects in six countries and working with
international leaders, the Malala Fund joins with local partners to invest in innovative
solutions on the ground and advocates globally for quality secondary education for all
girls.
Currently residing in Birmingham, Malala is an active proponent of education as a
fundamental social and economic right. Through the Malala Fund and with her own
voice, Malala Yousafzai remains a staunch advocate for the power of education and
for girls to become agents of change in their communities.
From 

Conscience
 
What is conscience?
 
Conscience is our morality-detector.
“Deep within his cosncience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but
which he must obey... calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil” (GS
16).
Conscience is the inner voice in a man that moves him to do good under any
circumstances and to avoid evil by all means. At the same time it is the ability to
distinguish the one from the other. In the conscience God speaks to man. (CCC, 1776-
1779)
Conscience is compared with an inner voice in which God manifest himself in a man.
God is the one who becomes apparent in the conscience. When we say, i cannot
reconcile that with my conscience, this means for Christian, I cannot do that in the sight
of my Creator. Many people have gone to jail or been executed because they were true
to their conscience.
“Anything that done against conscience is a sin”. St. Thomas Aquinas
“To do violence to people’s conscience means to harm them seriously, to deal
extremely painful blow to their dignity. In a certain sense it is worse than killing them”.
John XXIII, the one who convoke the 2nd  Vatican Council.
 
Three functions of conscience.
 
Conscience gives us three things:
1. An awareness of good and evil
2. A desire of good and evil
3. A feeling of joy and peace and rightness at having done good and of unease and
guilt at having done evil.
These three functions of conscience correspond to the three parts of the soul, (a) the
mind, or intellect, or reason, (b) the will, and (c) the emotions or feelings.
Conscience is a judgment of reason “whereby the human person recognizes the moral
quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or
has already completed (CCC, 1778).

Moral conscience... enjoins him at the appropriate  moment to do good and to avoid
evil. (CCC, 1777).

Conscience is also an intuitive feeling approving those that are good and denouncing
those that are evil. (CCC, 1777).
 
Can someone be compelled to do something that is against his conscience?
 
No one may be compelled to act against his conscience, provided he acts within the
limits of the common good (CCC, 1780-1782).
Anyone who overlooks the conscience of a person ignores it and uses coercion, violates
that person’s dignity. Practically nothing else makes man more human than the gift of
being able personally to distinguish good from evil and to choose between them. This is
so even if the decision, seen in an objective light, is wrong. Unless man’s conscience
has been incorrrectly formed, the inner voice speaks in agreement with what is
generally reasonable, just, and good in God’s sight.
 
Types of conscience.
1. Certain
 2. Doubtful
3. Righteous
4. Erroneous
Is someone who in good conscience acts wrongly guilty in God’s sight?
 
No. If a person has thoroughly examined himself and arrived at a certain judgment, he
must in any case follow his inner voice, even at the risk of doing something wrong.
(CCC, 1790-1794, 1801-1802)
God does not blame us for the objective harm that results from a wrong judgment of
conscience, provided that we ourselves are not responsible for having a badly formed
conscience. While it is quite true that ultimately one must follow ones conscience, it
must likewise be kept in mind that people have swindled, murdered, tortured, and
betrayed others on the basis of what they wrongly suppose to be their conscience.
 
Certain errors about conscience.
1. Conscience is not just a feeling.
2. Conscience is not infallible.
3. Conscience is not passive.
Moral Principles guiding conscience
 Only the true and certain conscience is the right proximate rule of morality.
 Man has the obligation, therefore, to make sure his conscience is “true”, i.e.
sufficiently formed and informed.
 Man has the obligation to follow not only his true conscience, but also his
erroneous conscience if it is invincibly erroneous.
 It is not right to follow a culpably erroneous conscience or a doubtful conscience.
 Doubts can be resolved by means of sincerity, upright intention, the desire to
seek the will of God in everything, and a sense of responsibility in consulting the
right person.
 
Can a person form his conscience?
 
Yes, in fact he must do that. The conscience, which is innate to every person endowed
with reason, can be misled and deadened. That is why it must be formed into an
increasingly fine-tuned instrument for acting rightly. (CCC, 1783-1788, 1799-1800)
The first school of conscience is self-criticism. We have the tendency to judge things to
our own advantage. The second school of conscience is orientation to the good actions
of others. The correct formation of conscience leads man into the freedom to do what
has been correctly identified as good. With the help of the Holy Spirit and Scripture, the
Church over her long history has accumulated a vast knowledge about right action; it is
part of her mission to instruct people and also to give them directions.
Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed
conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgment according to reason, in
conformity to the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator.
The formation of the conscience is life-long task.
In the formation of conscience, the word of God is the light of our path.