Children are often asked what they want ‘to be’ when they grow up. How often, however, do we hear a child say: ‘when I grow up I want to be poor in spirit, or when I grow up I want to mourn? Yet these beatitudes are God’s response to the human longing for happiness. The beatitudes are the authentic recipe for happiness and Jesus situates these 8 attitudes of being in the context of being in relationship. To be human, fully human is to be in relationship with God, with others and with one self. One reality of human existence that we cannot gloss over is that sin has entered the human scene and has left its imprint upon us individually and our relationships with God, and with others. Because of sin these three relationships are not always what they should or can be. Because of sin humanity’s search for true happiness or blessedness has been eclipsed by concupiscence or the desires of the flesh, which injure the network of relationships in which the human person finds him or herself. So by means of the beatitudes Jesus offers each of us the road map that directs us back to the highway leading to happiness.
As I prayerfully reflected upon these beatitudes with the hope of penetrating what Jesus was really trying to say to us today in this celebration I found myself being drawn to recognize the presence of a ninth beatitude in the very celebration of the Eucharist. This ninth beatitude encapsulates within itself the other eight mentioned in the Gospel. This beatitude comes from the lips of the priest who standing in the person of Jesus Christ says to each of us: “Happy are those who are called to His supper.” This beatitude does not state explicitly why those who are called to the Lord’s Supper are happy. Is it because the happiness or blessedness of partaking in the Lord’s Table encompasses in itself the joys of all the other 8 beatitudes? The answer to this question is without hesitation: yes.
Jesus in the Eucharist cultivates within us an attitude of being which is capable of living the blessedness or happiness of the beatitudes. This attitude is one of gratitude and it flows freely from our communion with Christ. It is from living in close relationship with Jesus that we learn the secrets to saintliness. The Happiness we long for involves relationship; it involves a mutual exchange of being with and for the other. Christ alone can override the power of sin in our lives freeing us to enter into this mutual exchange of being in relationship. We encounter this overriding power at the Lord’s Table where we are nourished by his body, blood, soul and divinity. Christ’s Eucharistic presence is the source of our happiness because it is through his sacrificial death made present daily on this altar that the floodgates of heaven are opened for us granting us access to the blessed exchange of godly relationships.
If happiness comes through relationships based on godly attitudes then we must humbly bow this afternoon before Christ in the Eucharist for making such relationships possible once again. For us, the Eucharist is foremost a Sacrifice, the Sacrifice, the door that grants access to Communion with God. The Eucharist is also Communion, which gives birth to the mystical body of Christ, a communion, which penetrates to the very depths of human relationships. There can be no deeper human relationship then that wrought by Communion in the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Communion with Christ also cultivates within the individual human soul those attitudes of being which ensure a healthy love of self and so the Eucharist makes possible the blessedness and happiness that the human heart has been created to long for.
The highway to happiness has lead each of us here to this celebration. It is precisely here that every hunger will be satisfied for we are truly blessed for Christ has called us to his supper.
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