Blessed are...

Rejoice and Be Glad

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10

This is the only Beatitude that is repeated. Jesus continues, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”[1]

In this, longer, version, Jesus moves from the third person to the second. It is as if He is underlining the point that suffering is normal for those who follow Him. Then, He weaves into the fabric of Christian experience the expectation of joy. “Rejoice and be glad,” He says. Jesus does not mean that we should take some kind of perverse pleasure out of suffering. We are not called to be masochists. What He means is that, in spite of our suffering, we are to have the deep joy of the assurance of salvation, which no amount of persecution can ever remove.[2] To know Christ as Savior is to have an eternal joy that not even the lions in the Roman Coliseum can rip from our hearts. Perhaps there is a lesser joy here, also, the ‘gladness’ of knowing that we are living with integrity? Perversely, persecution proves that we are doing something right. Martin Luther once said that suffering is one of the marks of the true Church, just like the preaching of the Word and the right administration of the sacraments. When we are opposed by those whose values are not our own, we are vindicated. It means that we are standing with the prophets, and that we are “counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of Jesus.”[3]



Father,
I rejoice in Your mercy and Your love.
You have taken pity upon me, and called me to be Your own.
By grace You gave me the gifts of repentance and of faith,
and so enabled me to become a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven.
Now, Lord, strengthen me to live as I believe.
For the sake of Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.



[1] Matthew 5:11-12
[2] James 1:2
[3] Acts 5:41