Today’s Gospel passage from the beginning of the fifth chapter of Matthew opens a reading of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Chapter 5-7) that will continue for the next several Sundays in Ordinary Time. Jesus’ inaugural preaching event takes place on a Galilean hillside to which crowds were coming from near and far. When Jesus sees the crowd, he gathers his disciples closest to him with the pronouncement of the beatitudes, telling them what it means to be counted among the “blessed” in God’s kingdom.
While Luke portrays Jesus proclaim four beatitudes, Matthew’s version contains nine. A major difference between them is that Luke focuses on a preferential option in this life for the poor, the hungry, and those who mourn, while Matthew broadens these categories to make them more about a spirituality centered on the kingdom of heaven. For example, in Matthew, it is not simply the “poor” who are blessed but the “poor in spirit.” It is not simply the “hungry” who are blessed, but those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” In all the beatitudes, those who are deemed “blessed” are those favored by God because their suffering in this world will be overturned under the reign of God. Keeping the attitudes of the kingdom in this life will lead to a reward in the heavenly kingdom.
