Today, with the proclamation of the Beatitudes, Jesus helps us realize how forgetful we can be and how we tend to be like children, who usually forget their memories because of their plays. Jesus feared that the amount of His “good news” —His words, His gestures, His silences— would be diluted amidst our sins and worries. In the parable of the Sower, do you remember the image of the thorns that sprang up with His seeds, and choked them? Well, this is why St. Matthew runs the Beatitudes as fundamental principles, so that we do not ever forget them. They are a compendium of the New Law presented by Jesus, basic points which help us live a Christian life.

The Beatitudes are intended for everybody. The Master is not only teaching His disciples around Him, nor does He exclude any kind of persons, but He delivers a Universal message. However, He emphasizes the disposition we must have and the moral behavior He expects from us. While the definite salvation is not given in this world, but in the next, we must change, right now, while we are here, our mentality and our evaluation of things. It is necessary we get used to seeing the crying face of Christ, in those who mourn, in those poor of spirit, in the meek at heart, in those who yearn to become saints, in those who have taken a “determined determination”, as St. Therese of the Child Jesus liked to say, so that we can become Sowers of Peace and Joy.

The Beatitudes are the Lord's perfume participated in human history. But, also in yours and mine. The last two verses incorporate the presence of the Cross, as they invite us to rejoice when, because of Him and of the Gospel, things go humanly wrong. For when the coherence of our Christian life is strong, we will then, most probably suffer persecution in a thousand different ways, amid unexpected difficulties and setbacks. St. Matthew's text is emphatic: so “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven” (Mt 5:12).