Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 7, 2021
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Just as Moses climbs Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God, the disciples are called onto the mountain to hear the Beatitudes directly from God made flesh. Jesus sits to signal he is teaching from authority.
In a sense, the Beatitudes are a continuation of the Mosaic law and build on the Ten Commandments. As Jesus says later, he doesn’t wish to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. The Beatitudes don’t replace Mosaic law. In verses 11 and 12, Jesus even compares his followers to the prophets of old.
Even with two sets of God-given guidebooks (so to speak), it can be tempting to excuse questionable behavior because we just don’t know what God wants us to do. The Commandments are specific: don’t lie, don’t covet, etc. The Beatitudes are vague: blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, etc. When we examine these texts and still can’t find an explicit answer to our question, we have another resource. God gave us his son as an example of perfect righteousness.
The laws and examples God gives us are a reminder of how much God values our free will. God won’t force us to honor God as we should. God tells us and shows us how to love so that we can freely choose to follow Christ.
The boundary between humility and deliberate blindness to God’s will can be blurry. Thomas Merton’s prayer calls to mind that “the fact that I may think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.” Though humility requires that we recognize our own inability to know God’s ways, truly desiring to please God requires that we use the resources God has given us to follow as best we can.
Prayer
Gracious God, you know how deeply we long for wholeness and a deeper happiness than we find in things and possessions. Teach us to take your Son’s beatitudes to heart, so that in letting go of those things that bind our hearts and minds, we may experience something of the joy and wonder now being experienced by all the saints in heaven. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Blessed Anne, or Ana, as she was born as, was an early member of St. Teresa of Àvila's Discalced Carmelite order. Ana was born in October of 1550, the youngest child of a large Catholic family.
Her three brothers, three sisters, and their parents all attended Mass frequently as a family. Her parents instilled a life of faith in their young children, praying the rosary together, instructing their children in Catholic doctrine, and teaching their children to provide for and care for the poor they offered hospitality to in their home.
Ana was drawn to the love expressed by Christ in his passion, and she meditated upon his suffering for us often. Ana desperately wanted to imitate Christ. When Ana was only nine years old, her mother passed away. Only a year later, Ana's father died as well, leaving young Ana in desolation.
Left in the care of her brothers, Ana deeply desired to join the religious order, but her elder brothers would not hear of it, convinced that Ana would not be able to persist in religious life, and leave them, embarrassed, with a spinster sister.
Ana languished, miserable and alone. She fell ill, and nothing could cure her. Her relatives worried about her health, but no cure could help her. Finally, they carried her to a hermitage dedicated to St. Bartholomew, and Ana was cured.
At long last, Ana entered the Carmelite convent as a secular member. She entered in 1570 and remained the infirmarian at the Carmelite convent until 1605. Ana cared for St. Teresa faithfully on her deathbed. Teresa died in Ana's arms.
In 1605, the French Carmelites appointed Ana the superior of the convent in Pontoise. This was a highly unusual step, as Ana was a "secular Carmelite," meaning she was not part of the choir, and removed from the convent's life of prayer. She was consecrated as a religious sister and took over the convent at Pontoise. Ana became the prioress of several different convents: Tours, Flanders, and finally Antwerp, where she died on June 7, 1626. Her spiritual writings and letters are preserved in Antwerp and Paris.
Pope Benedict XV beatified Ana on May 6, 1917.
Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, companion to St. Teresa of Avila—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Bl. Anne of St. Bartholomew is in the public domain. Last accessed March 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
