What do I desire?

Reflection

Who doesn’t want to be happy? As St Augustine writes, “all persons want to be happy; and no persons are happy who do not have what they want.” (De beata vita 2.10) Augustine knows that it is not so simple: having what and how do we keep it so that we don’t lose it? The question really becomes what do I desire? In the final analysis, there is a hunger of the human heart for God, often recognised only slowly, and a hunger for goodness and virtue, also a slow conversion. In God, we find a source of happiness which nothing can take away; in virtuous living, chiefly seeking the good of others, we come to our true fulfilment and contentment.

Reading

Zephaniah 2:3,3:12-13; Psalm 146 (145); 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12

Meditation (Matthew 5: 1-12)

The blessings in the Beatitudes are primarily future blessings, but there can be an anticipation of the blessings in the present. At first reading some Beatitudes may seem to describe circumstances that you would like to avoid at all costs. Read them slowly. Stay with each one for a while.

Let yourself get a sense of the paradox involved in each one. Perhaps you have had an experience of a deeper and more authentic life, a blessing, when…

-You were poor - you knew your need of God.

-You mourned – could feel for others.

-You were meek – not emotionally out of control.

-You hungered and thirsted for some cause.

-You were merciful rather than vengeful.

-You you were pure in heart – a person of integrity, whose actions and intentions correspond.

-You were a peacemaker.

-You were persecuted because you stood for something.