5. The beatitudes

The Gospel according to Matthew focuses on the figure of Jesus, the new Israel. It is Jesus who fulfills in his person the promises to the ancient people. The Evangelist Matthew presents, in fact, the fulfillment of the Scriptures in the person, in the life and in the public ministry of Jesus. His narration, as we have already seen, is organized according to five great discourses, with narrative parts and two elements that frame it: the introduction, written as infancy narratives, and the conclusion with the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. The first two chapters narrate some scenes from the Savior's childhood. From chapter 3, the history of the public ministry begins.

The first two chapters are exclusive to Matthew, that is, it is an elaboration of the school of scribes who produced the first gospel. Staring with chapter 3, the synoptics perfectly agree with the narrative: Matthew, Mark and Luke. Mark, in fact, begins the narrative with the preaching of John the Baptist, while Luke and Matthew present the infancy narratives. Still, Matthew goes his way and Luke goes his way. They have nothing in common.

It is from chapter 3 that the three synoptic evangelists proceed in common, that is, they reflect the previous ecclesial tradition. It means that all three synoptics have worked the apostolic material, probably already in writing and surely transmitted orally in established ways. The evangelist is a writer, an editor. We are talking about the final editor, who has produced a lot of uneven material by compiling it and creating links, adding, removing, moving to create a homogeneous story according to the theological intentions of each evangelist.

In chapters 3 and 4 of the Gospel of Matthew, we have the re-presentation of the scheme common to the synoptics. It begins with the preaching of John the Baptist, the arrival of Jesus at the fords of the Jordan, where he is immersed and receives baptism; and then the moment of withdrawal in the desert to choose the correct way to act properly as the Messiah. On temptations, common to Matthew and Luke, Matthew presents a didactic scene in which three temptations are synthesized to which Jesus responds with three quotations from Deuteronomy, that is, from the book that tells the situation of Israel in the desert; where the ancient people had failed. The new Israel who is Jesus, triumphs, chooses well, does not give in to temptation but chooses the way of God. He then returned to Galilee and began the ministry.

Matthew adds a quotation from a text by Isaiah to emphasize, as it was his custom, that “Thus was fulfilled what was announced by the prophet Isaiah: The people who lived in darkness saw an intense light.” According to Matthew, it is the people of Galilee who upon hearing the preaching of Jesus, finally saw that the light and a new possibility of salvation arises. And the first disciples enthusiastically followed the Master's call. Jesus begins to teach and heal, and so we come to chapter 5 where the first great discourse begins.

It begins what is called ‘the discourse of the mountain’ and occupies chapters 5, 6 and 7. The first of the five key programmatic discourses summarize the novelty of the Gospel. Therefore, chapters 3 and 4 serve as a narrative introduction, followed by the big discourse. In chapter 7, the discourse ends with an editorial formula with which the evangelist emphasizes: "When Jesus finished his discourse, the crowd was amazed at his teaching.” "When Jesus finished his discourse" is a formula which is repeated five times and marks the end of each of the five parts. Thus, chapter 7 ends the first part.

From 3 to 7 we have a unitary block, made up of narrations and words made by Jesus; speeches made by Jesus. This is an important writing hint. It indicates that the evangelist Matthew worked editorially gathering the material according to his own criteria, so the whole mountain discourse is edited. One can't think of a single discourse pronounced by Jesus in a single circumstance. It is not an organic discourse but an anthology of sayings.

Jesus' preaching was naturally repetitive and phrased in short sentences. Just think a little to understand the reasons for that. Jesus was not a teacher who taught in a school and did not always have the same audience, therefore, could not carry out a program starting with the first lesson and developing the discourse in many subsequent meetings.

His itinerant preaching ministry led him to continually change his audience, to change places, he found different people; people came to look for him from other places since they had heard of him, so he had to continually start over from the beginning. He could not simply continue the discourse, but repeated the elements he considered more important. The essential message was proposed and repeated a great number of times. This is also important because there was a faithful group, the disciples, who followed him were always present.

While the crowds changed, the disciples were constant. They have heard the same speeches countless times and by dint of listening to these speeches they have memorized them. These words have been fixed in their memory in a very strong way. However, it is understandable that repetitive, oral preaching, often saying the same things they ended up with varying expressions, images, constructions so it is easy to understand also why there may be small nuances of variations.

The second characteristic of Jesus' preaching is the formulation of short sentences that can be easily memorized, that attract attention, imagination, interest. Let's not forget that the ancients had no means of amplification, so talking to a large crowd outdoors is especially difficult.

You cannot make a peaceful speech that lasts for a long time, with a normal tone of voice. To speak in public, in the open air, for a long time, you need to raise your voice, almost screaming and if one tries to do something like that, one soon realizes that the sentences should be short. They become proverbial phrases of the message. They are slogans, that's why the preaching of Jesus is schematized in this way. The announcement to the crowds is made through formulas, proverbs, wisdom principles. Well-constructed in the original language; they had to be rhythmic, maybe even rhymed, with puns, just like our proverbs, so that those who heard it were surprised by the phrase and easily memorized them. And having to repeat what Jesus had said was easy to rephrase two or three sentences pronounced by the Master.

This also favored memorization on the part of the disciples, thus creating the apostolic tradition, that is, the apostles remembered the teachings of Jesus and after his Passover of his death and resurrection they began to say what he did and repeat what Jesus said. They shaped the narrative episodes and the sayings, the ‘loguia’. Each of these ‘loguia’ was a reality in itself. By ‘loghion’ we mean a word, a phrase, an expression, an image, a unitary saying, not inserted in a narrative episode but a separate phrase.

The disciples have memorized many and repeated them orally first, and then made written collections. When the evangelist Matthew writes his gospel, he has a great deal of material at his disposal, we mention the ‘loguia’: the sayings of the Lord. Of this great oral or written anthology, which were the sayings of the Lord, the publisher evangelist, took some sayings and put them together in an organic discourse. Thus, he produced the five discourses that structure the first gospel.

We have said that with chapter 5 the discourse of the mountain begins. In this great anthology three chapters long, the evangelist Matthew collected many ‘loguia’; did editorial work in which he put traditional material together, giving it a particular organization that makes those sayings the programmatic discourse of Jesus. The great portal of this discourse is constituted by the beatitudes.

Let's read the beginning of chapter 5: “When he 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.” And the list of the eight beatitudes continues.

The introduction, therefore, recalls the mountain. Jesus went up the mountain and that is why, traditionally, we call it ‘the discourse on the mountain.’ The geographic detail has a theological value. It is not mentioned simply because Jesus climbed a mountain, as a note to describe the landscape, but there is the intention of a theological reference to the Old Testament. The mountain par excellence is Sinai.

The Lord went down the mountain to meet with Moses, to give him, as mediator, the covenant, the law for Israel. Some say that in the Gospel according to Matthew Jesus is represented as the new Moses, that gives the new law. I would say things are different because Moses climbs the mountain to receive the law. Jesus, on the other hand, goes up the mountain to give the law. Therefore, Jesus does not appear in the role of Moses, but in the role of God himself. Jesus is wisdom in person who sits, like wisdom enthroned. The Master par excellence. The disciples approach him. In any case, it is the disciples who play the role of Moses approaching Jesus to receive his revelation.

The mountain is the symbolic place of the encounter with God. The discourse on the mountain reveals Jesus as the Lord who does not simply give a new law, but brings the covenant to fulfillment, performs what has already been given. Now he gives the fulfillment, the novelty that he himself is in his person. The Beatitudes are an anthology drawn up by the apostolic tradition. We also find a list in Luke where, however, there are only four while in Matthew there are eight. It means that the first evangelist has particularly touched up this text.

We can't ask if there were 4 or 8. Perhaps there were many more, in the sense that in preaching Jesus used many times the proverbial form of the beatitudes. It is a technical expression; it is a way of congratulating. We also use the adjective 'happy' many times for exclamations. ‘Happy you’ - ‘happy you all’ because something very important happened that I appreciate, admire and congratulate, ‘I congratulate you’ for how lucky you have been.

The important element of the beatitudes is not, therefore, the qualification of people: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, but in the promise, in the cause that determines the beatitude. You are blessed not because you are poor but because yours is the kingdom of heaven. The important element is that the kingdom of heaven is yours. This is the gospel. God, who is the almighty king, Lord of heaven and earth, is on your side: "Blessed are you...." In the other formulas, we often find a passive future: 'You will be comforted', 'you will find mercy' and 'you will be satisfied.' The action of God through this "divine passive" is underlined. It is God who will comfort them, who will make them heirs of the earth, who will treat them with mercy.

The work of God in favor of humankind that begins now and lasts for eternity, is the reason for happiness. You are fortunate and happy because the Lord is on your side, the Lord comforts you, the Lord leaves the earth to you as an inheritance, the Lord satisfies you, satisfies your lives, treats you with mercy. God shows himself to you and calls you his sons and daughters, that is, he adopts you, you are part of the family. These are the reasons for happiness. These formulas are a synthesis of the Good News that is the Gospel.

The first part, therefore, does not correspond to a moral duty, it does not mean that one must be poor to get the kingdom. It would be absurd to say that one must be afflicted or should be prosecuted for the sake of justice ... it would make no sense. The beatitudes are not moral duties, but are conditions that can happen.

To understand the Beatitudes well, we must value the kerygmatic aspect, that is, the fundamental message made by Jesus. There is a content that Jesus proposes as essential, what God does; consequently, us—humans—can live in a certain way.

Since God is on our side, we can recognize that we are poor; it is not about becoming poor. It is about recognizing that we are poor. Poor in spirit, it is the consciousness of one's own poverty, of one's own limits. We can also face afflictions; we can be meek: we don't need to fight because the Lord leaves the land as our inheritance. We have everything we need. We can stop fighting. We can seek above all the justice of God: hunger and thirst for his will. We can be merciful because the Lord treats us with mercy, communicates such great love to us that makes us capable of loving. We can be pure of heart, simple, transparent, clean, looking only to God because God makes himself seen. We can work in peace, build good relationships because we have also become children of God. We can also face any persecution because the almighty king of heaven and earth is on our side.

The discourse on the mountain begins with this splendid announcement of the happiness that is possible thanks to the action of God; and it is the synthesis of the gospel of Jesus: Blessed are you because the Lord is on your side. You can be happy.