by: Ryuichi Nakamura, Sr-C
Jesus summed up what God has in store for us when we live our lives virtuously through the 9 Beatitudes. However, I must say that the one Beatitude that really caught my attention was the Seventh Beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” It caught my attention because it rung out loud against the situation of the world we live in today, both the personal and the general. On the news, I see crises in various parts of the world, particularly in Indonesia, where two natural calamities struck at the same time. In my own life, every now and then some sort of struggle occurs, whether in the family or with my friends. Sometimes it’s light, sometimes it’s devastating, but nonetheless, such problems do affects and bother just as they would bother and affect anyone. Wherever we go, wherever we look, it appears that the most vital thing we need is peace, simply because our world today lacks it.
The world would be a much nicer place if everyone were a peacemaker: that situation itself puts everyone on a path to sainthood. Or at least, if most of the people are. For myself, being a peacemaker is a responsibility I’ve had to grow up with; I didn’t enjoy a necessarily unblemished childhood, nor did I evade arguments and grudges with some people. However, what we did when were young does reflect what we’ll be doing as responsible adults, and I believe that learning to make peace entails learning how to understand people and how to apply principles, two things which, I am certain, will set me on the path to a more virtuous life.
I do not want to go into details about my life experiences, but I can say for certain that there are times when these experiences helped me understand the Beatitudes a whole lot better, and vice versa. There were times when I was in big misunderstandings with a lot of people; some of them even ruined a few friendships. However, during these times I was reminded of the Beatitudes “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” and “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy”. Somehow, although I did not fully understand these Beatitudes, I believed in them, and drew strength and peace of mind from them. Now, I feel like a much stronger and more patient person, and as a result, I began to understand more those two Beatitudes, for they have been in full effect ever since those experiences.
The hardest Beatitude for me to come to terms with was the Beatitude “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God”. With all of today’s frustrations and temptations, it’s quite hard to be clean of heart, especially when you’re angry at a report card or a close friend. It’s easier to sin nowadays, and if anyone could truly remain pure of heart in these times, they must have been truly graced by God. And what a great grace it is, for they will see what very few men have ever seen: God himself.
As I’ve said earlier, I believe that if people applied these 8 Beatitudes, even in principle, if they are not Christians, then the world will be a much happier place to live in. There is no doubt to this. Most of our prejudice, our discriminations, our injustices and our misunderstanding would disappear, simply because by applying these 8 Beatitudes, we accept the fact that the world we live in is not perfect, that sometimes suffering has to occur, that the best we can do with our individual lives is to make each other’s lives easier to get by, and that in the end, no matter what we’ve gone through, iron justice will be carried out, and God will most certainly be there to do the carriage.
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