Friends, our Gospel for this Sunday is one of the great passages of the New Testament—namely, the Beatitudes from the fifth chapter of Matthew. "Beatitudo" just means happiness, and the one thing we all want is to be happy. Well, here is the Son of God telling us how—so let’s pay close attention!

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Friends, we have 1 of the great passages in the New Testament today for our reading, namely the Beatitudes taken from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, so the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

I'm going to go through all 8 Beatitudes.

I'm aware that as I record these words, Pope Francis has just said that he thinks a lot of Catholic preaching is terrible, and 1 reason is it's too long.

Well, maybe, Holy Father, I can't guarantee 8, but I promise you it'll be around 12 or 13 as usual.

So, first of all, you know, they're so important because beatitudo just means happiness.

I don't care who you are, what your background is, that's the 1 thing we all want.

Well, here's the Son of God telling us how to be happy.

How happy are the poor in spirit the reign of God is theirs Why is this the first beatitude?

Well because pride's the greatest sin What does pride say?

Basically, I got to fill myself up To be happy.

I've got to fill myself up with good things.

The basic spiritual principle is, no, it's actually by emptying the self out that I become beatus, I become happy.

It's by letting go, emptying out, living for the sake of the other, not filling up the cage with all sorts of things, but rather giving oneself.

Don't think of it primarily in monetary terms.

The more I give my life away, the happier I become.

And I know this can sound a little odd, like is this sort of a masochistic idea or sadistic idea, you know, that the unhappier I become, well, that's what I should shoot for.

The great spiritual tradition read it this way.

How happy are those who are sorrowing for their sin?

We feel bad because our dreams haven't come true.

We feel bad because we didn't get the job we wanted, we feel bad because, you know, this relationship fell apart or whatever it is.

But what's the 1 thing we should really feel sorrow over?

Our culture today is telling me never to be sorry about my sins, never feel bad about myself.

You look around the culture, how's that working out for us?

Affirming ourselves at every turn, never admitting any kind of problem.

That makes you happy, that makes you miserable.

In fact, the key to happiness is being sorrowful for the right thing, sorrowing for our sins.

That's the first step toward repentance and toward the acceptance of forgiveness.

The key to our beatitudo is being forgiven for our sins.

Well, the first step in loosing those chains is to be sorry for our sins and thereby open to forgiveness.

Blessed are the lowly, they shall inherit the land.

Well, last time I checked it was powerful people, self-assertive people, those with no concern for the other, Nietzschean supermen, like, there was a will to power and don't get in my way.

Powerful nations willing to wield great weapons of destruction against their enemies.

Those who have emptied themselves, forgotten about themselves, are the ones who actually are closest to the earth.

Someone who's humble says, I'm not preoccupied with my own ego, how I'm doing, what impression I'm making.

I get that monkey off my back, and I lose myself in whatever it is I'm doing.

Notice, please, I'm lowly and therefore I'm close to the earth.

Humble is from the Latin humus, humilitas.

When I'm preoccupied with my ego and my status and how I'm doing and all that, I'm divorced from reality.

But When in the simplest way I forget about myself and I give myself to a book I'm reading or a person I'm talking to or a task I have, I become happy.

The best moments in life are when you're least aware of yourself, least aware of your hangups and preoccupations.

They indeed will inherit the land." See, they're humble, they're close to the hummus, to the ground.

That's really a wonderful beatitude, I think.

Next 1, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for holiness.

Oh my goodness, we're hungry and thirsty for so many things aren't we?

All the things, we have these hungry hearts, as Bruce Springsteen said, right?

We're always looking for what's going to satisfy us.

1 of the most important questions to ask about yourself is this.

So amidst all these different hungers, there's 1 that you really want.

It's success, it's money, it's power, it's fame, it's whatever, whatever.

The Lord says, none of those will make you happy.

Now, they're not bad in themselves, as I've said many times, you know, power and success and money—they're not bad in themselves.

But the thing you should be hungering for above all, the primary thirst of your life, should not be for those things, but should be for holiness.

That's the 1 thing you should want above all.

As you're facing a decision in life, you know, hey if I decide this it'll make me richer.

Yeah, but will it make you more of a friend of God?

Yeah, but if I choose that it's going to make me more famous for sure.

Yeah I know but will it make you more a friend of God?

So how happy are those who hunger and thirst for holiness?

See, because every other thing you hunger for in life, you get it and it's fine, but It wears off, right?

Mercy shall be theirs.'" Mercy is hesed in the Hebrew, misericordia in Latin.

He's marked by tender mercy in that beautiful translation of hesed that's in the King James.

Look at that word compassion from compasior in Latin.

Misericordia, right, means the pain in your heart.

It's the suffering that you feel in your own heart when you identify with the suffering of somebody else.

See, that's what love, willing the good of the other, looks like in this world of suffering.

Is that you enter in, in a sympathetic way, look at that word again, sympathein, means to suffer with, the same idea.

You enter in a sympathetic, compassionate, merciful way into the suffering of the world.

You know, how many of us want to run from the suffering of the world.

Give me something that will drug me so I don't experience it.

Says the Lord, the happier you will be if you identify in love with the suffering of the other.

Trust me everybody, your whole life will change if you let that sink in.

If you say, that's my task today, is when I see suffering, to enter sympathetically into it.

Next, blessed are the single-hearted for they shall see God.

I think I quoted to you before that great line from Kierkegaard, the philosopher.

He said, the saint is someone whose life is about 1 thing.

Might have a very busy life, very active life, but all of it is centered around 1 thing.

It's the anchor in the rose window, right, around which the whole design is arranged.

If you can't name what that is, you won't be happy.

I'm doing this and this and bop bop bop bop bop all over the place and boy I'm admired and look at all that he's accomplishing.

Yeah but if there's no anchor in your life, there isn't 1 thing that gathers all the things that you do, then you'll be like the demoniac in the gospel.

What do you want of us, Jesus of Nazareth?

That's a single person talking, but he speaks in the splintered plural.

What's the 1 thing you want amidst all the desires of your life?

Again, it's related to what I said earlier, right?

If you're doing X, Y, and Z, but yeah, in All that, am I pleasing God?

That's the 1 thing that matters, single heart.

Blessed too are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God.

Shalom, that lovely word, right, that echoes up and down the Scriptures.

The risen Christ says it to his disciples, Shalom, peace, peace.

God makes the world in a great nonviolent act, not suppressing some rival power.

The crucified and risen Jesus returns not in avenging violence, but in forgiving love.

1 of the great marks of his followers is that they are makers of peace.

Not only are they peaceful themselves, but they produce peace.

If you find yourself unhappy, how much time do you spend in the course of the day making peace?

Not just tolerating wickedness or not looking the other way, not walking away from it, but entering mercifully into it and making peace.

Last 1, and Pope Francis, I'll close with this.

Blessed are those persecuted for holiness' sake.

Yeah, but if you're persecuted for righteousness' sake, that means you're walking the right path.

If nobody ever criticizes you, you are not in a good spiritual space.

Woe to you if all men speak well of you, says the Lord.

They treated the false prophets in just that way.

1 of the great marks that you are on the right path, the path of happiness, is that you will endure persecution.

But do it as a happy warrior, not falling into resentment, but say, hey, that's a sign that I'm on the path the Lord wants me to be on.

Okay, got through all 8 in just about 13 minutes, go to Matthew chapter 5, walk through these.


Speaker 0: Peace be with you. Friends, we have 1 of the great passages in the New Testament today for our reading, namely the Beatitudes taken from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, so the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. I'm going to go through all 8 Beatitudes. I'm aware that as I record these words, Pope Francis has just said that he thinks a lot of Catholic preaching is terrible, and 1 reason is it's too long. And he said keep it to 8 minutes.

Well, maybe, Holy Father, I can't guarantee 8, but I promise you it'll be around 12 or 13 as usual. But I'll get through all 8. So, first of all, you know, they're so important because beatitudo just means happiness. I don't care who you are, what your background is, that's the 1 thing we all want. Everyone has that in common.

We all want beatitudo. We all want to be happy, everybody. Well, here's the Son of God telling us how to be happy. So we should pay close attention. He says first, how blessed, happy again.

How happy are the poor in spirit the reign of God is theirs Why is this the first beatitude? Well because pride's the greatest sin What does pride say? Basically, I got to fill myself up To be happy. I've got to aggrandize my ego. I've got to fill myself up with good things.

The basic spiritual principle is, no, it's actually by emptying the self out that I become beatus, I become happy. It's by letting go, emptying out, living for the sake of the other, not filling up the cage with all sorts of things, but rather giving oneself. So being poor in spirit means that. Don't think of it primarily in monetary terms. It's a spiritual idea, poor in spirit.

The more I give my life away, the happier I become. Okay, next. Blessed, too, are the sorrowing. They will Be consoled. And I know this can sound a little odd, like is this sort of a masochistic idea or sadistic idea, you know, that the unhappier I become, well, that's what I should shoot for.

No, no. The great spiritual tradition read it this way. How happy are those who are sorrowing for their sin? We feel bad about all kinds of things. We feel bad because our dreams haven't come true.

We feel bad because we didn't get the job we wanted, we feel bad because, you know, this relationship fell apart or whatever it is. But what's the 1 thing we should really feel sorrow over? Our own sins. What do you mean? I'm okay and you're okay.

I'm beautiful in every single way. Our culture today is telling me never to be sorry about my sins, never feel bad about myself. No, affirm myself at every turn. How's that working out for you? You look around the culture, how's that working out for us?

Affirming ourselves at every turn, never admitting any kind of problem. That makes you happy, that makes you miserable. In fact, the key to happiness is being sorrowful for the right thing, sorrowing for our sins. They shall be consoled, the Lord says. Quite right.

That's the first step toward repentance and toward the acceptance of forgiveness. I wonder how often we think about that. The key to our beatitudo is being forgiven for our sins. See, our sins are like a great burden. Our sins are like chains.

Well, the first step in loosing those chains is to be sorry for our sins and thereby open to forgiveness. Okay? Third beatitude. Blessed are the lowly, they shall inherit the land. Again, it's so counterintuitive.

Who inherits the land? Well, last time I checked it was powerful people, self-assertive people, those with no concern for the other, Nietzschean supermen, like, there was a will to power and don't get in my way. I am the 1 that will inherit the earth. Powerful nations willing to wield great weapons of destruction against their enemies. They're the ones who inherit the land.

No, says Jesus. Rather the lowly. Think of it this way. Those who have emptied themselves, forgotten about themselves, are the ones who actually are closest to the earth. They're closest to reality.

We're talking here about humility. Don't think that phony false humility. Someone who's humble says, I'm not preoccupied with my own ego, how I'm doing, what impression I'm making. Rather, I forget about all that. I get that monkey off my back, and I lose myself in whatever it is I'm doing.

I give myself to it. I get lost in whatever I'm doing. Notice, please, I'm lowly and therefore I'm close to the earth. Humble is from the Latin humus, humilitas. Humus means the ground, the earth.

When I'm preoccupied with my ego and my status and how I'm doing and all that, I'm divorced from reality. But When in the simplest way I forget about myself and I give myself to a book I'm reading or a person I'm talking to or a task I have, I become happy. Isn't it true, everybody? Think about it. The best moments in life are when you're least aware of yourself, least aware of your hangups and preoccupations.

How happy are the lowly! They indeed will inherit the land." See, they're humble, they're close to the hummus, to the ground. Wonderful. That's really a wonderful beatitude, I think. Next 1, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for holiness.

They shall have their fill. Oh my goodness, we're hungry and thirsty for so many things aren't we? Hungry. I'm hungry for success. I'm hungry for more power.

I'm hungry for material goods. I'm physically hungry for food. I'm hungry for attention. All the things, we have these hungry hearts, as Bruce Springsteen said, right? Everyone's got a hungry heart.

We're always looking for what's going to satisfy us. 1 of the most important questions to ask about yourself is this. What are you primarily hungering for? So amidst all these different hungers, there's 1 that you really want. It's success, it's money, it's power, it's fame, it's whatever, whatever.

We've all got something. The Lord says, none of those will make you happy. They won't give you beatitudo. What's the 1 thing? Now, they're not bad in themselves, as I've said many times, you know, power and success and money—they're not bad in themselves.

But the thing you should be hungering for above all, the primary thirst of your life, should not be for those things, but should be for holiness. What's holiness? It's friendship with God. Friendship with God. That's the 1 thing you should want above all.

As you're facing a decision in life, you know, hey if I decide this it'll make me richer. Yeah, but will it make you more of a friend of God? Yeah, but if I choose that it's going to make me more famous for sure. Uh-huh. But will it make you a friend of God?

Boy that's gonna make everyone like me. Yeah I know but will it make you more a friend of God? That's all you should be worried about. So how happy are those who hunger and thirst for holiness? Listen, they shall have their fill.

See, because every other thing you hunger for in life, you get it and it's fine, but It wears off, right? It goes away. It evanesces. But you hunger and thirst for holiness. Friendship with God?

That doesn't fade away. That intensifies. Next 1. Blessed are they who show mercy. Mercy shall be theirs.'" Mercy is hesed in the Hebrew, misericordia in Latin.

Mercy is what God is. Mercy is what God is. He's marked by tender mercy in that beautiful translation of hesed that's in the King James. The tender mercy of God. What is that?

Well, it's compassion. Look at that word compassion from compasior in Latin. That means to suffer with. Misericordia, right, means the pain in your heart. It's the suffering that you feel in your own heart when you identify with the suffering of somebody else.

See, that's what love, willing the good of the other, looks like in this world of suffering. Is that you enter in, in a sympathetic way, look at that word again, sympathein, means to suffer with, the same idea. You enter in a sympathetic, compassionate, merciful way into the suffering of the world. You'll be happy. Extraordinary!

You know, how many of us want to run from the suffering of the world. Take me away from that. Make me immune to that. Give me something that will drug me so I don't experience it. Says the Lord, the happier you will be if you identify in love with the suffering of the other.

Trust me everybody, your whole life will change if you let that sink in. If you say, that's my task today, is when I see suffering, to enter sympathetically into it. That's the merciful. Next, blessed are the single-hearted for they shall see God. That's lovely, the single-hearted.

I think I quoted to you before that great line from Kierkegaard, the philosopher. He said, the saint is someone whose life is about 1 thing. That means he's a gathered person. He's involved with all sorts of things. Might have a very busy life, very active life, but all of it is centered around 1 thing.

It's the anchor in the rose window, right, around which the whole design is arranged. If you can't name what that is, you won't be happy. If you're, hey, I'm a busy guy. I'm doing this and this and bop bop bop bop bop all over the place and boy I'm admired and look at all that he's accomplishing. Yeah but if there's no anchor in your life, there isn't 1 thing that gathers all the things that you do, then you'll be like the demoniac in the gospel.

What do you want of us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? Right? That's a single person talking, but he speaks in the splintered plural. How blessed are the Single-hearted.

What's the 1 thing you want amidst all the desires of your life? It should be to please God. Again, it's related to what I said earlier, right? If you're doing X, Y, and Z, but yeah, in All that, am I pleasing God? That's the 1 thing that matters, single heart.

Blessed too are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God. Shalom, that lovely word, right, that echoes up and down the Scriptures. The risen Christ says it to his disciples, Shalom, peace, peace. God makes the world in a great nonviolent act, not suppressing some rival power. The crucified and risen Jesus returns not in avenging violence, but in forgiving love.

God is peace. 1 of the great marks of his followers is that they are makers of peace. Not only are they peaceful themselves, but they produce peace. Try it sometime. If you find yourself unhappy, how much time do you spend in the course of the day making peace?

Not just tolerating wickedness or not looking the other way, not walking away from it, but entering mercifully into it and making peace. Trust me, it'll make you happy, too. That's Jesus' point. Last 1, and Pope Francis, I'll close with this. We'll keep this homily short.

Blessed are those persecuted for holiness' sake. The reign of God is theirs. Again, how counterintuitive. Who wants to be persecuted? Yeah, but if you're persecuted for righteousness' sake, that means you're walking the right path.

We're living in a fallen world. We're living in a compromised world. If nobody ever criticizes you, you are not in a good spiritual space. Woe to you if all men speak well of you, says the Lord. They treated the false prophets in just that way.

1 of the great marks that you are on the right path, the path of happiness, is that you will endure persecution. But do it as a happy warrior, not falling into resentment, but say, hey, that's a sign that I'm on the path the Lord wants me to be on. Okay, got through all 8 in just about 13 minutes, go to Matthew chapter 5, walk through these. They are the key to what we all want. Be attitudo.

And God bless you. You

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The Key to Happiness - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon