Christian Art | Jesus Preaches The Sermon On The Mount
Office Of Readings | Week 22, Saturday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Sermon Of Pope Saint Leo The Great On The Beatitudes | Happiness Of Christ’s Kingdom
‘The happiness of Christ’s kingdom.’
Pope Saint Leo the Great continues his exposition of the Beatitudes, moving from the blessing on the poor in spirit to those pronounced on those who mourn and on the meek (Matthew 5:4–5). His reflections trace both the inner character of these dispositions and their eschatological fulfilment.
The mourning that Christ declares blessed is distinguished from ordinary human grief. Leo contrasts the ‘lamentation that the whole human race indulges in’ with the tears of repentance shed by the saints. Such mourning arises not from misfortune or loss but from the recognition of sin – both one’s own and that of others. This connects to the biblical tradition of penitential lament, found in the psalms and the prophets, where sorrow over sin leads to conversion and renewed relationship with God (cf. Psalm 51, Joel 2:12–13). The emphasis is not on lamenting the effects of divine justice but on grieving over human wrongdoing, which separates people from God. In this way, mourning is directed not at what has been suffered but at the deeper cause of estrangement from God.
Leo then turns to Christ’s blessing on the meek. He interprets meekness as humility, gentleness, and a willingness to endure injury without retaliation. In patristic exegesis, meekness is often associated with Christ’s own self-description: ‘I am gentle and humble of heart.’ (Matthew 11:29) The promise that the meek will ‘inherit the earth’ is read in more than a literal sense. Leo sees it as a pledge of the kingdom of heaven, but he also interprets ‘earth’ symbolically as the renewed, glorified body of the saints. Here he draws on Pauline teaching: ‘this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.’ (1 Corinthians 15:53)
In Leo’s vision, meekness leads to an inheritance marked by permanence, peace, and unity. The body, transformed by resurrection, will be a secure possession, wholly integrated with the soul and Spirit. Thus the promise to the meek is not only a future reward but also a transformation of the human condition: what is weak and perishable becomes strong and immortal, what is burdensome becomes honourable.
Leo’s sermon demonstrates how the Beatitudes were understood not merely as moral exhortations but as revelations of the shape of Christian existence, culminating in the hope of resurrection and the kingdom.
A Reading From The Sermon Of Pope Saint Leo The Great On The Beatitudes | Happiness Of Christ’s Kingdom
After pronouncing his blessing on poverty, the Lord added Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Dearly beloved, this mourning that is promised eternal comfort has nothing in common with the afflictions of this world. No-one is made blessed by the kind of lamentation that the whole human race indulges in. The sighs and blessed tears of the saints have another cause. Holy sorrow comes from contemplating one’s own sins and the sins of others. It does not weep at the actions of divine justice but at the sins committed by human wickedness. It is the one who does evil who is to be pitied here, not the one who suffers it: for what the evil man has done thrusts him down to punishment, while what the just man has put up with leads him up into glory.
Then the Lord added Blessed are the meek, for they shall have the earth for their inheritance. To the meek and gentle, to the lowly and unassuming, to all who are prepared to endure injury – to these the earth is promised. This is not a small or unimportant inheritance, as if ‘the earth’ were somehow distinct from a dwelling-place in heaven: in fact, you must understand it as meaning that only the meek will enter the kingdom of heaven. This earth that is promised to the meek, that is to be given to the gentle to possess, is the body of the saints, whose humility will raise them up and clothe them in the glory of immortality, united at last with the Spirit of unity. Then the outer self will belong to the inner self at last, a peaceful and secure possession.
The meek will possess this inheritance in everlasting peace and their right to it will never grow less. Our present perishable nature must put on imperishability and this mortal nature must put on immortality, so that a danger to the soul becomes a reward and what was onerous becomes an honour.
Christian Prayer With Jesus
Lord Jesus Christ,
you have promised comfort to those who mourn
and inheritance to those who are meek.
Grant us sorrow for sin
and gentleness of spirit in our dealings with others,
so that, sharing in your humility,
we may also share in the glory of your resurrection.
You live and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Beatitudes – The blessings pronounced by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1–12), expressing the values of the kingdom of heaven.
Mourning – In this context, sorrow for sin, both personal and communal, leading to repentance and openness to God’s mercy.
Meekness – Humility, gentleness, and patient endurance, modelled by Christ himself.
Inheritance of the earth – In biblical and patristic interpretation, both a promise of the kingdom of heaven and the transformation of the body in resurrection.
Immortality / imperishability – Terms drawn from Paul’s teaching (1 Corinthians 15) describing the transformation of the human body at the resurrection.
Spirit of unity – A phrase indicating the Holy Spirit’s work in binding the glorified body and soul together in eternal peace and wholeness.
Sometimes, when I read my Bible, I pause in the reading and say to myself: ‘This bit’s real.’ It would be fair to say, I have issues with Mary, because, contrary to what we are taught to say, Mary isn’t my mother. Rather: Mum is. One bit of the Bible-text says this: And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, “He is beside himself.” … And his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mark 3: 21; 31-35.) Here she comes. She is in considerable distress. I can imagine that. I can relate to that. To save her boy from whatever he’s got himself into this time. And you’re not telling me there isn’t something inside that. Her boy is beside himself. Radical. Radicalized. Radicalizing. A misunderstood word. /ˈradɪk(ə)l/ adjective & noun. 1 Forming the root, basis, or foundation; original, primary. 2a Inherent in the nature of a thing or person; fundamental. b Of action, change, an idea: going to the root or origin; far-reaching, thorough. c Advocating thorough or far-reaching change. d Characterized by departure from tradition; progressive; unorthodox. ‘He has a demon! And he is mad!’ – thus ‘the Jews’. (e.g. John 10: 20.) Come home! It’s all she wants. His family want him back now. But it is an exclusive cult: there is an inside and there is an outside; and on the outside, they are not meant to understand, lest they be converted. He has defined himself as different from anything she was. Only at the end does Jesus say to his Mum – and with savage, bitter irony: ‘Woman, behold your son.’ And then he dies. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. We ask that we might find Mary in our hearts as a Yes! place for Jesus. It is also recommended that we pray to Jesus that we may be further in oneness with Mary. It is self-emptying, such that we only exist insofar as we are responsive to God’s Word. * Last term, and put-out to pasture, the old Archbishop Emeritus came over to stay for a few days and did the odd class with us. He spoke of Yes! as the meaning of Mary’s virginity. And we were not very nice about him. One or two took umbrage. One or two got the hump. In a sense, his Grace, the Arch, basically wanted to move anyone he’d ever known from a high-place – a mountain – received theological ‘truth’ – to an imminent, human plane. Earthing the spiritual. Recalibrating metrics of life’s believability toward a spiritual sense of things. He might have asked the impermissible question: what happened? His Grace described it. God’s love as a cloud. This descended upon Mary – and subsumed her. Within the cloud, Mary capitulated utterly. She became only and purely a response to God’s love. As he spoke, the Arch cradled her. He carried her in his lap – in his hands. His Grace was a consecrated bishop. He was faith. He sat squat, a rounded man, hands cupped and ankles crossed, fingers interlocked, with parted thighs. Rumpled, washed, speckled. A lifetime’s skin… There could be no doubt His Grace spoke through long-term personal relationship with Mary. It was Julian went for him: ‘So are you saying Mary was a Virgin? Or are you not saying Mary was a Virgin?’ Nasty. No, it wasn’t pretty. Julian twisting his silver ring. For a moment, what Julian had said to the Arch simply failed to communicate. No, for a moment, that dumped on the air meant nothing. Then His Grace said: ‘There is a range of possible meanings we may understand in the question of Mary’s virginity. For example, there are understandings of the word virginity entailed in the action of giving birth.’ Julian said: ‘Duh! So had she had sex or hadn’t she?’ Trigger words. No, it wasn’t pretty. On that went for a little while. At length, Julian’s point seemed reluctantly conceded. Then the Arch told us a new story, an additionally human event, the more to baffle us. Controversially, he told us that Mary could not have been Joseph’s first wife, for this would not have been the way of things in the society of that time. His belief was that Joseph must have taken Mary into his household through pity. That would be normal, he said, for Joseph to bring a young, vulnerable girl, who is about to have a baby, within his protection, not meaning to enjoy with her marital relations, but through kindness. ‘And this story of the inn and stable,’ the Archbishop said, ‘it can’t have been like that really. Joseph has travelled with Mary to stay with his family, at home in Bethlehem, and they don’t want Mary in their house, for reasons which I am sure we can understand. It must have been there was considerable resistance to Mary. But Mary gives birth, and who can resist a baby? That’s what happened. It must have been. ‘I’m convinced that must have been how it happened really.’ Later that term, toward the beginning of Advent, we met boys who had been here before, in Valladolid, and now were in regular seminary. They had heard and recited verbatim all the Archbishop had said to them. Their spot-on impressions of each of the fathers were scathing. […]
Psalm 47 is a joyful song of praise and celebration. The psalm exalts sovereignty of God as supreme King over all the earth and calls on all people to join in the triumphant chorus of worship. This psalm encapsulates themes of reverence, the universal rule of God, and the exuberant expression of devotion to the Divine [ … ]
The Jews of Christ’s time thought of the coming of the Messiah and the restoration of Israel in terms of a great banquet, where poverty would give way to plenty and conflict to fellowship. Jesus has told two parables, while he dines at the house of the leader of the Pharisees, one of the choice of places at a feast and one of inviting the sick and the poor. In the light of the parables, a guest at the meal is moved to express the hope of the coming of the Messiah [ … ]
