I must admit it has been a while since I've read through the
Beatitudes. They are however, embedded in my memory as a result of
having to memorize them for recitation in the Pentecostal church in
which I grew up. They are stuck in my brain right next to the first solo
song I ever sung and the monologue I memorized for my first acting jury
in high school. That is why it was refreshing for me to
see something for the first time
in this scripture I know by heart,
while reading them yesterday to follow along with the sermon my friend was
preaching. Verse 8 of Matthew chapter 5, where the beatitudes are found
says, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." All my
life my understanding of that verse positioned it as a command to strive
to keep ones heart pure so that 1) You will get to see God at the end
when your time here on earth was done (my initial understanding as a
child/teen) and 2)
God will show up in your life in needed ways (my understanding as an
young adult). However, when vising that scripture today there was a new
revelation that I, someone who has now lived through 45 years and is
almost through with my 46th year here on earth, found. The thought hit me
before the sermon even started, while were were just reading the text.
And my friend actually took her sermon in a different direction than
this revelation, but even after sitting through her thoughtful sermon, I
was brought back to my initial revelation when considering the text
later in the evening.
When our heart is
pure, we see God everywhere we look. This is not a directive for
faultlessness or behavior without error, but rather a declaration that
those who make the effort toward wholehearted love have the ability to
see the god nature of their fellow humans. If we are indeed made in
the image and likeness of the creator, and if the Most Beloved's breath
is the spark that gave humanity its existence, then is there not a
reflection of divinity in each of us? When we push past the cynicism
that comes from living on earth and living within the effects of its
various isms and oppression, we are able to see the divine in every
creature and being. If we strive to acknowledge the very sacredness of
the experience of life that we are having on the planet, we will recognize
the divinity of those around us living into, out of, and through that
experience.
When I considered the implications
of this interpretation of Matthew 5:8 it brought to mind such clarity of
another scripture that is often quoted by both Christians and non
Christians alike. In Matthew 25:31-40 Jesus, after having told the
parable of the talents, starts into a sermon where he instructs those
listening of how things will be when he comes into his throne. He
advises that the blessed of the lord will be welcomed into his kingdom because
they have clothed, fed, visited and otherwise cared for him. And
anticipating their confusion, Jesus also says in his sermon that when
these blessed ask "when did we see you to do any of these
things for you?" his response will be that when they did it for the
least of his brethren they had done it for him. The pure of heart can
look at the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and the otherwise
disenfranchised and see God. Standing with and caring for the oppressed and marginalized is the very definition of being pure at heart. This is what was revealed to me today as I read through the beatitudes for probably the fiftieth time in my life.
Now,
I am no theologian; no New Testament scholar. I have no formal
scholarship in the book of Matthew as yet. This is just a Sunday morning
musing on scripture by a woman who has spent most of her life seeking
to understand the nature of God, Her/His/Their existence, and their
relationship to us and our lives as humans. So you are welcomed to
consider this as heavily or lightly as you will. I was just struck by
not only the new perspective I had on this scripture but also by how my
perspective had changed even though the scripture itself had not.
I often remember hearing as a young girl in church that "God's word is
sure and it does not change." Words on a page indeed do not change, but
if we are living this life to its fullest we should be ever growing,
evolving and
changing. As Muhammad Ali once said, "A man who views the world the same
at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life." That
applies to scripture too. And this new perspective on Matthew 5:8 not
only serves to inform the way I will live my own life from this point, but will also effect
the way I engage those in our world who claim Christianity while
simultaneously opposing the rights and equality for the marginalized and
oppressed. Because I now know the pure in heart, SEE GOD in us all.
Selah.
