Conclusion

Beatific living does not mean that we will receive some sort of spiritual easy street.  The blessings we receive come with responsibility.  They come with righteousness.  Righteousness and blessing are intertwined.  We can earn neither.  They are both gifts from God which require a willingness to receive and to share.

This path is not a self-help path.  The help comes from God, and the result is that we  become helpers.  In that way, it is the opposite of self-help.  This will not make you rich in monetary wealth.  In fact, it may do the opposite if your money is standing in the way of righteousness.  But it will give you comfort, satisfaction, mercy, a vision of God, peace, a new parent, and the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus spoke this message to thousands. He was calling for a revolution; not the revolt that was expected of a Messiah.  He did not ride into Jerusalem with an army as many wished he would.  He came in on a donkey, poor in spirit.  He called us to turn the world upside down, beginning with our own lives.

By reading this study, you may be becoming open to the first steps toward beatific living.  I’ve offered you ideas out of my own study and inspiration.  When an idea takes hold of your mind, transformation becomes possible.  But the Beatitudes are more than ideas to ponder, they are a radical way of living; living into the blessings of God.

Although I have presented the Beatitudes as ordered and enfolding, there is nothing to stop God from transforming you and blessing you in any way and in any order he chooses.  But I do believe it all starts with the first.  When you empty your spirit of the riches of ego and self-fulfillment to become poor in spirit, then the journey stops being an idea and starts becoming a new life.

May God bless you and transform you.