The Significance of the Beatitudes
The essence and significance of the Beatitudes lie in the fact that they reveal to a person the purpose of happiness and indicate the path in life that a person must follow to attain happiness. That is why these commandments are called the Beatitudes — that is, commandments of blessedness, joy, happiness. There are numerous explanations and detailed theories in all philosophical systems of the world and in all religious teachings about what is called and what constitutes happiness. In the panorama of world philosophical thought, one encounters mutually exclusive concepts of happiness. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, people of the world understand happiness as “a feeling and state of the highest satisfaction” (S.I. Ozhegov, “Dictionary of the Russian Language,” 22nd edition, p. 782).
In the majority of philosophical-religious systems, happiness is a state of the highest joy, blessedness. The nine Beatitudes reveal the Christian view of what happiness is. In these commandments, it is said how Jesus Christ understands happiness. If we base ourselves on the principle that happiness is the satisfaction of the highest need — that is, the cherished goal in a person’s life — then since different people have different goals, the form of satisfaction, that is, the objects of achieving the goal, will also differ. For example, one person understands happiness as marrying a famous beauty, another sees happiness in wealth, a third in acquiring power or fame. But in any case, happiness as a philosophical-psychological formula represents the satisfaction of the highest need to achieve a cherished goal that brings a person the highest joy, satisfaction — that is, a clearly expressed positive emotion.
But the attainment of happiness in the form of acquiring wealth, power, fame, or health represents quickly passing, short-lived phenomena. Such happiness is illusory and unstable, because a rich person can go bankrupt, a healthy person, despite observing all systems and training that give health, can suddenly fall ill, a ruler can lose power and fame, and so on. Christ seems to say that such phenomena (toward which people strive and see happiness in them) — money, power, beauty — are temporary and have a fleeting character. Such happiness, upon attainment of which a person experiences joy, is not genuine, because it gives only short-term satisfaction.
True happiness, however, must be eternal and imperishable. According to the teaching of Jesus Christ, such happiness is the Kingdom of God. Only then will a person be truly happy when he lives in peace with God, when he becomes a member of the Kingdom of God. Then the Lord will care for such a person and will satisfy all his needs and desires. And such a person will lack nothing and will be protected by the hand of the Lord from troubles and sufferings. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). The path to the Kingdom of God begins already here in a person’s earthly life and continues and is finally completed in heaven in eternity. Happiness in the Kingdom of God has no end; it is not temporary like human short-lived joys, but eternal and perfect. No one can take it away or steal it from a person; it does not depend on chance. Such happiness, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, is Eternal Blessedness, the Most Perfect Good, the embodiment of Goodness, Beauty, and Eternal Love.
Thus, true happiness is the union of man with God, when the Lord lives in a person’s soul. And the attainment of such happiness is the fulfillment of God’s Laws, expressed in the performance of good deeds — that is, a person’s life in thoughts and actions subordinated to the teaching of Jesus Christ. For “whoever keeps the commandment will experience no harm” (Ecclesiastes 8:5). According to Christian understanding, the foundations of spiritual life are clearly and briefly set forth in the nine Beatitudes. These commandments serve as a clear guide for a person walking the path of salvation.
In the Holy Gospel it is clearly stated that only the person who fulfills Christ’s teaching, including observing the nine Beatitudes, will be able to enter the Kingdom of God. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Therefore, Christians treat the Beatitudes with great reverence. Throughout all of Christianity, these commandments have been carefully explained by various confessions and churches. In the Orthodox Church, during the Liturgy, these commandments are sung at the moment when the Holy Gospel is solemnly carried into the altar, which signifies the holiness of these commandments, as well as of Christ’s teaching itself.