BEATITUDES, EVANGELICAL. - Proclamations (Mt. 5:3-10) that begin the "Sermon on the Mount" (Mt. 5-7), addressed by Jesus to the "disciples" and to the crowd. With them the Master, in eight exclamatory sentences, sets forth the essential theme of the "Christian spirit opposed to the Jewish spirit" (F. Prat, p. 269), calling happy ("blessed"), and assuming into the Kingdom of God, those whom the world customarily rejects; he thus gives a new, unheard-of solution to the eudaemonistic problem. Although St. Augustine, followed by St. Thomas, A. Tostatus and a few others, recognizes only 7 of them (unifying the 1st and the last), and some (adding vv. 11-12) find either 9 (as does the "Catechism" of the Russian Church edited by Filaret Drozdov, St. Petersburg 1823) or 10 (F. Delitzsch), St. Ambrose and the generality of exegetes rightly count 8 beatitudes. The beatitudes are "the theme of the whole teaching of Jesus" (M.-J. Lagrange, p. 80; cf. Bossuet, 1st day).
The declarative exclamation beginning with "blessed" (Heb. 'ashre, "blessings of...") occurs in the Old Testament (Deut. 33:29; 1 Sam. 10:8; Job 5:17; Prov. 3:13, 18, and 6 other times; Eccles. 10:17; Is. 30:18; 32:20; 56:2; Dan. 12:12), especially in the Psalms (Ps. 1:1, and 25 other times). The Septuagint translates it μακάριος; whence μακαρισμός (Rom. 4:6, 9; Gal. 4:15), "proclamation of happiness," in praise of someone. In the New Testament similar beatitudes occur: Mt. 11:6; 13:16; 16:17; 24:46; Lk. 11:28; 12:37 f., 43; 14:15; Jn. 20:29; Jas. 1:12; 1 Pet. 3:14; 4:14; Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14. To this day the Christians of the East call the beatitudes "macarisms." The Arabic Diatessaron interprets the initial adjective "blessed" in an adverbial sense: "long live!" (E. Preuschen, Tatians Diatessaron aus dem Arabischen, Heidelberg 1926, p. 86 f.).
The beatitudes have a messianic character: Jesus promulgates the "glad tidings" of the coming of the Kingdom of God (Mt. 4:17), understood as supratemporal, listing the members who by right belong to it. The beatitudes set forth the conditions for entering the Kingdom of God, considered in its twofold phase, present and future, initial and final. They are necessary requirements for entering into the happiness of the Kingdom. Their character of exclusivity (B. Lanwer, p. 156; cf. 94, 99, 106) is clear from Lk. 6:24-26 and from other passages of the New Testament (Mt. 10:38; 16:24; Acts 14:22; Rom. 8:17 f.; 1 Cor. 1:26-28; 2 Tim. 3:12): the fortunate of this world will not enjoy the recompense (or "reward") in heaven (Mt. 5:12; 6:1-2, 5; Lk. 6:23), since they have already received it here below. In the phase of laborious earthly elaboration, the Kingdom advances in the contrast between its ideal of justice and the foul reality of cynical injustice, to culminate later in the order in which peace and happiness are assured. In laying the foundations of the Kingdom of the spirit, opposed to the reigning kingdom of matter, Jesus includes in it the outcasts and the downtrodden of the world. The evangelical paradox here reaches its climax. Although the concepts are in embryo in the prophetic literature (cf. Is. 29:19; 35:4; 61:1) and in the Psalms, the beatitudes are, in their entirety, of a unique originality, of a boldness and power such as to overturn the moral outlook of humanity. Overturning privileges (cf. Mt. 19:30; 20:16), the beatitudes announce, to those who hope for nothing from the world and live in abandonment to God, the new order, the new morality, the new happiness. Beatitude is the effect of wisdom (Prov. 3:13; 8:34; A. Robert, in Revue biblique, 43 [1934], p. 61 f.).
Each of the 8 beatitudes is a rhythmic maxim (māšāl), consisting of a praise, in the present (Lk. 6:21 in iste on the vōv), and of a categorical promise which, although referring to the future (the first and the last have ἐστιν, which must have been lacking in the primitive Aramaic form), confers a right and a present certainty that, with faith and hope, transposes the afflicted one into happiness (cf. Rom. 5:3-5; Heb. 11:1). Each proposition consists of two stichs: an oxymoron, followed by an apodosis introduced by ὅτι (rather asseverative, like the Heb. hī, with the sense of γάρ) which is the explanation and the factual justification of the protasis. The apodosis presents, besides an indirect clarification of the subjects proclaimed blessed, the recompense (it is not properly a question of a reward) of joy and glory, based on the double law of retaliation or "contrapasso" for the pleasures enjoyed and for the sorrows suffered: cf. Lk. 16:25 and 2 Cor. 4:17. Some (F. Prat, pp. 270 and 273) distinguish the beatitudes into two series: the first 4 would embrace the Kingdom as present and future, the last 4 only as future. But all 8 beatitudes are strictly parallel, set upon the same ideal and aiming at the same goal, while setting forth different aspects of it. The subject is one, the object is one, in all of them ("Unum autem praemium, quod est Regnum caelorum, pro his gradibus varie nominatum est"; St. Augustine, De serm. Domini in monte, I, 4). Each of the beatitudes could be called complete as a program and implicitly includes the others. This explains why Lk. 6:20-22 reports only 4 beatitudes (the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 8th) of Mt., causing them to be followed by 4 curses which, retracing them, interpret them by way of antithesis.
The 1st beatitude contains in substance the other 7, as is clear from the subject of the beatitude and from its object or term. It indicates in summary the whole itinerary from tribulation to the Kingdom. On the interpretation, controversial in its particular applications, of the 1st beatitude depends therefore that of the others. "Blessed [are] the poor!" (Tertullian, Adv. Marc., IV, 14: "Beati mendici") because they (οἱ πτωχοί) are the destined recipients of the εὐαγγέλιον of the Kingdom (Mt. 11:5; Lk. 4:18). Πτωχός corresponds in the Septuagint to the Heb. 'anī (34 times) or 'ānāw (4 times), more rarely (10 times) to 'ebyōn, which they also translate πένης. Stronger than πένης ("poor" one who cannot meet the needs of life), πτωχός is the "destitute" one, who is oppressed by hardships within a society that despises and rejects him (cf. Mt. 11:28). In the Psalms (ὁ πτωχός = 'anī 19 times), the 'anāwīm are opposed to the 'anāwīm in the sense of "wicked," that is, to the rich and powerful who are their oppressors (Ps. 11:1-6); God promises to these outcasts refuge and support (Ps. 9:13-19; 33:7; 34:10; Is. 57:15) and the Messiah will deliver them (Ps. 71:2-4, 12 f.) from the arrogance of the magnates, representatives and arbiters of legality, who trample them: he will be their redeemer and avenger (gō'ēl: Is. 43:1; 44:22, etc.; Ps. 71:14). Jesus introduces into the Kingdom of happiness the great mass of the wretched, exploited and deluded by the cunning and greedy minorities of the powerful (Is. 29:20 f.). Since the rich, militant slaves of triumphant matter, have formed for themselves a kingdom and a happiness here below, Jesus elects the derelict (cf. Lk. 14:21) relegated to the margins of society, without means and without human help, glorifies the poor man who suffers all the consequences of poverty: abuses, insults, deceits. It is clear that this is a question of actual poverty, the kind that frightens and scandalizes the worldly man; Lk. 6:24 adds the curse upon the rich: Jesus is averse to the rich because he fights the world, whose pomp and power contrast with the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 1:26-28) and will be annihilated (Jn. 16:33; Rev. 18:10-19). Jesus, utterly poor (Mt. 8:20; Lk. 9:58), glorifies and demands poverty (Mt. 19:21; Lk. 12:33; 18:22) in exchange for the Kingdom (Mt. 13:44, 46), since wealth, the fulcrum of earthly power, is the effect and cause of sin (Mt. 6:24; Lk. 16:9-13; cf. Sir. 31:8-9). Mt. 5:3 (not Lk. 6:20) has the determination τῷ πνεύματι ("properly a locative": G. Bonaccorsi, p. 3), "in spirit," which does not limit at all, but intensifies the sense of πτωχός; it is not a matter of the poor only "in spirit," that is, metaphorically, but of the poor inwardly afflicted by hardship and sorrow, as is clear from the constant use of πνεῦμα (Heb. rūah) in similar expressions (Is. 57:15; 66:2; Ps. 33:19; the same sense of lēbh "heart" in Ps. 108:16): it is full poverty, piercing to the very depths of the soul (but St. Jerome interprets: "He added 'in spirit' so that you may understand humility, not poverty"; and St. Augustine, with the greater number of the Fathers, thinks likewise). While he who abounds in material goods is excluded from salvation (Lk. 16:25; 18:25; Mt. 19:21, 24), to the poor "belongs the Kingdom of heaven (Mt.) or of God (Lk.)": it is the only verb in the present tense, as in the last b., because the Kingdom already exists and is open to the elect. In the 6 intermediate b., the verb is in the future, because they set forth particular realizations of the Kingdom after the life of trial; the 7 subsequent b. are suggestive variations on the double theme of the 1st: tribulation, the Kingdom, the one leading to the other.
The 2nd b. ("Blessed are the meek," οἱ πραεῖς) of the Vulgate, placed in 3rd position in most Greek codices, substantially reproduces the 1st. Apart from the proclamation "blessed," it is a citation of Ps. 36:11. In the Septuagint, πραεῖς translates ʿānāw (46 times) and ʿānî (7 times); the distinction between πτωχός and πραεῖς, as between ʿānî and ʿānāw, is minimal in biblical language, in which these terms usually carry an ethical-religious meaning of modesty and of patience ready to endure injustices without reacting, trusting in God. The "meek" (F. Prat translates "the humble") are the lowly whom no one counts, resigned to their humiliating and bitter lot. Innocent and guiltless by necessity, like children — since open or hidden violence is the prerogative of the masters of the world — these men, who can hope for nothing except from God, "will enter into possession of the land" promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:7-8, 18; Deut. 4:38) and to the people of Israel (Ex. 3:8, 17). This "land" full of delights ("milk and honey": Ex. 13:5; 33:3) represents the messianic Kingdom.
The 3rd b. concerns the "afflicted" (οἱ πενθοῦντες; Lk. 6:21 οἱ κλαίοντες "those who weep"), stricken by sorrow (by repentance: St. John Chrysostom: PG 57, 225 ff.), not only by mourning for the death of one's dear ones as St. Augustine thought (PL 34, 1232). Jesus glorifies suffering for its salutary effects: it redeems by atoning, purifies by detaching, liberates by freeing from the world. Sadness amid the laughter of the world's revelers, shunned and hated by Jews and pagans, will be transformed into joy (Jn. 16:20-22; II Cor. 7:10; I Pt. 2:19; Apoc. 7:17; 21:4). The Messiah comes to console the afflicted (Is. 61:2 nāḥam, Septuagint τοὺς πενθοῦντας; cf. Is. 25:8). As a condition of eternal happiness, the cross of Christ already brings "peace and joy" (cf. Mt. 10:38; 16:24; Lk. 9:23; 14:27; I Cor. 1:17 ff.; Gal. 6:14).
The 4th b. exalts "those who hunger and thirst," that is, the destitute tormented by want; the object added by Mt. 5:6 (omitted by Lk. 6:21), "righteousness," deepens and makes pregnant, but does not change the concept: at the bottom of the suffering of the anguished faithful lies the ardent, even if unexpressed, aspiration to the moral order, which the wicked, exclusive possessors of the means of bodily life, overturn. The debilitating physical deprivation is sharpened by inner torments. "They will be satisfied": the recompense was assured (Jer. 31:25) in the messianic kingdom to all who had toiled (Is. 49:10; 55:1-2 "without money"; cf. Eccl. 51:33; Apoc. 22:17). The expression is spiritually evocative, for in the Bible "hunger and thirst" often indicates the desire for supersensible goods (Is. 56:1; Jer. 31:25; Am. 8:11; Ps. 41:2-3; 106:9), which God will fully satisfy.
The 5th b. has as its subject "the merciful" (οἱ ἐλεήμονες). Ἐλεήμων is said, in the New Testament, only of Jesus in Hebr. 2:17; the Septuagint renders with this word the double divine attribute ḥannûn and raḥûm (Vulg. misericors et miserator) of Ex. 34:6; Ps. 110:4, etc. He who, like God, forgives wrongs received, who imitates Jesus "compassionating" (Hebr. 2:17; Col. 3:12) the wretched by sharing and alleviating their physical and moral sorrows (not only by almsgiving, as St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Leo the Great understand) "will obtain" divine mercy, entering the Kingdom. Literally the equation between the service rendered and the recompense is expressed; but, in reality, God's gift immeasurably surpasses human merit (II Cor. 4:17).
The 6th b. addresses the "pure of heart" (οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ), those who are upright and clean from sin "inwardly," in opposition to the formal, exterior legality on which the elite rely (Mt. 23:25-28); beyond chastity, what is here inculcated is the real innocence of life, the sincere correspondence to all moral obligations. Already Ps. 23:4 (cf. 50:12) requires "a pure heart" of whoever wishes to live beside God, and Ps. 73:1 affirms that God's beloved are the "pure of heart" (bārê lēbhāb); "heart" here is a way of expressing that the ethical reality is possessed and lived, is not appearance nor verbalism. The object of the b.: "they will see God"; it is the supreme happiness promised to "the upright" and "innocent" (Ps. 11:7; 17:15; cf. 15:11), who are the "pure of heart." This "vision of God" characterizes the Kingdom founded by Jesus (Jn. 14:6-11; 19-23) and will culminate in eternal glory (I Cor. 13:12; I Jn. 3:2; Apoc. 22:4).
The 7th b. glorifies the "peacemakers" (οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί). Εἰρηνοποιός (hapax in biblical Greek) corresponds etymologically to pacificus; it is he who loves "peace" (in the broad Semitic sense, including "safety" and "salvation") and radiates it around himself. Since peace is the fruit of righteousness (Is. 33:17; Bar. 5:4), the "peacemaker," who is the truly just man, opposes injustice (Prov. 14:10 LXX). The messianic Kingdom is the kingdom of full peace (Is. 9:6-7; 11:6-9; 24:10; Ex. 34:25). Christ inaugurated peace and is "our peace" (Eph. 2:14-15; Col. 1:20 εἰρηνοποιήσας), he brought to the world the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15). Prerogative of these meek soldiers of the "prince of peace": "they will be called" (and they will truly be, according to the Semitic conception that identifies the name with the individual entity) "sons of God." For God is indeed "the God of peace" (Rom. 15:33; 16:20; I Cor. 14:33; II Cor. 13:11; etc.), and he who is a "son of peace" (Lk. 10:6) resembles him and belongs to him. The elect will be, in the age to come, "sons of God" (Lk. 20:36); already now they enjoy divine sonship because the ἀγάπη of God is in their hearts (Rom. 5:2b, 5; 8:14; I Jn. 3:1; 4:8, 16), and after the teaching of Jesus, εἰρήνη without ἀγάπη cannot be conceived.
The last b. rejoins the 1st (St. Bernard: PL 183, 135), with a marked character of "inclusio" that makes the group of the b. a rhythmic stanza in its own right. "Those persecuted for righteousness" ("righteousness" in biblical language is the most generic term indicating moral perfection: virtue, religion, goodness of life) are all those who estrange themselves from the world in order to attain the life and light of God; the world, not recognizing them as its own, hates them, as it hates Christ (Mt. 10:16-22; 24:9; Jn. 15:18-25; 16:2; I Jn. 3:13). The two following verses, which take up this b. again, applying it in the second person, then the entire Sermon on the Mount, all the doctrine and history of the Gospel, the experience and preaching of the Apostles, down to the Apocalypse, are the development of this b., which (like the 1st) summarizes the entire octave of the b. Earthly reality is frightful; but for its victims the highest and most radiant revenge is ready: the Kingdom of God.
The ascetical theology of the beatitudes has in every age nourished Christian souls, spurring them to detachment from the world, to renunciation, to mortification, on the basis of faith, hope and charity. Various Fathers strove to deduce from the beatitudes a systematic synthesis of ascesis.
St. Ambrose (Expositio Ev. sec. Luc., V, 62 ff.: PL 15, 1649-55) sets out the 4 beatitudes of Lk. 6:20-26 as degrees "per quos ab ultimis ad superiora possumus ascendere" and links them back to the 4 cardinal virtues, as also the 8 beatitudes of Mt. 5:3-10 (where each virtue is divided into two branches), discerning in them a ladder that rises from initial misery to eternal glory (in this he finds the difference between the 1st and the 8th beatitude: beginners and the perfected). St. Chromatius of Aquileia (PL 20, 331-37) derives from the individual beatitudes just as many virtues to be practiced. St. Leo the Great (Hom. 95, De gradibus ascensionis ad beatitudinem*: PL 54, 460-66) recognizes in the beatitudes 8 moral stages ("gradus felicissimae ascensionis") that lead to eternal rest "in tranquillissima Dei pace", or rather 8 aspects of Christian perfection. Among the Greeks, St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his 8 homilies on the beatitudes (PG 44, 1194-1302), makes of them an ethical-ascetical application, insisting on the two aspects, active and contemplative. St. John Chrysostom (PG 57, 323-39) sees in the beatitudes the Christian virtues, expounding the degrees of each: the 1st beatitude imposes humility, the principle of every perfection; the afflicted are the penitents; then the hunger for justice or holiness develops, whereby every good is accomplished in relation to God and to neighbor.
In the Middle Ages the parenetical interpretation of the beatitudes continued to develop, enriching itself with applications, sometimes founded on allegorism, to the Christian, clerical or monastic life. St. Bernard, in the Sermo I in festo omnium sanctorum (PL 183, 453-62; cf. hints in De conversione ad clericos, 7-22: PL 182, 841-56, and in Sermo II in Circumcisione Domini: PL 183, 135), sees in the 8 beatitudes just as many virtues, arranged in a gradation that is not hierarchical but rather chronological in relation to the ascetical experience of monks: voluntary paupertatis vilitas is the remedy for pride, meekness or obedience is the remedy for the rebellion of sin, the 3rd beatitude concerns the "contritio spiritus et assiduitas lacrymarum", the 4th the desire for perfection, the 5th almsgiving, the 6th the struggle against concupiscence and sin with the use of the double "remedium" of prayer and confession, the 7th fraternal charity, the 8th the martyrium realized within the cloister. Dante (Purg. XII, 110: pauperes sp. = the humble; 15, 38; 17, 68 f.; 19, 50; 23, 5-6; 27, 8) applies the beatitudes to the virtues by which the elect set out toward the heavenly reward. Ludolph of Saxony (Vita Christi, part 1, ch. 33, Venice 1566, pp. 155-62), St. Bernardine of Siena (9 Advent sermons on the beatitudes: Opera, III, ibid. 1745, pp. 18-68), like all preachers and ascetical writers down to the present day, explain the 8 beatitudes as "the fundamental principles of Christian morality", "the general maxims of Christian morality and perfection" (M. Meechler, Méditations sur la vie de N.S. Jésus-Christ, trans. from the German, I, Paris 1892, pp. 425 and 427).
St. Augustine devised a theological-mystical arrangement, grafting it onto the common ethical-ascetical interpretation. From the number "seven" (the last beatitude is identified with the first) the Bishop of Hippo deduces that the beatitudes are the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit (Is. 11:2-3), but in inverted order, from the 1st, which coincides with the fear of God, to the last ("peacemakers"), which contains wisdom (De serm. Dom. in monte, I, 3-4: PL 34, 1234; and more briefly in Sermo 347: PL 38, 1524 f., and De doctr. chr., II, 7: PL 34, 39). He concludes his work De serm. Dom. in monte (II, 2: PL 34, 1308) by recalling the equation: 7 beatitudes = 7 "operations" of the Holy Spirit. The parallelism between the "spirit of Jahweh" and the redemption of the oppressed can be founded, better, on Is. 42:1 (48:6); 61:1; Ex. 37:14.
St. Augustine, moreover, well knew and adopted the simply moral-ascetical explanation of the beatitudes (Sermo 53: Epist. 130, 3-5; De sermone Domini in monte, I, 1-2, where he recognizes in the 1st beatitude humility, in the 2nd charity, etc.). It is found also in the new Sermo (already listed by Possidius) discovered at Vienna and edited by G. Morin (1922), in a manuscript of the 13th century; here the beatitudes are insistently said to be eight.
The Augustinian mystical theory is reproduced by St. Bede (In Matth. ev. expos. I. I: PL 94, 24-25), who for the rest follows St. Ambrose for Lk. 6:20-26 (PL 92, 401-405), by St. Peter Damian (PL 144, 411-15), by Hugh of St. Victor (PL 175, 763 f.). St. Thomas gives it a more systematic arrangement. Granted that the just man is under the motion of the Holy Spirit, who by his gifts (habitus) renders him disposed to second its supernatural impulses (Summa theol., 1st-2nd, q. 68), the beatitudes are the "acts" that result from them (loc. cit., q. 69, a. 1), acts specifically identical with those deriving from the infused moral virtues, but different in the manner in which they are produced and in a higher degree of objective perfection. Then, coordinating them with the goods pursued, the Angelic Doctor sets out the hierarchy of the "seven" beatitudes: the first three are opposed to deceptive goods, the two following constitute the active life and dispose one to true happiness, the last two form the contemplative life and "vel sunt ipsa beatitudo finalis, vel aliqua inchoatio eius, et ideo non ponuntur in beatitudinibus tanquam merita sed tanquam praemia" (loc. cit., q. 69, a. 3). To the beatitudes he subordinates (op. cit., 2nd-2nd, q. 139, a. 2, ad 3) the 12 fruits (v.) of the Holy Spirit, which are the more common virtuous "acts": "plus requiritur ad rationem beatitudinis quam ad rationem fructus... Unde omnes beatitudines possunt dici fructus, sed non convertitur" (op. cit., 1st-2nd, q. 70, a. 2). The 8th beatitude summarizes all the preceding ones, and does not correspond to a special gift (loc. cit., q. 69, a. 3, ad 5 and a. 4, ad 2). As for the parallelism between the beatitudes and the gifts, St. Thomas adheres to the theory of St. Augustine (op. cit., 2nd-2nd, q. 19, a. 12), but rejects any concordistic exclusivism: the beatitudes correspond to the 7 gifts "non singulae singulis, sed plures uni et una pluribus" (op. cit., 1st-2nd, q. 69, a. 3; 2nd-2nd, q. 121, a. 2 and q. 139, a. 2), if one attends not only to the motives (motiva) of the beatitudes (as St. Augustine does), but to their object, according to the intimate "convenientia propriae rationis ad invicem" between the gifts and the beatitudes (op. cit., 1st-2nd, q. 69, a. 3, ad 3). He further admits the moral interpretation (the 4 virtues) of St. Ambrose (op. cit., 1st-2nd, q. 69, a. 3, ad 6).
Similarly, St. Bonaventure places the gifts of the Holy Spirit at the root of the beatitudes: the virtues dispose one to the active life, the gifts to the contemplative life, the beatitudes to the perfection of both (Brevilogium, p. V, ch. 6). This doctrine was handed down in the treatises of Peraldo (Summa de virt. et vit., I, 5) and of St. Antoninus (Summa theol., IV, tit. 7, chs. 5-6) and down to our own days with E. Nieremberg, M. J. Scheeben and B. Proget; some today prefer to omit it, holding that it "practically reduces to the exercise of certain more important virtues, considered under the particular aspect of a training toward true beatitude" (J. de Guibert). Leo XIII (Encyclical Divinum illud munus, 9 May 1897) makes the beatitudes depend on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, "indices ac nuntiae beatitatis perpetuo mansurae" (Leonis XIII Acta, XVII, Rome 1898, p. 148).
St. Augustine (De Sermone Domini in monte, II, 11: PL 34, 1286), after explaining the Pater, added: "it seems to me that the number seven of these petitions corresponds to the seven beatitudes, whence the whole of the present discourse took its origin," and he refers the petitions in order to the individual beatitudes; the device leads him to unite tears with the gift of knowledge and the fulfillment of God's will, then the gift of fortitude with the daily bread. St. Peter Damian imitates him (PL 144, 415). St. Thomas observes that "Augustinus adoptat septem petitiones donis et beatitudinibus" and cites his text at length (Sum. Theol., 2a-2a, q. 83 ad 9, ad 3), but he does not insist on this pairing.
More than from the abstract doctrine of theological geniuses, the Beatitudes have their complete commentary in the living realization of the saints. A clarion call to ideal combat, a challenge hurled by the unarmed but dauntless spirit against matter in its dominion, a conclusive announcement of the overturning of human values cried out by the Prophets for the "day of Yahweh," the Beatitudes inaugurate and explain "the scandal of the cross" (I Cor. 1:23). In vain do the "right-thinking," clinging to the passing world, strive, with ingenious glosses, to sweeten and "adapt to the times" the Gospel of the Beatitudes. Only the small band of obscure heroes who follow Jesus to complete victory over the world savors, in silent love and torment, perfect joy (Mt. 11:25-30; Lc. 10:21; 12:32; Io. 16:20-22, 32-33; II Cor. 4:6-18; 5:14-18; 6:2-10 and cf. 7:4-6: Paul experiences in himself the divine paradox, which is not one of words, of the Beatitudes).
Bibliography16 works
Acattolici: C. W. Votaw, op. cit., pp. (1-44) 14-22; O. Baumgarten, Bergpredigt und Kultur der Gegenwart, Tubinea 1921; K. Bornhäuser, Die Bergpredigt: Versuch einer zeitgemässen Auslegung, Gütersloh 1923, pp. 18-37; H. Windisch, Der Sinn der Bergpredigt: Ein Beitrag zum geschichtlichen Verständnis der Evangelien und zum Problem der richtigen Exegese, Lipsia 1929, 2ª ed. ivi 1937, pp. 8-10, 18, 63, 96-103, 143-86; J. Resewski, Die Mahnrinnen bei Mt. und Lh., ihr Verhältnis zueinander und ihr historischer Hintergrund, in Stadia theologica (Riga), 1 (1935), pp. 157-69.
Sui paralleli nel mondo antico: G. L. Dirichlet, De veterum macarimmi, Giessen 1914 - Sui paralleli giudaici: G. Friedländer, The Jewish sources of the Sermon on the mount, Londra 1911, pp. 11-28, 91, 166-81; H. L. Strack e P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum N. T. aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, Monaco 1922, pp. 189-232; P. Fiebig, Jesu Bergpredigt, Rabbinische Texte zum Verständnis der Bergpredigt, Gottling 1924; G. Kittel, Die Bergpredigt und die Ethik des Judentums, in Zeitschrift für systematische Theologie, 2 (1924-25), pp. 555-94; C. G. Montefiore, Rabbinic literature and Gospel teaching, Londra 1930, pp. 1-35, 274; J. Isaac, Jésus et Israël, Parigi 1948, pp. 134-39. Insiste sulla dipendenza dal giudaismo precrutissimo la scuola scandinava: J. Pedersen, Israel, I, Copenhagen 1920 (v. trad. inglese 1926, pp. 263-335), e II, ivi 1934; S. Mowinckel, Psalmstudien, I (Avian und die individuellen Klagepsalmen) e II-VI, Oslo 1921-24; H. Birkeland, Ani und Anam in den Psalmen, ivi 1933; ai quali si associa A. Causse, Les pauvres d'Israël, Strasburgo 1922, e Du groupe ethnique à la communauté religieuse, Parigi 1937, pp. 243-76. Contro la «mania di trovare alle sentenze di Gesù paralleli e antecedenti rabbinici... in tema dal suono così poco giudaico, se non antigiudaico»: J. Bonairven, Les Juifs et Jésus, Parigi 1937, pp. 108-10, 158 (pp. 57-59; i travisamenti).
II. - Interpretazione etico-acetica, Cattolici: J.-B. Bossuet, Méditations sur l'Évangile, giorni 1-10; C. Gay, Les béatitudes évangéliques, Parigi 1880; H. Bolo, Les béatitudes évangéliques, ivi 1896; F. Lavallée, Béatitudes, Lione 1927; G. Semeria, Le b. evangeliche, Milano 1928; N. Ciriaci, Le b. del Vangelo, Napoli 1929; G. Perardi, La dottrina cattolica, parte 4ª (Virtù e peccati), II, Torino 1935, pp. 5-75; T. Kranich, Die acht Seligheiten und der moderne Mensch, Beuron 1937; A. Portaluppi, Commento alle b., Roma 1942; E. Prosperini, Le b. in famiglia (Conferenze alle modri), ivi 1942; Anon., En marge des béatitudes (Dialogue biblique), in Dieu vivant, fasc. III (1945), pp. 91-102. - Acattolici: A. Schmittthoner, Die Seligpreisungen unseres Herren praktisch ausgelegt, Tubinga 1908; J. Müller, Die Bergpredigt, verdentscht und vergegenwärtigt, 3ª ed., Monaco 1911 (6ª ed. 1920), pp. 38-99; H. Foston, The Beatitudes and the contrasts, Londra 1911; M. Devine, The religion of the Beatitudes: A study of Christ's teaching, ivi 1918; L. Cordier, Jesus und das Glück: Betrachtungen über die Seligpreisungen, Herborn 1923; J. Burr, The Crown of the character, Londra 1933; C.H.S. Matthews, The way to Happiness, ivi 1934; M. Wateyn-Williams, The Beatitudes in the modern world, ivi 1935; F. W. Borham, The heavenly Octave, ivi 1935; R. E. Roberts, The Happy heart: A study in the Beatitudes, ivi 1936; G. Vann, The divine pity: A study in the social implications of the Beatitudes, Nuova York 1946.
III. - Theological-mystical interpretation: A. Gardell, Béatitudes évangéliques, in DThC, II, coll. 515-17 (cf. IV, col. 1764); id., Beati pauperes..., in La vie spirituelle, Dec. 1932, pp. 234-38; Feb. 1933, pp. 204-26; Apr. 1933, pp. 30-39; Jan. 1934, pp. 20-32; F. Cayré, La contemplation augustinienne, Paris 1927, pp. 52-63; M.-D. Roland-Gosselin, Le sermon sur la montagne et la théologie thomiste, in Revue des sciences philos. et théol., 17 (1928), pp. 201-34; E. Gilson, *Béatitudes dans l'Évangile**, in La vie intellectuelle, 25 March 1933, pp. 357-69; M. J. Scheeben, Le meraviglie della grazia divina, Italian trans., Turin 1933, p. 250 ff.; D. Busy, Béatitudes, in DSp, I, coll. 1298-1310; B. Froget, L'abitazione dello Spirito Santo nelle anime giuste secondo la dottrina di s. Tommaso d'Aquino, Italian trans., Turin 1937, pp. 428-33; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, La carità perfetta e le b., in Vita cristiana, 10 (1938), pp. 11-27; J. de Guibert, Leçons de théologie spirituelle, Toulouse 1946, p. 158 ff. (note).
Antonino Romeo
BEATO (beatus), saint: v. SETTE FONDATORI.