The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5:17

God’s actions in the Old Testament prepared his people for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. The Old Testament gives us the Ten Commandments and the prophets.

The New Testament gives us the Eight Beatitudes – those blessed attitudes which can change the condition of the human heart. “Learn from me,” says the Lord, “for I am meek and humble of heart.”

At the beginning of chapter five of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives us eight Beatitudes and, for the rest of the chapter, He explains (in his commentary) how the Beatitudes fulfill or complete the Ten Commandments. The Commandments, though they provide moral and spiritual guidelines for correct behavior, are mostly negative in tone; they begin with: ‘thou shall not.’ The Beatitudes, on the other hand, are entirely positive. They begin with words of blessing; words of empowerment that enable us to act out of love. All the evil acts that people perform “come from the deepest recesses of the human soul” the Lord reminds us. The beatitudes go to the heart of the human problem; they purify the human soul by removing the obstacles to grace, namely; the attitudes of pride, indifference, greed, envy, anger, fear, lust, hate. These blessed attitudes are the foundations of the new kingdom of Christ that has it’s origins within us; in our hearts, and in our souls.

Jesus’ message of the beatitudes, has the power to change us from within. That is why this all-encompassing message of love, which has the power to change the human heart, fulfills rather than abolishes the law and the prophets.

Fr. Hugh Duffy