In the year 400 A.D. a man by the name of St. Augustine wrote one of his most monumental works, it was a recounting from his youth of his journey from paganism to Catholicism and it was simply entitled Confessions. He began this work first by praising God and then recognizing that all of us are prone and inclined to sin, “Nevertheless,” he said, our greatest desire is still to praise God, in spite of ourselves. As he says: “You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

That last line is a line that is often quoted, because it sums up his life and most of ours as well, pointing as it does to an important truth: that his search as well as most of ours for happiness in all the wrong places, with all the wrong people is simply a search for God. In fact, happiness, true happiness is not a feeling, but, rather, a fulfillment; that is why the Latin word for happiness is “beatitude.”

Of course, the question is how is poverty, hunger, sadness, being hated and persecuted a source of happiness and blessing? In and of themselves, they are not, otherwise Christ would have sought to alleviate them when He saw them, but, in another sense, they are, insofar as they point to a greater understanding of what true happiness is, a fulfillment, a fulfillment, however, that is not nor can be fully satisfied here on earth.

This is what the saints voluntarily practiced, giving up possessions, searching for food, enduring sadness and being persecuted as a Christian. St. Francis of Assisi, in fact, embraced all of these; so much so, he used the beatitudes not as a way of life, or a model upon which to live his life, he also used them as his examination of conscience.

Yet, the reason was simple, he saw as many of the saints did, that the beatitudes taught the fundamental lesson that Christ was trying to convey, that when we are lacking, we seek support, and when we lack what is fundamental to us, we come to see what is truly important in our lives and, as a result, we come to rely upon the one, the only one who can truly help us, and, that is God.

This is why, it seems, that only those things in this world that are eternal can truly fulfill us. To speak, is one thing, but to pray, quite another, to eat so that we are temporarily full is one thing, but to receive the Eucharist, the eternal bread from Heaven, that which satisfies, is another, to read words on a page and comprehend them, again, is one thing, but to read the Scriptures, the eternal Word of God, is, indeed, quite another.

The beatitudes then are the answer to St. Augustine, they show that the restlessness in our hearts is not from too little but, indeed, too much, and, in the end, they teach a very hard lesson, that happiness, true happiness, true fulfillment is not what we think. The road to Heaven is a little more difficult than we might imagine, which is why there seems to be so much division in it.

In fact, despite its poetic nature, the beatitudes, believe it or not, point directly to the reality of the Cross and how that cross is fulfilled in us, because with each blessing comes a woe meaning that it is not just a blessing, but another opportunity, another step towards or away from our redemption, that with beatitude we also endure trial. That is why with the Cross on our shoulders and our eyes towards God, we can seek our true reward, our true beatitude, not here on earth but, indeed, in the joys and the happiness of Heaven.