The Beatitudes

I never did find that Buechner book I was looking for; but I found another one, with, serendipitously, an entry more apropos to my point:

BEATITUDES

If we didn't already know but were asked to guess the kind of people Jesus would pick out for special commendation, we might be tempted to guess one sort of another of spiritual hero--men and women of impeccable credentials morally, spiritually, humanly, and every which way.  If so, we would be wrong.  Maybe those aren't the ones he picked out because he felt they didn't need the shot in the arm hie commendation would give them.  Maybe they're not the ones he picked out because he didn't happen to know any.  Be that as it may, it's worth noting the ones he did pick out.

Not the spiritual giants but the "poor in spirit" as he called them, the ones who spiritually speaking have absolutely nothing to give and absolutely everything to receive like the Prodigal telling his father "I am not worthy to be called thy son" only to discover for the first time all he had in having a father.*

Not the champions of faith who can rejoice even in the midst of suffering but the ones who mourn over their own suffering because they know that for the most part they've brought it down on themselves, and over the suffering of others because that's just the way it makes them feel to be in the same room with them.

Not the strong ones but the meek ones in the sense of the gentle ones, i.e., the ones not like Casper Milquetoast but like Charlie Chaplin, the little tramp who lets the world walk over him and yet, dapper and undaunted to the end, somehow makes the world more human in the process.

Not the ones who are righteous but the ones who hope they will be someday and in the meantime are well aware that the distance they still have to go is even greater than the distance they've already come.

Not the winners of great victories over Evil in the world but the ones who, seeing it is also in themselves ever time they comb their hair in front of the bathroom mirror, are merciful when they find it in others and maybe that way win the greater victory.

Not the totally pure but the "pure in heart," to use Jesus' phrase, the ones who may be as shop-worn and clay-footed as the next one but have somehow kept some inner freshness and innocence intact.

Not the ones who have necessarily found peace in its fullness but the ones who, just for that reason, try to bring it about wherever and however they can--peace with their neighbors and God, peace with themselves.

Jesus saved for last the ones who side with Heaven even when any fool can see it's the losing side and all you get for your pains is pain.  Looking into the faces of his listeners, he speaks to them directly for the first time.  "Blessed are you," he says.

You can see them looking back at him.  They're not what you'd call a high-class crowd--peasants and fisherfolk for the most part, on the shabby side, not all that bright.  It doesn't look as if there's a hero among them.  They have their jaws set.  Their brows are furrowed with concentration.

They are blessed when they are worked over and cursed out on his account he tells them.  It is not his hard times to come but theirs he is concerned with, speaking out of his own meekness and mercy, the purity of his own heart.

(Matthew 5:1-12)

Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary.  HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.  pp. 19-20.

*Indeed.