Posted by The WORD in other words (2017) by Fr Flavie Villanueva SVD – Catholic Trade Manila
4th Sunday in Ordinary Time – A
The word “blessed” is mentioned at least 300 times in the Bible. Its origin may be traced to the old English bletsian, that is “to consecrate, make holy, give thanks”, then to the Germanic blot ham, bloedsian, meaning, “mark with blood”. This depicts the pro-Christian story of Moses “streaking the door posts with blood to make them as holy to the Lord.” (Exodus 12, 22-23)
In Christian times, the English conversion of the Latin benedicere to bless “started from the primitive sense of speak well of or to eulogize, praise.”
In Hebrew brk would primarily be “to bend” hence “to bend the knee, worship, praise, bless God, invoke blessings on, bless as a deity.”
Today when we say “bless” we generally refer to the Latin meaning of benedicere that is, to “speak well of or to eulogize, praise.”
But the question still is, given its etymology, what did Jesus mean when he taught and spoke of the beatitudes in the Semon of the Mount?
Taking into consideration its different shades of meaning from its linguistic usages, we may say that the Beatitudes is all about embracing the humbling, painful and even tragic events in one’s life yet grounded in the hope that these will lead to one’s salvation.
The Beatitudes, more than the precepts to be followed, were proclaimed by Jesus as a way of life he himself lived. He is inviting us then to do the same: become a paradox against a world obsessed with power in a callous conscience that have fallen into a consumerist mindset.
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