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20. Living in Contradiction to the Status Quo Continued

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20. Living in Contradiction to the Status Quo Continued

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The virtue of charity shows God our love for Him and His creations. Through charity, we can truly appreciate the beauty of life and enjoy waking up each morning even more. Faith in God will be our source of salvation. Hope and the promise of eternal happiness with God, empowers us to live a truly full life. How do we live a full life? By living the way Jesus did. God wants us to see the beauty in each other and through the Beatitudes and virtues, we see each others' potential. Instead of showing hatred and violence towards each other, we can seek the beauty of God's creation and through that, we can find happiness.

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19. Living in Contradiction to the Status Quo

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19. Living in Contradiction to the Status Quo

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Can we truly find happiness living outside of the status quo?
Having a clean heart and working towards peace leads to a wiser person. Those who suffer, thirst and hunger for the sake of justice live the virtue of justice because they yearn for exactly that. Being meek but courageous is a contradiction in itself but Jesus was able to do accomplish it. Self-restraint is shown by having a clean heart and being a peacemaker. Those who show temperance have found the balance that God intended for us.

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Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Those who show charity also show mercy. Mercy is not simply forgiveness, it is compassion, grace and humanity. This Beatitude represents charity because by showing charity, we are showing mercy, compassion, grace and humanity to each other. Similar to how God shows mercy to us. Charity is defined as the giving of help but Jesus has shown us that mercy will help us in a way we never knew. Mercy leads us back to God.

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that charity is the virtue in which we love God above everything else and love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not only shown in a virtue but in The Ten Commandments. It does not say directly that you shall love God most and your neighbor like yourself but in the context, it is implied. Charity does not always mean giving a less fortunate person money. It could mean showing genuine concern for a person or recognizing someone's worth.

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Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted. We are not truly happy on Earth because we are away from God who gives us eternal life. Although we are given pleasures here on Earth, the utmost joy that we could ever attain is by being with our Father in heaven. This being said, the virtue of hope represents this virtue because hope means that we do not have to mourn at the end because will will be comforted by God. In the Bible, Lazarus was not rich with money but with faith. He had hope in his heart that despite him not being welcomed at a rich man's table, he would be welcomed at God's.

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According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, hope is the virtue in which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our source of our happiness and trusting Christ and relying on the help of the Holy Spirit instead of depending on our own strength.

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Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Being poor in spirit is being humble. Those who live through the virtue of faith know that Jesus promised those who followed that their sins would be forgiven and that they would be able to return to God the Father. They humbled themselves because they believed that Jesus would be their redemption.

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Faith, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is the virtue in which we believe in God, all He has revealed to us and that the Holy Church professes this because He is truth Himself. Faith, in the Bible, was learned by Thomas when Jesus told him that those who believe without seeing are blessed.

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As said before, the virtues are split into two groups, the Cardinal and Theological. The Theological Virtues are gifts from God. These virtues teach us that faith in Christ is our redemption and that love is the greatest virtue of them all because love is rooted into each virtue. The Theological Virtues are Faith, Hope and Charity.

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All of the Beatitudes fit into temperance because each is about finding balance between following Jesus' teachings and learning from our own experiences. For example, Blessed are the peacemakers, for the shall be called the children of God. People who show temperance by being peacemakers because they know that through chaos, peace can be made and balance can be achieved. Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. Having a clean heart means that a person can distance themselves from things that harden one's heart. A person who knows recognizes the balance between all things is a person showing temperance.

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that temperance is balance. It moderates our gravitation towards worldly pleasures. The Old Testament praises temperance: Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites. (Sirach 18:30)

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Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. Meekness is being quiet and gentle but that does not mean that meek people are not courageous. Being meek but being courageous are contrasting concepts, it is almost as if the virtue of fortitude was born from this beatitude through going against the status quo.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Being persecuted and accepting it shows fortitude because even in the face of punishment, a person can show courage.

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Fortitude is, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is the moral virtue that keeps us strong despite the difficulty in pursuing the good. We can conquer fear of death or persecution because we have the courage to fight for the good. Jesus, when He was being condemned by Pontius Pilate, showed fortitude even in the face of death.

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The Beatitudes were blessings given to us by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are listed in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Paraphrasing from the Catholic Encyclopedia, parallelism in the Beatitudes which in a way shows the contrast between living within the status quo or outside of it. It is unexpected that those who are meek and poor in spirit are God's chosen but in a parable told by Jesus in Matthew 20:16  So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

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Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In the example used before with people who are against abortion and are being judged for it, they are fighting on behalf of life for the sake of Justice.  Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill. Those who practice Justice seek it and its benefits. Similar to how we eat food and seek survival from it. Those who fight for justice will have their fill because they worked to fill others' lives and that in itself fills their own.

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church communicates that Justice is making decisions that would not hurt God and to convince others to make decisions that strengthen their relationship with God. People who practice Justice may go against the status quo, for example, people who are against abortion because they know that life starts at conception and not at birth. They may face ridicule for contradicting abortion but are fighting on behalf of a human life that is being kept from his or her potential.

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Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. People who demonstrate Wisdom will guide themselves and others to the decisions that will ultimately lead to peace, therefore, this Beatitude helped form the virtue of Wisdom.

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According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Wisdom is different from practicality and reason. Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God. People who display the virtue of Wisdom also demonstrate this Beatitude because God guides those to choose the wiser path and having a clean heart means that God will guide you.

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There are seven virtues in total but the first four are called the Cardinal Virtues. They are Wisdom (sometimes called Prudence), Justice, Fortitude (sometimes called courage) and Temperance. In Christianity, they are seen as fruits of the Holy Spirit. They form the foundation of our character. The Cardinal Virtues help us on our journey back to God.

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A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. (Catechism of the Catholic Church Article #7) The Beatitudes were told to us by Jesus in Matthew 5:3-10, the Sermon on the Mount.