Blessed...

I've read the bulk of the mainstream commentaries on the Beatitudes with some success.  Three weeks in, I keep trying to lay ahold of them in a deeper way.  Though I am not getting much farther in terms of specific understanding of the verses, I do feel like I'm moving forward in a gentle but significant way.   One of my biggest obstacles has been the concept of being blessed.

Originally, the concept of blessedness, which comes from the Greeks, does not carry a sense of morality with it inherently.  In its earliest use, it meant simply "happy" and was used in conjunction with the condition of the Greek Gods.  They were deemed happy because they were apart from and above from the frustrations and evils common to man.  

In the Bible, blessed still carries this primary meaning of "happy," although through centuries of Christian use, the term has taken on different connotations.  When someone uses the term today, it conveys a sense of moral judgement from above.  When we say "bless you" or "be blessed," there is an unspoken God in the equation who originates the blessing.  



And maybe this is why I don't use the term casually or like it when others do.  The overly villianized "bless her heart" is just an extreme example of the way I've seen "blessing" thrown around capriciously.  I don't like being told to "be blessed," either as it insinuates the said blessing is something I need to receive properly.  It's as if I can be blessed if I am willing to be.  The passive construction has a edge to it. 

Ugh. Yuck. (Sorry)

I do like "may God bless you" because the intent here is clear and right.  It recognizes that the pronouncement of blessing comes from outside.  There is a blesser and receiver.  The right image here is that I am interceding for and wishing for God's blessing on that person----His happiness, His favor--to be bestowed upon that person, willing or not.  To me, this is more than semantics, it is a proper statement of the spiritual reality behind His blessing.  He has the power to bless or curse.  I can choose to believe that or not, but either way, He will be about His business.   Let's keep that clear.

What about saying "bless you" when someone sneezes?  To me, this has become a polite courtesy divorced from any sense of of God.  I guess the expression does imply that someone is not openly hostile to the concept of a Christian God (which is still saying something, especially in Asheville).  But because it's become almost entirely secularized,  it doesn't bother me.  What bothers me is when His Church uses it.  It's when the term is used by Christians in an overly causual or hyper-spiritual sense that I bow up inside and resist.  

Getting back to the concept of blessing in the Beatitudes,  here I think Christ is pointing firmly to the true state of our spiritual condition.  Because the true state of our condition is so far removed from the world's perception the lesson requires this level of direct grit.  We need some cold water splashed on our souls and often.  It's more this shock of awareness that I think He's about here.

I don't know that Christ intended that we fully understand what it means to be blessed in any of these senses exactly.  He wanted us to know that what man perceives as "blessed" is very different than what God knows is blessed.   This and some level of what that might look like is enough for us to be busy with for now.

Fra Angelico (1387-1455), The Sermon on the Mount, Museum of San Marco, Florence, Italy