Beatitude

The beatitudes are eight statements taught by Jesus. They are concerned with virtue and how a believer in Jesus Christ can achieve that virtue. The Beatitudes are a map of life, a series of directives helping us on our journey to be with God. They also designate the actual condition of people who follow God's guidelines. They are simply stated, but are profound in meaning. They guide. They point. They teach. They show us the values that Christ cares about. These values if followed, can not only bring a believer into a state of peace and happiness, but also right into the Kingdom of God after our journey on this earth is over. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the first Beatitude. It tells us that we should accept people for who they are and not the material things they have. You should not treat a person who lives in a nice house and drives a nice car any different then someone who lives in a less desirable house and drives an old car. You should treat everyone how you would like to be treated. Just because someone cannot afford some of the things as you might be able to doesn't mean they should be treated any different. The virtue that Jesus would want his followers to develop would be liberality. Liberality is a spirit of generosity for a proper and worthy charity that may involve the donation of our time, our money, or other possessions. This virtue, liberality, is in fact apart of agape because liberality is a form of generosity and should not calculate the cost of giving. This means that we should share our possessions, time and money and no matter what, we cannot look at our generosity as a negative thing. In the context of being a grade nine student in a catholic high school, one should live out this beatitude by living out the virtue liberality, to be generous. Also what would help would to follow the Christ-like love that follows, we should be generous and not calculate the cost of giving.