A Different Kind of Blessing Indeed
By Doug Culp

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Mt 5:10

There are many recipes for happiness out in the world today. Fast food companies promise to put a smile on our faces and let us have it our way; designers tell us that if we wear the right clothes and shoes, the right attitude and success will follow; magazines and the media ensure us with messages that happiness is just a increased salary, a promotion, or a plastic surgery away.

In the United States, it seems as though we are especially susceptible to such messages. After all, one of our foundational beliefs is that we are born with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

But what makes us happy? A recent article on the world’s happiest countries suggests that, in the U.S., personal success, self-expression, pride, and self-esteem are important measures of happiness. Marketers certainly know this and play to these desires. Slogans like "be yourself" litter ads for clothing lines; we have seen thousands of young people "express themselves" and their "individuality" by dressing and altogether imitating their favorite pop star’s image; we have elevated our professional athletes and celebrities to an almost mythic level as symbols of that success that is so important to us; we seek after spiritual masters who offer us a thousand different techniques that will give us enlightenment, which most of the time become simply another measure of personal success and pride.

And yet, we are not very happy. The survey ranked the United States 16th in happiness well behind Nigeria and Mexico, the number 1 and 2 countries, as far as having happy people. In fact, the level of happiness has remained constant in the "industrialized countries" since World War II, despite technological advances, longer life spans and increased incomes.

Such statistics only seem to harden our resolve, however. Our drive for the more is sustained by the conviction that happiness is something to be achieved or acquired like one more possession. We are convinced that we have the formula for happiness, despite evidence to the contrary – decreased civility among our people, increased aggressiveness, adoption by increasing numbers of mantras such as "greed is good," increased possessions accompanied by increased working hours and by the brokenness of more homes.

To such a culture, the beatitudes must seem ridiculous. The recipe Jesus offers humanity for happiness seems out of touch and fanciful at best, something to be dismissed and ignored. Jesus tells us that the poor, the sorrowful, the meek, the merciful, the pure, the peacemaker, and, yes, the persecuted are the happy ones. What? Are you kidding me?

What makes the beatitudes particularly hard to swallow is that after the beatitudes teach us how to be instrument of the will of God and what this looks like, this last beatitude anticipates the reception that those doing the will of God will receive in the world – persecution. How can this guide to blessedness possibly end with persecution?

Nature of Persecution

In order to truly get a feel for what this beatitude is communicating, it is necessary to explore the variety of forms that persecution can take in the world. For example, persecution can take the form of physical violence against a person or a group of people. Stories of torture, imprisonment, and even genocide crowd the headlines of our newspapers frequently enough to illustrate the prevalence of such persecution.

Then there are the more subtle forms of persecution whereby an individual or group is systematically excluded from full participation in a society. The persecuted are pushed to the margins and alienated from life in the community.

There is the sting of dismissal, as if one simply did not even exist. Such persecution does not take the victim seriously or refuses to acknowledge the victim even has a voice. There are the attacks to one’s sense of self-worth, esteem, and image that create in one the feeling that he or she is nothing in the eyes of God and the world – that he or she is alone, forgotten.

In each case, persecution seems to target relationships. Through exclusion or outright oppression, persecution seeks to sever the connection one has with the world, with society, with God and with oneself. It attacks the very core of what it means to be a relational, social being by cutting one off from relationship – in short it is per(son)e(xe)cution.

The Crucified

The story of Jesus provides the example of a life lived according to the principles put forth in the beatitudes. He shows us what it means to be in complete conformity with God’s will and what that looks like in everyday life: fidelity to prayer, rejection of anything that would claim the glory for Him rather than God, healing of the sick, restoration of those who were at the margins to participation in the community, and the merciful forgiveness of sinners.

Jesus’ reward for living the beatitudes: crucifixion. What is so powerful about the persecution Jesus suffered is its completeness. Jesus was physically imprisoned, tortured, and put to death. He suffered the mockery and utter rejection of the very community He loved. He was stripped naked and put on display for the world in this most despicable condition. He suffered the humiliation of the betrayal, the denial, and the abandonment of those He called His closest friends. He watched helplessly as the kingly, messianic image He enjoyed as He entered the gates of Jerusalem was systematically destroyed and replaced with the image of a base criminal, a failure and a blasphemer. Finally, even His relationship to God the Father was challenged as Jesus momentarily felt the absence of the Father. With His cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus reaches the place of utter aloneness and dehumanization (or lack of relatedness) which persecution seeks as its goal.

Persecution as a Blessing?

If the crucifixion story teaches us anything it is that persecution can never be called a blessed thing or the source of blessedness in and of itself. Rather, the beatitudes present persecution as the consequence for a life centered on God and God’s will, which is the true source of the happiness of the believer.

And yet, the beatitude is exactly right when it calls the persecuted blessed. Why? The key lies again in the story of Jesus. Jesus suffered an all-encompassing persecution, a persecution aimed at the complete annihilation of His relationship to the world through His death, to the other through the abandonment of His friends and the rejection of the His community, to Himself through the destruction of His self-esteem and sense of personhood, and to God through the momentary absence of the Father felt by Jesus.

However, as the story of the Resurrection demonstrates, all the forces of persecution could do nothing in the end. All of Jesus’ relationships were restored and in fact strengthened: He lived, His friends were reconciled to Him, He returned as teacher and savior, and He assumed His place in Heaven with His Father.

The point is that even persecution provides an invitation to enter into a deeper relationship with God, self, other and creation. Here Christianity again transforms that which seeks to destroy relatedness into the source for an even greater relatedness! But how does this happen?

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness

This for the sake of righteousness is what gives persecution any value at all. Our reaction to persecution reveals the state of our relationships. Are we consumed with ourselves only? Do we feel sorry for ourselves and slide into despair and self-pity? Do we get angry as our images of ourselves and our position in society are threatened or torn down? Do we feel slighted or persecuted every time something doesn’t go our way?

This beatitude, like all the beatitudes, unmasks the working of the ego. If we are ego-centered, even persecution can be a way of elevating and expanding the "me". We wallow in self-pity in attempts to gain attention or perhaps we see every persecution, no matter how minor, as evidence of our own holiness. Jesus, on the other hand, remained steadfast in His conformity to the will of God, i.e. He remained centered in God which poured out as compassion for even those who sought to kill Him. Jesus did not resist the destruction of His image; He did not draw attention to Himself in an effort to elicit pity and mercy; and He did not seek to be understood.

To Be Understood – the Great Temptation

As we have stated before, to be human is to be related. We are social beings and as such, inclusion and belonging maintain great importance in our lives even as we strive to express ourselves as individuals. We seek meaning for our lives, which includes the need for others to recognize, understand, and affirm this meaning. Many times we can only withstand difficult moments because we hope others understand our actions and sacrifice. For example, Soren Kierkegaard in Fear and Trembling gives the example of a war hero who can give his life for his country with the confidence that people understand his sacrifice.

Given this, it seems one of the most painful things a person can experience is lack of understanding. Yet, this need to be understood by others can be that last obstacle which keeps us from a deeper relationship with God and the blessedness promised by the beatitudes. Why? Contrast the war hero above with Jesus who dies misunderstood, a complete failure in the eyes of the people. Yet, Jesus did not plead His case knowing that His persecutors could not see or understand. John’s gospel in particular does a wonderful job at describing humanity’s persistent blindness and inability to understand correctly the message and revelation of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, persecution, which is the very response to that which we do not understand, will come to the one who seeks to do the will of God. However, when the persecution comes we still have a choice to make: do we seek to be understood for our own sake or do we remain steadfast in our conformity to the will of God, which will never be understood or accepted by the world?

Conclusion

This is the great insanity, the great blindness, the great disorder of a society that places so much emphasis on pursuing happiness: that as long as "I" seek happiness, I will not be happy. Happiness lies outside the "I". The "I" actually prevents happiness and gives persecution so much power in altering relationships because self-centeredness has already isolated us from Love itself. Thus, any threat to the self and its need for understanding and expression merely reveals the isolation and lack of relationship which in fact was already present. What this last beatitude teaches us then is that only right relationship with God produces happiness because it grounds one in Love itself which overflows in one’s relationship to self, others and creation that not even persecution in all its devastating forms can destroy.

Douglas Culp is the Assistant Academic Dean at the University of St. Mary of the Lake and a graduate theology student at Catholic Theological Union. He currently resides in Oak Park, IL with his wife Yvette. He can be reached at dculp@usml.edu.