Who Are the Peacemakers?

Today we struggle with the need for peace in the Middle East. The most recent effort has been the agreement to constrain Iran on the development of a nuclear weapon. This seems to have become controversial in the political sphere. Some wanting to hold out for everything even if it means more war. Others are satisfied with a path that constrains their ability to develop such a weapon. But what I wish to address is the idea of a peacemaker as taught by Jesus.  Who are the true peacemakers? What did Christ mean when He said, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall become sons of God"?

Saint Gregory of Nyssa gives us some insight in one of his sermons on the Beatitudes. In commenting on being a peacemaker he begins by reminding us how different we are from God. He is all powerful and we are just made from dust. Yet, God tells us, if we can become a peacemaker we will become His son. This can only mean that we become like Him.

What is a peacemaker? Saint Gregory puts it this way:

Now a peacemaker is a person who gives peace to another; but one cannot give to another what one does not possess oneself. Hence the Lord wants you first to be yourself filled with the blessing of peace, and then to communicate it to those who have need of it.

So being a peacemaker has to do with our own condition. Are we peaceful, do we have an inner peace to share? We can only give what we have to give.

Next he asks, What is peace? He writes:

Surely peace is nothing but a loving disposition towards one's neighbor. Now what is held to be the opposite of love? It is hate and wrath, anger and envy, harboring resentment as well as hypocrisy and the clarity of war.

It is easy to see that wrath is against goodness. No one who experiences the wrath of another person or another country sees this as good. If we can free ourselves from our own anger that leads to wrath we will move towards becoming a peacemaker. The passions that boil within ourselves are what need to be aimed first if we are to become like God.

In addition to wrath which we see externally, there is an inner disposition that may even be worse because it is hidden. That is envy and hypocrisy. Saint Gregory speaks of it this way:

Such is the disease of envy and hypocrisy; it is cherished secretly in the depth of the heart, like a hidden fire, while externally everything is made to look deceptively like  friendship. It is like a fire that is hidden under chaff. For a time is smolders inside and burns only what lies near; the flame does not flare up visibly, only biting smoke penetrates, because it is so vigorously compressed from within. But if it meets with some gust of wind, it is rekindled into a bright open flame.

We see this in the Biblical story of Cain and Able. Cain raved when Able was praised, but his envy lead him to killing Able. To become a peacemaker we must also rid ourselves of this hidden disease of envy. We cannot live with hypocrisy in ourselves and lead others to peace. We have a war going on within ourselves that can flare any time to warlike action. By becoming open and congruent with our feelings and actions we will receive God's grace to act with Divine power. Only then can we act with love and lead others towards peace. With any kind of malice hidden in our heart we will find ourselves separated from God and His love. We may even be contributing to the wrath we so much despise.

Not only are we asked to regard the needs of others by seeing their goodness, we need to address the war that Saint Gregory says is inherent in ourselves. He says:

I think that man is called a peacemaker par excellence who pacifies perfectly the discord between flesh and spirit in himself and the war that is inherent in nature, so that the law of the body no longer wars against the law of the mind, but is subjected to the higher rule and becomes a servant of the Divine ordinance.

This is our true challenge. The passions of our body too often dictate our actions. The mind may say one thing but the bodily passions take us in another direction. This is the aim of the Orthodox way of life, to lift our way of being so our higher nature is in control. Not only are we reconciled with God in repentance, prayer and the sacraments, but we discipline ourselves in these actions as well as fasting. It is the Orthodox way of life that will lead you to become a peacemaker and a son of God. This is the only way there will ever be peace in the world.

Ten Points on the Orthodox Way of life

Reference: Saint Gregory of Nyssa: The Lord's Prayer, The Beatitudes, Vol 18 Ancient Christian Writers.

Spirit and Water

Why does water serve as the means for the blessing we receive at Baptism? The obvious one is that we use water as a common thing to cleanse our bodies when solids. There is it logical that we would use it also in a sacramental way.


Also, man is not a simple being being a compound of elements both physical and spiritual.


St Gregory of Nyssa says,

Man, as we know full well, is compound, not simple: and therefore the cognate and similar medicines are assigned for healing to him who is twofold and conglomerate: --for his visible body, water, the sensible element--for his soul, which we cannot see, the Spirit invisible, invoked by faith, present unspeakably.

We must not think lightly of this holy water. The power it contains is most great, no less than that which transforms the wine and bread into the body and blood of Christ. It is common that God uses what is common to us to give us spiritual gifts. Man himself is mostly made of water and it is commingled with spirit in the image and likeness of God. The sacraments of the Church are all great mysteries.


St Gregory says,

Now God and Savior, in fulfilling the Dispensation for our sakes, went beneath the fourth of these, the earth, that He might raise up life from thence. And we in receiving baptism, in imitation of our Lord and Teacher and Guide, are we not indeed buried in the earth..., but coming to the element akin to earth, to water, we conceal ourselves in that as the Savior did in the earth: and by doing this thrice we represent for ourselves that grace of the Resurrection which was wrought in three days: and this we do, not receiving the sacrament in silence, but while there are spoken over us the Names of the Three Sacred Persons on Whom we briefed, in Whom we also hope, from Whom comes to us both the fact of our present and the fact of our future existence.

We do as Jesus commanded, 

"Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19).

Reference: A Sermon for the Theophany, St Gregory of Nyssa

Theophany - Work of Spirit

Most think of Theophany as that day we bless the waters and then have the priest come to bless our homes. But, it is much more important than this. It is the initiation of one of the important mysteries of the Church. On this day God established for our salvation the sacrament of Baptism which is how all who call themselves Christian are freed to walk the path to union with God. Those who have been baptized live in the hope of a life in close relationship with God, freed of all sins through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

St. Gregory of Nyssa tells us the following about this sacred event,

Today He is baptized by John that He might cleanse him who was defiled, that He might bring the Spirit from above, and exalted man to heaven, that he who had fallen might be raised up and he who had cast him down might be put to shame... And this gift it is not the water that bestows... But the command of God, and the visitation of the Spirit that comes sacramentally to set us free. But water serves to express the cleansing.

Reference: A Sermon for the Theophany, St Gregory of Nyssa

The Abyss Beyond Reason

The challenge we face for our spiritual growth is to get to the point where we have absolute trust in God and His Church.  In other words, Faith. In my personal experience, I struggled for many years until one day I made a choice––a leap of faith.  I chose to accept the Tradition of the Church and to commit myself to learning how to live it.  This did not stop my inquiry, it merely shifted it.  My inquiry became more intense, but now about learning how to live a life dedicated to Christ, instead of how to make sense out of it in philosophical or intellectual terms.  The result was dramatic.  My faith grew, I grew closer to God, and my life changed.  


Gregory of Nyssa describes the nature of the leap of faith that is involved.


The Good that we have learned to seek and to cherish is beyond all creation, and hence beyond all comprehension. Thus how can our mind, which always operates on a dimensional image, comprehend a nature that has no dimension, especially as our minds are constantly penetrating, by analysis, into things which are more and more profound...

Imagine a shear, steep crag, of reddish appearance below, extending into eternity; on top there is this ridge which looks down over a projecting rim into a bottomless chasm. Now imagine what a person would probably experience if he put his foot on the edge of this ridge which overlooks the chasm and found no solid footing nor anything to hold on to. This is what I think the soul experiences when it goes beyond tis footing in the material things, in its quest for that which has no dimension and which exists from all eternity.

Thus it is, the, that when reason touches on those things which are beyond it, that is the "time to keep silence" (Eccles. 3:7).

Gregory of Nyssa

From Commentary on Ecclesiastes, sermon 7

8th Beatitude: Blessed Are They That Suffer Persecution For Justice' Sake

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

In this Beatitude we have reached the peak of our quest. Our reward of our efforts is to become worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Gregory says,

No longer do we go astray, pinning our hope on what is unstable and subject to change. For earth is the place of variation and flux; but in the things that appear moving in heaven we observe nothing like that, because they do not behave in such a way; but all heavenly things move in their own courses in series of orderly sequence.

The examples we have for this final step are the martyrs of the Church.

Gregory says

It seems that in the last words He holds out to them the highest Beatitude like a crown. For it is truly blessed to suffer persecution for the sake of the Lord. And why? Because being chased by evil becomes the cause of attaining to the good, since separation from the wicked one is made the occasion for drawing near to the Good, that Good that is above every good, the Lord Himself, to whom runs the man who is persecuted. Therefore he is truly blessed, because he uses the enemy to help him attain the Good…

Hence the immediate aspect of the persecution which tyrants unleash against the martyrs is indeed painful to the senses; but the outcome of it exceeds all beatitude.

We all know how difficult it is to deal with those who scheme against us and who do not show their love for us. Gregory uses the story of Joseph as an example. His brothers plotted against him, sold him, yet by this action he became a king over those who had plotted against him. But the persecution in the days of the early Church (which still continues to this days in parts of the world) horrible and was something known by all. Many of Saint Gregory's peers had horrific scars to show this (This is the reason the veiled headgear that monks wear to this day was initiated.). To become blessed because someone has plotted against you, or worse physically harmed you, is not a logical thought. We do not normally see the outcome of inflicted pain as something that is good.

Gregory says,

The fact that the persecution the tyrants inflict on the faithful brings much sensible pain, makes it difficult for the more carnally minded to accept the hope of the Kingdom that is to be realized through these pains. But the Lord, who looks down upon the infirmity of our nature, tells the weak beforehand what is to be the goal of the struggle, so that they may more easily overcome the transitory feelings of pain.

The first martyr Stephen who willingly received the stones that killed him is another example he uses. As Stephen confessed his faith he saw the glory of the Lord shine down on him from heaven. Who else could be more blessed?

Now it is really difficult to prefer what is invisible versus the good things of this world, like the martyrs were able to do.

Gregory says,

Now the soul is in some way attached to the pleasant things of life through the senses of the body. Through the eyes it delights in material beauty, through the ears it inclines to melodious sounds, and so it is also affected by smell, taste, and touch, as nature has disposed to be proper to each. Hence, as it is attached to the pleasant things of life through the sensible faculty as if by a nail, it is hard to turn away from them. It has grown up together with these attachments much in the same way as the shellfish and snails are bound to their covering of clay; and so it is slow to make such movements, since it drags along the whole burden of a lifetime. As such is its condition, the soul is easily captured by its persecutors with the threat of confiscation of property or loss of sonic other things that are coveted in this life; and so it gives in easily, and yields to the power of its persecutor.

But when we God’s grace penetrates our being it is transformed. As Paul says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…” (Heb 4:12)

Gregory says,

It cuts through the things that have badly grown together, and disrupts the fetters of habit… He is not pained by the loss of earthly things, but gladdened by the gain of heavenly ones. Therefore he will readily accept every form of torture as a means that will help him to attain to the joy before him: the fire, as a purification from matter; the sword, as disrupting the union of the mind with what is material and carnal. Every device for inflicting pain he will receive eagerly as an antidote against the dangerous poison of pleasure.

Gregory conclude with this:

Therefore affliction is the flower that will yield the hoped-for fruits. Hence let us pick the flower for the sake of the fruit. Let us be persecuted so that we may run, but if we run, let us not run in vain. Let us race towards the prize of our supernal vocation; so let us run that we may obtain. What is it that we shall obtain? What is the prize, what the crown? It seems to me that what we hope is nothing else but the Lord Himself. For He Himself is the Judge of those who fight, and the crown of those who win. He it is who distributes the inheritance, He Himself is the goodly inheritance. He is the portion and the giver of the portion, He makes rich and is Himself the riches. He shows you the treasure and is Himself your treasure. He draws you to desire the beautiful pearl; He offers it to you as it were for sale, if you will trade fairly. In order to gain it, therefore, as if in the market, let us compare the things we have not with those we have. Let us not be sorrowful, then, if we are persecuted, but rather let us rejoice, because by being chased away from earthly honors, we are driven towards the heavenly Good. For this He has promised, that those who have been persecuted for His sake shall be blessed, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, by the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever.

7th Beatitude: Blessed are the Peacemakers

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Continuing our commentary on the Beatitudes by Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

In this Beatitude we continue our climb toward perfection.

Gregory says:

All that the Divine Word has so far laid down is indeed perfectly holy. But what we are now' invited to contemplate is truly αδυτον, and the Holy of Holies. For if the blessedness of seeing God cannot be surpassed, to become the son of God transcends bliss altogether… If you call that which the Beatitude promises good, or glorious, or sublime, yet what is made known is something more than these words mean: it is fulfillment that outstrips prayer, gift surpassing hope, grace transcending nature...

How can one give thanks worthily for such a gift? With what words, what thoughts that move our mind can we praise this abundance of grace? Man transcends his own nature, he who was subject to corruption in his mortality, becomes immune from it in his immortality, eternal from being fixed in time–in a word, a god from a man. For if he is made worthy of becoming a son of God, he will possess in himself the dignity of the Father and be made heir of all the Father's goods. How munificent is this rich Lord! How generously He opens His Hands wide to give us His ineffable treasures! Through His love of man He brings our nature, dishonored by sin, to an honor that almost equals His own.

If we were to obtain all the benefits available to us in this world; riches, good health, friends, all kinds of pleasures, etc.; what would it mean if peace were missing.

Gregory says,

Therefore peace itself is sweet to enjoy, and sweetens all that is held dear in life. And even if we suffer any human misfortune, as long as there is peace the evil is borne more easily, because it is mixed with some good; but if life is haunted by war, we become in a way insensible even to our own occasions of grief. For the common calamity is greater than the individual causes of pain…

By this, therefore, one can see how greatly He loves man, that He bestows the precious reward not on pains and sweat, but, so to speak, on the enjoyment of happiness. Peace is indeed the greatest of the joy-giving things; and this He wishes each of us to have in such measure as to keep it not only for himself, but to be able to dispense from the overflow of his abundance also to others.

Now who is a peacemaker? This is a person who “gives peace to another.” To be able to give peace to another you must first have peace in yourself. Therefore God wants us to be filled with the blessings of peace so we can then pass it on to others.

What is peace?

Gregory says,

Surely it is nothing else but a loving disposition towards one's neighbor. Now what is held to be the opposite of love? It is hate and wrath, anger and envy, harboring resentment as well as hypocrisy and the calamity of war. Do you see for how many different diseases this single word is an antidote? For peace is equally opposed to every one of the things mentioned, and wipes out these evils by its own presence. Just as illness vanishes when health supervenes, and as no darkness is left when light begins to shine, so also when peace appears, all the passions connected with its opposite are eliminated.

Gregory asks us to focus on all the passions associated with hate. He say the the passions of the devil appear in those dominated by wrath.

He says

For when the passion lays hold of a man and the heart-blood bolls over, when wrath, as they say, makes the black gall diffuse itself throughout the body, then all the senses that are placed in the head are affected with cramp by the compression of the internal vapors. The eyes protrude from under their confining lids, staring bloodshot like dragons at the offending object; the inside is compressed, panting for breath, the veins III the throat swell and the tongue thickens...

The evils of wrath are obvious and one who prevent such actions are truly blessed. But still worse, he says, is envy and hypocrisy because they are hidden deep in a man’s heart.

Gregory says,

It is cherished secretly in the depth of the heart, like a hidden fire, while externally everything is made to look deceptively like friendship. It is like a fire that is hidden under chaff. For a time it smolders inside and burns only what lies near; the flame does not flare up visibly, only a biting smoke penetrates, because it is so vigorously compressed from within.

We never know when this will bust out causing great harm. This is the story of an envious Cain who murdered Able who received praise. The envy within commanded the murder, but hypocrisy became its executioner, says, Gregory.

Those who have obtained a pure heart, who are able to imitate the Divine love of others and who exemplify the Divine energies of God are truly blessed.

Gregory concludes,

I think that man is called a peacemaker par excellence who pacifies perfectly the discord between flesh and spirit in himself and the war that is inherent in nature, so that the law of the body no longer wars against the law of the mind, but is subjected to the higher rule and becomes a servant of the Divine ordinance.

6th Beatitude (continued): Blessed are the Clean of Heart For They Shall See God

We are continuing with Gregory of Nysaa’s commentary on the Sixth Beatitude: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.

Gregory has shown us that the way we see God is from within but it is hidden from our apprehension due to our sinfulness. Our heart is clouded with evil. He has also pointed out that attaining a pure state of virtue is difficult but not impossible. He now gives some advise on how to proceed.

.

The evil that clouds the heart comes from two sources: works and thoughts. He writes, The former, that is to say, the iniquity that shows itself in works, He has punished through the Old Law. Now, however, He has given the Law regarding the other form of sin, which punishes not so much the evil deed itself, as guards against even the beginning of it.

To get at this new kind of sin we need to remove evil from our will so we will no longer choose what is bad and choose instead what is good.

He tells us how the Lord set out to help us.,

Since evil has many parts and forms, He has opposed by His precepts its own remedy to each of the forbidden things. The disease of wrath is present everywhere all through life, so He begins the cure from what is most prominent, and first lays down the law to refrain from anger. You have learned, He says, from the Old Law, Thou shalt not kill. (Matt 5:21) Learn now to keep your soul from wrath against your neighbor. He has not forbidden wrath completely. For sometimes one may lawfully turn such an emotion also to good use; what the precept abolishes is to be angry with one's brother for no good reason–for everyone who is angry with his brother in vain: the addition in vain shows that the use of anger is often opportune, namely, whenever this passion is roused for the chastisement of sin.

He then passes on to the healing of the sins committed for the sake of pleasure, and, by His commandment, frees the heart from the vile desire of adultery. Thus you will find in what follows how the Lord corrects them all one by one, opposing by His Law each one of the forms of evil. He prevents the beginning of unjust violence by not even permitting self-defense. He banishes the passion of avarice by ordering a man who has been robbed and stripped to give up also what is left to him. He heals cowardice by commanding to scorn death. And, in general, you will find that by means of each of these commandments the Word digs up the evil roots from the depths of our hearts as if by a plough, and so through them we are purged from bringing forth thorns.

Gregory concludes, by asking us to consider what a way of life that does not pursue goodness of life would be like. This may keep you from being discouraged, but there is still the effort required to pursue goodness. The fear of hell can help us to seek goodness. He says, the fear that is present in the thought alone will suffice to chase away the passions.

He reminds us of the consequences

For if the clean of heart are blessed, those with sordid minds are altogether miserable, because they look at the face of the adversary. Further, if the Divine character itself is impressed on the virtuous life, it is clear that the evil life resembles the form and face of the enemy. Now, according to different concepts, God is called by those representing the good, for example, light, life, incorruption, and similar things. By contrast, everything opposed to these is dedicated to the instigator of evil, for example, darkness, death, corruption, and whatever else is like to these. Hence, as we have learned what is an evil life and what is a good one–for we have It In the power of our free will to choose either of these–let us flee from the form of the devil, let us lay aside the evil mask and put on again the Divine Image. Let us become clean of heart, so that we may become blessed when the Divine Image is formed in us through purity of life, in Christ Jesus Our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Next: Blessed are the peacemakers.

6th Beatitude (continued): Blessed are the Clean of Heart For They Shall See God

We are continuing the commentary of Gregory of Nyssa on the sixth Beatitude, Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.

We have learned that even though in several places in Scripture it says we cannot see God, we see Him by inference in all that has been created by Him. We cannot see him with normal thought. We can grasp His Goodness. He can be grasped through His energies. This is the wonder and awe we experience when in nature.

But Gregory says there is more to the meaning of this Beatitude.

He says, The Lord does not say it is blessed to know something about God, but to have God present within oneself…. perhaps this marvelous saying may suggest what the Word expresses more clearly when He says to others, The Kingdom of God is within you.(Luke 17:21)

Gregory says

I think that in this short saying the Word expresses some such counsel as this: There is in you... a desire to contemplate the true good. But when you hear that the Divine Majesty is exalted above the heavens, that Its glory is inexpressible, Its beauty ineffable, and Its Nature inaccessible, do not despair of ever beholding what you desire. It is indeed within your reach; you have within yourselves the standard by which to apprehend the Divine. For He who made you did at the same time endow your nature with this wonderful quality. For God imprinted on it the likeness of the glories of His own Nature, as if moulding the form of a carving into wax.

But this image that God has implanted in each of us has been tarnished. It is coated with evil and remains hidden. Therefore, Gregory says, you wash off by a good life the filth that has been stuck on your heart like plaster, the Divine Beauty will again shine forth in you.

How do we wash off the filth, he asks next. This may seem to be impossible to many.

He writes

Our very birth has its beginning in passion, growth proceeds by way of passion, and in passion life also ends. Somehow evil is mixed up with our nature through those who first succumbed to passion, and by, their transgression made a permanent place for the disease. Now the nature of living beings is transmitted in each species by its descendants so that, according to the law of nature, that which is born is the same as that from which it is born. So man is born from man, the subject of passion from that which is subject to passion, the sinner from the sinner. Hence sin in some way comes into existence together with those who are born; it is born and grows with them, and at the end of life it also ceases with them.

Here he describes what we know today as the doctrine of ancestral sin or the Orthodox view of original sin. We are born with a tendency to sin. Therefore to acquire virtue requires much effort because of this human condition. This cleansing of the heart is not a simple matter making it hard fror most of us to attain virtue.

Gregory says,

Virtue, on the other hand, is hard for us to attain; even with much sweat and pain, zeal and fatigue, one can hardly establish it. This we are taught in many passages of the Divine Scriptures, when we are told that the way of the Kingdom is strait and passes through narrow paths, whereas the way that leads through a life of wickedness to perdition is broad and runs downhill with ease.

Yet we also know, he points out, that attaining virtue is not impossible according to Scripture. We find the stories of many holy men in the Bible.

The Gospel teaches us how to become pure.

More to come……

6th Beatitude: Blessed are the Clean of Heart For They Shall See God

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.

Continuing our commentary on the Beatitudes by Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

We have now climbed great hieghts. In this beatitude we are promised “for they shall see God.” But John says, “no man hath seen God at any time.”(John 1:18)

Gregory writes:

This is the slippery, steep rock that affords no basis for our thoughts, which the teaching of Moses, too, declared to be so inaccessible that our mind can nowhere approach Him. For all possibility of apprehension is taken away by this explicit denial, No man can see the Lord and live.(Exod 33:20) Yet to see the Lord is eternal life.

What does Jesus mean when he promises we will see God?

Gregory says,

Hence the man who sees God possesses in this act of seeing all there is of the things that are good. By this we understand life without end, eternal incorruption, undying beatitude. With these we shall enjoy the everlasting Kingdom of unceasing happiness; we shall see the true Light and hear the sweet voice of the Spirit; we shall exult perpetually in all that is good in the inaccessible glory.

Jesus tells us here that seeing God depends on having a pure heart. But if the effort is impossible as Moses says, what’s the use, Gregory asks. The Lord surely would not tell us to do something that is impossible.

First Gregory reasons the Divine nature is beyond all mental concepts. Therefore the way to knowledge of Divine Essence cannot be through thought. So how doe we grasp what is not know by mental concepts?

Gregory writes,

Since such is He whose nature is above every nature, the Invisible and Incomprehensible is seen and apprehended in another manner. Many are the modes of such perception. For it is possible to see Him who has made all things in wisdom by way of inference through the wisdom that appears in the universe. It is the same as with human works of art where, in a way, the mind can perceive the maker of the product that is before it, because he has left on his work the stamp of his art. In this, however, is seen not the nature of the artist, but only his artistic skill which he has left impressed on his handiwork. Thus also, when we look at the order of creation, we form in our mind an image not of the essence, but of the wisdom of Him who has made all things wisely. And if we consider the cause of our life, that He came to create man not from necessity, but from the free decision of His Goodness, we say that we have contemplated God by this way, that we have apprehended His Goodness–though again not His Essence, but His Goodness. It is the same with all other things that raise the mind to transcendent Goodness, all these we can term apprehensions of God, since each one of these sublime meditations places God within our sight.

Hence it is clear through what has just been said that the Lord speaks the truth when He promises that God will be seen by those who have a pure heart; nor does Paul deceive when he asserts in his letters that no one has seen God nor can see Him. For He is invisible by nature, but becomes visible in His energies, for He may be contemplated in the things that are referred to Him.

But Gregory says there is more to the meaning of the Beatitude.

More to come….

5th Beatitude: Blessed are the Merciful

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Continuing our commentary on the Beatitudes by Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

The last Beatitude taught us to have hunger, an unceasing desire, for higher things. In the Beatitudes, Jesus is teaching us how to climb a Divine ladder that leads us to blessedness, or Theosis. In this Beatitude we are called to become merciful.

What is mercy?

Gregory says ,

The obvious meaning of the words calls men to mutual charity and sympathy, which are demanded by the capricious inequality of the circumstances of life; for all live not in the same conditions, neither as regards reputation nor physical constitution nor other assets. Life is in many ways divided up into opposites, since it may be spent as slave or as master, in riches or poverty, in fame or dishonor, in bodily infirmity or in good health–in all such things there is division. Therefore the creature in need should be made equal to the one who has a larger share, and that which goes short should be filled by what has abundance; this is the law mercy gives men in regard to the needy…
Mercy is a voluntary sorrow that joins itself to the sufferings of others.

We all have differing issues in life. Some of us are rich and some are poor. Some live in highly industrialized nations and others in rural underdeveloped nations. Some have very good health while other suffer from painful maladies. Mercy, Gregory is pointing out, has to do with placing ourselves in an equal situation with those who do not enjoy the same benefits of life that we do. This is why he says it's a “voluntary sorrow.”

We all would like to share in the good fortune of others but not generally in their misfortune. Mercy involves intensified charity where we choose to also share in the misfortunes of others. This is the height of virtue.

Think of the kind of world it would be if all developed this virtue. Gregory says,

Envy would be futile, hate would die out, remembrance of injuries would be banished along with lies, fraud, and war, all of which are the off spring of covetousness. If that hard and unfeeling attitude were removed, the evil growths would be weeded out with it completely, as with the root of wickedness. And with the departure of evils there would enter instead the whole array of good things, peace and justice with all their train of virtues… Therefore mercy, as the definition has shown, is the parent of kindness, and the pledge of charity; it is the bond of all loving disposition…

There is another meaning here as Jesus says, for they shall obtain mercy. This implies that those who are merciful will have their reward later. Gregory says this shows us a higher doctrine. Mercy is a course we must choose with faith.

He who made man in His own image endowed the nature of His handiwork with the principles of all goodness. Hence nothing good enters into us from outside, but it lies with us to have what we will, and to bring forth the good from our nature as if from some inner chamber. For from the parts we are taught about the whole, that there is no other way of obtaining one's desire except by procuring the good for oneself. Therefore the Lord says to His hearers: “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21); and, Everyone that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. (Matt 7:8) So it depends on us and is in the power of our free will to receive what we desire, to find what we seek, and to enter where we wish to be.

Gregory laments on this teaching:

How is it possible that with this in mind we should spend our pity on the misfortunes of others? Should the soul not rather be disposed to have pity on itself if it thinks of what it once possessed, and from what state it has fallen?

His answer is as follows:

it is blessed to be concerned with one's physical health. For if a man is concerned about this, he will live in good health. Thus also is the merciful called blessed, because the fruit of mercy becomes itself the possession of the merciful;

We need to ask, when the time of judgment comes what will happen to us. Will we feel acclamation by the God of all creation?

Gregory concludes

Therefore, brethren, let us heed the voice of the Lord, who in a few words teaches us so many things about the future life. Let us become merciful, so that through mercy we may become blessed, in Christ Jesus Our Lord to whom be glory and power for ever and ever.

Next: Purity of Heart