Breaking the Cycle

       

          Today we visited the Mount of Beatitudes and were given a couple of hours to spend in silent reflection. During Father’s homily at Mass, he offered us an insight on the beatitudes that I would like to share. Father told us that The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-11) were not prescriptions: “do this, and you will receive that,” but instead they described that, as Christians, we are blessed. I left mass a bit confused as to what he meant. As I pondered on what he had said, during my time in reflection, what came to mind was the following insight: that the Beatitudes are cycles of love which undo the cycles of sin. When, as broken human beings, we fall into sin, the evil one jumps on the opportunity to make us feel guilty, ashamed, and sometimes he fools us into believing that what we have done is so bad, we are rendered unforgivable. Believing ourselves unforgivable, we are discouraged to keep fighting against sin and temptations, we are weak and fall into sin again; and so the cycle of sin and death begins. Here is where the cycles of love, The Beatitudes, undo the cycle of sin. 

             They are not prescriptions, like I mentioned earlier. Sometimes, when we are deep in the cycle of sin, we don't have the charity needed to be merciful, or we don’t have the purity of heart we need to “see God” in others or events. So, how do they undo the cycle of sin? Well, the answer is in what Father told us; we must first realize that the Beatitudes describe that we are blessed. We are blessed because we have been shown mercy first by God, and so encouraged by His to mercy to us, by the joy it brings us, we come to see how blessed we are and from there a desire grows in us to become instruments of mercy to others. We are called “sons of God” by virtue of our Baptism, and so inspired by that love that God has for us, we seek to make peace. We know that our Heavenly Father is always ready to comfort us, we are inspired to comfort others, and thus inspire others to comfort us as well. 

             With all of this in mind, I ponder a very real and current situation today where we find two parties deep in the a cycle of violence, a cycle of sin: Israel and Palestine. Both sides have their rights, have their dignity, and are both important in the eyes of God. So, how can these two parties apply the Beatitudes to break this vicious cycle they find themselves trapped in? Maybe the answer lies in the youth and new generations who possibly find themselves further away from the initial days this vicious cycle began, recognizing the need for peace, for mercy, to bring an end to the pain that this war has caused their generation and hopefully seek to somehow be reconciled with their enemies. The answer is a tough one to come to, but as St. Paul once said, “where sin abides, grace abounds all the more” and so we hope that somehow the cycles of love may always triumph over sin whether in our own hearts or here in the Holy Land.