Blessed are the Losers
(Rev.7:2-4, 9-14; 1Jn.3:1-3; Mt.5:1-12)
Some people feel intimidated by the saints. They think they must be perfect heroes who never behaved badly or failed at anything.
And when they look at their own troubled lives, they think they could never become saints because their lives are just too messy.
In Matthew’s Gospel today, Jesus says such thinking is wrong. He’s preaching on a grassy hilltop near the sea of Galilee, delivering his Beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount. In it, he paints a portrait of holiness that shocks some people. Why? Because he’s essentially saying, ‘Blessed are the Losers.’
Our secular culture has very strong ideas about who it thinks is blessed and not blessed. We can see this on our billboards and screens every day. In our society, the blessed are the self-made, for they are successful. The blessed are the rich, for they can have whatever they want. The blessed are the influencers, for they have millions of followers. And the blessed are the strong and thick-skinned, for they always get their way.
Our world loves winners, and so it rewards aggressive ambition, self-reliance, and flawless facades. But in his Beatitudes, Jesus turns everything upside down. He honours the very people our world dismisses as losers.
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,’ Jesus says. He doesn’t say blessed are the spiritually wealthy or the morally perfect. He blesses those who come to God with empty hands, those who look at their own lives and say, ‘Lord, I’m running on empty; please help me.’ With Jesus, the last will always be first.
Then, ‘Blessed are those who mourn,’ Jesus says. Our world tells us to move on, to distract ourselves, to look happy. But Jesus looks at those who suffer grief, whose hearts have been broken, and he calls them blessed because their hearts are still soft enough to feel things. They will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek,’ Jesus says. Not the aggressive, not the loudest voices or the pushiest personalities, but the gentle. These are the people who are slow to anger and quick with patience. They will inherit the land.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,’ he says. These are they who see injustice and want it put right. They might not be able to fix it, but they refuse to become cynical. They will be satisfied.
The people Jesus blesses are the vulnerable, the grief-stricken, the dependent, the merciful, the peacemakers, the pure-of-heart and the persecuted. Our world thinks they are losers, but Jesus says they are the children of God and they will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
This is the secret joy of All Saints’ Day. Holiness is not about having a flawless spiritual record. It’s about what happens when our human weakness meets God’s infinite grace.
In our first reading, the Book of Revelation speaks of a massive crowd in heaven, all wearing white robes. Who are they? It tells us: ‘These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’
They didn’t get to heaven by being perfect. They got there by being very human: walking through the mud, getting dirty, breaking down, and continually allowing the mercy of Jesus to wash them clean.
We can see this in the lives of so many saints. For decades, St Augustine struggled with lust. Towards the end of her life, St Thérèse of Lisieux suffered a terrible dark night of the soul, wondering if heaven even existed. St Camillus Lellis was a chronic gambler; Matthew Talbot was a hopeless drunk; and St Mark Ji Tianxiang was an incorrigible opium addict. He died a martyr, but simply could not shake his addiction. By worldly standards, he was a loser.
Indeed, they were all losers, but by God’s standards, their profound love for Jesus made them saints.
So, if you’re finding life hard; if you’re feeling poor in spirit; if you’re suffering from some kind of loss or injustice; or if you’re simply tired of trying to make it in our superficial world, then take heart. You don’t have to be a superhero to be holy.
You are exactly the kind of person Jesus came to bless.
This week, stop trying to hide your failings and fractures from God. Bring your sorrow and your empty hands to the altar. Let your cracks be the very place where God’s light shines through. Because in the Kingdom of God, it’s the losers who win.
With Jesus, it is always the last who will be first (Mt.20:16).