The Beatitudes are not for superheroes

Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, the meek, the pure in heart, the persecuted. At first glance it looks like an impossible program, written for people cut from a different cloth. But reread the list: poor, sorrowful, hungering for justice. Jesus does not congratulate the strong; he calls blessed precisely those whom the world writes off as losers. The Beatitudes are, moreover, his self-portrait. He was the poor one, the meek, the merciful, the persecuted. He did not leave a theory about happiness: he left himself as the way toward it. That is why they are not a crossbar to leap over, but a direction in which to walk. They are not all lived at once or through mere willpower: you begin where you are, choosing one and living it in small ways. The happiness they promise is not that of the one who wins, but of the one who loves.