Jesus' love and the Beatitudes

Does this sort of love I have been describing make sense out of the Beatitudes?

Let us consider them: "It is good (i.e. it is a blessing) for people to be poor and not resent it, because then they belong under heaven's rule; it is good for people to suffer, because they will find solace; it is good for people not to stand up for their rights, because they will inherit the promised land; it is good for people to be hungry and thirsty for virtue, because they will be satisfied; it is good for people to be sympathetic to others, because sympathy will be shown them; it is good for people to have clean hearts, because they will see God; it is good for people to make peace, because they will be called God's children; it is good for people to be oppressed for their virtue, because they belong under heaven's rule."

The reason, of course, why all these things are good for people is the same: being under God's rule, or the spiritual and eternal life that Jesus talked about. Jesus is not saying that poverty, oppression, having your rights trampled on, suffering, yielding to aggression (which in practice is how you can make peace when faced with it), and so on are good in themselves or desirable. We don't have to want to be poor or to suffer. The point is that those who are poor or suffering or not assertive and who have people walk over them and oppress them are in a position to see things in the Christian way: that they themselves do not matter; that what happens in this life is not objectively important.

And the other commands in the Sermon on the Mount are consistent with this: if someone takes your coat, give him your shirt; do not resist aggression; don't do good where your actions can be seen (even though your light is to shine in front of others); don't hate your enemies. What is important here is not actions, but attitude. In fact, some of the actions Jesus advises us by way of hyperbole to take are immoral; you can't morally pluck out your eye or cut off your hand.

All of it makes sense, however, if what he is saying is that we are not to look on ourselves and our own goals and concerns as "objectively important," and are to consider the situation and act in accordance with the whole reality, of which we are simply one component that is to be taken into account. This is the divine-human way of looking at things.

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