31st Sunday in Ordinary Time · Matthew 5:1-12
Blessed are you
Building today on the promise of tomorrow
This Lectio Divina for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time takes us to Matthew 5:1-12, the gateway to the Sermon on the Mount. This Sunday, November 1, is also the Solemnity of All Saints, and the Church proclaims the Beatitudes: a portrait of Jesus himself and the path walked by those who now rejoice in God.
Jesus does not promise a life without trouble. He offers a happiness that comes from belonging to his Kingdom. Let us pray through Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, Contemplatio and Communicatio in the Augustinian Recollect tradition.
Invocation
Come, Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit,
through whom every devout soul
that believes in Christ is made holy
and becomes a citizen
of the City of God.
Come, Holy Spirit;
open us to the promptings of God.
Kindle your fire within us,
enlighten us and lift us up to God.
Saint Augustine (En. Ps. 45:8 · Sermon 128:4)
Gospel
Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
The Gospel of the Lord
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
01
Lectio
What the text says
Saint Augustine read the Beatitudes as a ladder: each one matches a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we climb from the humility of the fear of the Lord up to the wisdom that contemplates God. That is why they do not begin at the top, but with the poor in spirit.
Saint Augustine
When the prophet Isaiah extolled those seven well-known gifts of the Spirit, he began with wisdom and ended with the fear of God, as though coming down from the heights to where we are, in order to teach us how to climb. He began with the gift we long to reach and ended with the gift where we must start. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,” he says, “a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and piety, a spirit of fear of the Lord.” Just as he came down from wisdom to fear, not by falling but by teaching, so we must rise from fear to wisdom, not by growing proud but by making progress. For “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”…
The valley stands for humility. And who is humble if not the one who fears God, whose heart is broken by that fear, by the tears of confession and repentance? A contrite and humbled heart God will not spurn… So, having placed wisdom first, that unfailing light of the mind, he added understanding, as if to answer those who ask by which rung one reaches wisdom: “By understanding; and understanding by counsel; counsel by strength; strength by knowledge; knowledge by piety; and piety by fear”…
Sermon 347, 2
Saint Thomas of Villanova
“They speak but do not act; they talk but do not do. Had God given us a tongue and no hands, it would be no surprise if we spoke without acting. But since we received from God one tongue and two hands, why do we talk so much and do so little? This truly frightens me. Take care of your deeds, then, O man, for on them all your good is founded.”
The Beatitudes are not meant to be recited; they are learned with our hands, in concrete acts of mercy, peace and justice.
Commentary
Building today on the promise of tomorrow
The word “blessed” does not simply mean “cheerful” or “free of problems.” It declares that these people are happy in God’s sight, because their situation is not left outside the promise and the action of his Kingdom.
That is why the promises are in the future tense (“they will be comforted,” “they will be satisfied,” “they will see God”), while the first and the eighth Beatitudes speak in the present: “theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” With Jesus, the Kingdom has already drawn near, yet its fullness is still to come.
Above all, the Beatitudes are a portrait of Jesus. That is why they ring out so clearly on the feast of All Saints: the saints are those who let themselves be shaped by them, and they show us that this path can truly be walked.
02
Meditatio
What the Word says to me
“His disciples came to him. He began to teach them.”
Jesus sits down, as great teachers did, yet with a closeness that is easy to miss. He sits right beside us and speaks of wonderful things, simple things, things we can truly live when we stay in his presence: the joy of living simply and gently, of seeking and offering comfort, of hungering for justice, of showing mercy and of working for peace.
Do I come to Jesus with a heart ready to learn his way of living?
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
Even in the midst of hardship we can live with joy; not because suffering or injustice is good, but because our faithfulness to Christ keeps us rooted in hope. Our true treasure lies in the eternal life Jesus promises. This is our hope: to live the present in the light of a future no one can take from us.
Does the hope Jesus promises change the way I face the struggles of today?
03
Oratio
What I say to God
With Saint Augustine, we turn in prayer to the God who is the source of all true happiness.
I call upon you, God who are Truth,
beginning, source and author of all truth.
I call upon you, God who are Wisdom,
beginning, source and author of all wisdom.
I call upon you, God, true and abundant Life,
beginning, source and author of all life.
I call upon you, God who are Happiness,
beginning, source and author of all happiness.
I call upon you, God of Goodness and Beauty,
beginning, source and author of all that is good and beautiful.
I call upon you, God, the Light of the mind,
beginning, source and author of all understanding.
I call upon you, O God, with all my heart.
Saint Augustine · Soliloquies 1.1.3
04
Contemplatio
Lord, let me remember you
In silence…
We contemplate
Picture Jesus seated on the mountain, surrounded by his disciples. Listen as he proclaims the Beatitudes, and discover the kind of happiness he offers to those who want to follow him.
Let him look at you
Allow his gaze to rest on your life just as it is today.
Which Beatitude touches my life most deeply right now?
Where am I looking for happiness, and what is Jesus inviting me to discover?
Remain
Stay in silence and let the Beatitude that moved you most echo within you. Repeat it slowly and ask for the grace to welcome it and live it.
To contemplate is to let Jesus teach us to be happy in his way.
05
Communicatio
In him we are all one
Together…
Share
Each person briefly shares which Beatitude touched their heart and what it revealed about their own life.
Discern
Together we listen for what the Lord is asking of us as a community.
Which attitudes keep us from the way of life Jesus offers?
Who around us needs to find in us the mercy, peace or comfort Jesus proclaims?
Walk
We choose one Beatitude to light up our life together and agree on a concrete gesture to live it out this week. Each person may also make a personal commitment.
Poor, so that God can make us rich;
merciful, so that wounds can heal;
peacemakers on the road of every day.
Prayer
Thank you, Lord
Thank you, my Lord,
for all you have given me
and inspired in me during this time.
May my restless heart
never stop burning
until at last it finds its rest in you,
my one true love.
May all be for the greater glory of your name,
and may we all be of one mind
and one heart, intent upon you,
our God.
Amen.
Prayer
For vocations
Lord our God,
let the call of your voice reach many hearts.
May they rise up and live united in you.
Prepare their hearts with your Word,
so that they may bring the Good News to the poor
and tend your abundant harvest.
Lord, may all who are called to Augustinian Recollect life
hear your voice
and be able to fulfill your will.
Amen.
And now…
What if the happiness Jesus offers is meant for you too?
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PredicAR · Augustinian Recollects