Zep 2:3;3:12-13; Ps 146; 1Cor 1:26-31; Mt 5:1-12a
Commentary
The Good News for God’s Poor
After meditating last Sunday on Jesus’ first proclamation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” we are invited today to reflect on the beatitudes that open the Master of Nazareth’s first discourse in Matthew’s Gospel. The text is dense in meaning and it takes time to dissect all its biblical-theological and spiritual-existential riches. For those who want to, I refer to the monumental study by renowned monk-biblical scholar Fr. Jacques Dupont in three volumes, titled precisely “The Beatitudes.” (See also the series of Pope Francis’ catecheses on the beatitudes in the general audiences starting from January 29, 2020.) I will only point out the three most important aspects, for an in-depth reflection on the gospel we have just heard.
1. A Majestic Scene
The solemn atmosphere that St. Matthew the Evangelist wanted to give to the proclamation of the beatitudes should be emphasized immediately. Indeed, it is necessary for every listener to be immersed in “that time,” to see and perceive all the solemnity of the moment when Jesus proclaims the discourse, in order to enhance the importance of the teaching and then to live it with reverence and gratitude.
First of all, the place of the proclamation is the mountain. St. Matthew, in fact, explicates, “Jesus saw the crowds,” and “he went up the mountain.” The mountain immediately recalls the Mount Sinai where God delivered to His people, through Moses, the gift of the Torah, commonly translated as the Law. It is to be understood, however, not only as the legislative commands-precepts to be observed, but also and above all as the set of divine teachings to be followed. Now Jesus is also on the mountain and will thus be the new Moses, through whom God will give the Torah of the new covenant. Therefore, the following discourse of Jesus is conventionally called the “Sermon on the Mountain” and rightly regarded as the Manifesto or Constitution of the Kingdom of God, whose coming was announced by Jesus at the beginning of His public ministry. It is par excellence the first teaching of Jesus in the Gospel according to numerical or chronological order and also in importance.
The solemn atmosphere of the teaching is further enhanced by the description of Jesus’ position before He speaks, “After he had sat down, his disciples came to him.” Sitting down with the disciples around is the usual position of a teacher (rabbi) when teaching the divine Law. Also in the spirit of solemnity, the description of Jesus’ act of speaking is also highly extraordinary: “He began to teach them.” Such an expression literally comes across as more formal: “He opened his mouth.”
We need to keep in mind this majesty-filled scene to appreciate more the message of the beatitudes that will be the heart of the Gospel, the good news, which Jesus proclaims with divine authority.
2. “Blessed Are the Poor…”
Jesus’ first discourse in Matthew’s Gospel opens with the series of eight beatitudes proclaimed in the third person plural (“Blessed are the poor…, for theirs…”), followed then by the concluding beatitude addressed directly to the listeners, in the second person plural (“Blessed are you when they insult you…”).
Again, on each beatitude one can talk endlessly. For the sake of time, the primary importance of the beatitude to the poor should be emphasized, which actually occupies the first place. It is precisely the heart of the divine Gospel, that is, the Good News of God, which Jesus brings to the world and particularly to the “poor,” fulfilling his mission to “evangelize”: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“The poor in spirit” are the first recipients of the kingdom of God. As clarified by the evangelist himself, this is not only the state of material poverty, but rather an attitude of the spirit. The poor are those who have no support or security in life except in God himself. They are those who despite everything, the precariousness of life, tribulations, and oppressions, continue to put all their trust in God who saves. From this perspective, we can glimpse that the poor in spirit are the category that encompasses all the types mentioned in the subsequent beatitudes.
In other words, on the one hand, the poor in spirit are those who are weeping, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, and persecuted for righteousness’ sake (divine implied). They are all blessed, that is, happy according to the Hebrew sense of the term, not because their situation of poverty, misery, weeping, hunger, thirst, or persecution is in itself good and praiseworthy, but because in such a situation they obtain the special grace of God who draws near to them to give them the happiness of his kingdom, that is, of his loving saving presence. On the other hand, the poor in spirit are shown to be identifiable with the meek or humble, the merciful, the pure in heart, or the peacemakers, because these are the characteristics of the people called in the OT anawim “the poor” of God. Precisely they constitute “a people humble and lowly,” the privileged recipients of divine salvation at the end of time (cf. Zep 2:3;3:12-13; Reading 1). The blessed status proclaimed to them is thus also shown to be an implicit exhortation to a commitment to conversion to these values in order to embrace the saving realities of the kingdom.
3. Following Jesus the First “Blessed” and “Poor” of God
Finally, we need to remember that Jesus himself, as St. Paul points out, became poor for our sake in order to enrich us with his poverty. Here are literally the profound words of the Apostle: “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2Cor 8:9). Jesus then is the first blessed “poor of God,” and thus, we can glimpse His profile in all kinds of recipients of the proclaimed beatitudes. The path of the beatitudes is actually not a mere following of social or ethical values, however valid they may be, but the following of the person of Jesus, the God-Man of the beatitudes, who, as St. Paul says, “who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1Cor 1:30; Reading 2). In this way, we also become men and women of the divine beatitudes who live them out and pass them on to others, near and far.
Let us continue to pray then for our own and everyone’s conversion to the Kingdom of God and His Gospel of the beatitudes:
O Lord, make us feel still and ever more in us Your heart all taken up for the Kingdom of God as well as Your cordial invitation to conversion to Your Gospel of peace and love. Help us to constantly live out this conversion in our lives, so that we may become ourselves, with You and in You, the living invitation, in word and deed, to conversion to the Kingdom for those who do not know You. And in this our mission to be witnesses of You and Your Kingdom, help us, Your disciples, to be more and more united in Your love, overcoming the divisions that exist in our churches and communities. Let Your face shine upon us, and we will be saved and resplendent with Your Light for all the world. Mary, mother of Christ and mother of His disciples, pray for us! Amen!
Useful points to consider:
Pope Leo XIV, Message for the 100th World Mission Sunday (18 October 2026),
One in Christ, united in mission […]
3. Mission to love – Proclaiming, living and sharing God’s faithful love
If unity is the condition of mission, love is its essence. The Good News that we are sent to proclaim to the world is not an abstract ideal; it is the Gospel of God’s faithful love, which became flesh in the face and life of Jesus Christ.
The mission of the disciples and the Church as a whole is to continue the mission of Christ in the Holy Spirit: a mission born of love, lived in love, and leading to love. In fact, the Lord himself, in his great prayer to the Father before his Passion, after invoking unity among his disciples, concludes: “so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:26). Impelled by the love of Christ, the Apostles then went out to evangelize for Christ (cf. 2 Cor 5:14). In the same way, throughout the centuries, multitudes of Christians — martyrs, confessors and missionaries — have given their lives to make this divine love known to the world. Thus, guided by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, the Church’s evangelizing mission will continue until the end of time.
I would like to express my special gratitude to today’s ad gentes missionaries. Like Saint Francis Xavier, they have left their homeland, their families and all sense of security in order to proclaim the Gospel and bring Christ and his love to places that are often challenging, poor, conflict-ridden or culturally distant. Despite adversity and human limitations, they continue to give themselves joyfully, because they know that Christ himself, and his Gospel, are the greatest treasures we can offer. Through their perseverance, they demonstrate that God’s love transcends all barriers. The world still needs these courageous witnesses of Christ, and ecclesial communities still need new missionary vocations. We must always keep them close to our hearts and continually pray to the Father for them. […]
Pope Leo XIV, IX World Day of the Poor, Homily,
St Peter’s Basilica, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 16 November 2025 […]
When we read the Gospel, one of the phrases we all know is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). We all want to be among the poor of the Lord, because our life is a gift of God and we receive it with great gratitude.
[…] So many forms of poverty oppress our world! First and foremost are material forms of poverty, but there are also many moral and spiritual situations of poverty, which often affect young people in a particular way. The tragedy that cuts across them all is loneliness. It challenges us to look at poverty in an integral way, because while it is certainly necessary at times to respond to urgent needs, we also must develop a culture of attention, precisely in order to break down the walls of loneliness. Let us, then, be attentive to others, to each person, wherever we are, wherever we live, transmitting this attitude within our families, living it out in the workplace and in academic environments, in different communities, in the digital world, everywhere, reaching out to the marginalized and becoming witnesses of God’s tenderness.
Today, scenarios of war, unfortunately present in various regions of the world, seem especially to confirm that we are in a state of helplessness. Yet the globalization of helplessness arises from a lie, from believing that history has always been this way and cannot change. The Gospel, on the other hand, reminds us that it is precisely in the upheavals of history that the Lord comes to save us. And today, as a Christian community, together with the poor, we must become a living sign of this salvation. […]
Pope Leo XIV, Jubilee of the World of Education, Holy Mass and Proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as “Doctor of the Church”, Homily,
St Peter’s Square, All Saints’ Day – Saturday, 1st November 2025 […]
This is also the meaning of the Beatitudes proclaimed in today’s Gospel. The Beatitudes bring with them a new interpretation of reality. They are both the path and the message of Jesus the Teacher. At first glance, it seems impossible to declare as blessed those who are poor, or those who hunger and thirst for justice, the persecuted or the peacemakers. Yet, that which seems inconceivable in the world’s thinking is filled with meaning and light when brought into contact with the Kingdom of God. In the saints, we see this kingdom approaching and becoming present among us. Saint Matthew rightly presents the Beatitudes as a teaching, depicting Jesus as a Master, who transmits a new perspective on things, which is reflected in his own journey. The Beatitudes, however, are not just another teaching; they are the teaching par excellence. In the same way, the Lord Jesus is not just one of many teachers, he is the Master par excellence. Moreover, he is the Educator par excellence. We are his disciples and are in his “school.” We learn how to discover in his life, namely in the path he has travelled, a horizon of meaning capable of shining a light on all forms of knowledge. May our schools and universities always be places of listening to the Gospel and putting it into practice! […]
Pope Leon XIV, Commemoration of the Martyrs and Witnesses of the Faith of the 21st Century, Homily,
Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 14 September 2025
[…]
Many brothers and sisters, even today, carry the same cross as our Lord on account of their witness to the faith in difficult situations and hostile contexts: like him, they are persecuted, condemned and killed. It is of them that Jesus says: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Mt 5:10-11). They are women and men, religious, lay people and priests, who pay with their lives for their fidelity to the Gospel, their commitment to justice, their battle for religious freedom where it is still being violated, and their solidarity with the most disadvantaged. According to the world’s standards, they have been “defeated.” In truth, as the Book of Wisdom tells us: “though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality” (Wis 3:4).
Brothers and sisters, during this Jubilee Year, we celebrate the hope of these courageous witnesses of the faith. It is a hope filled with immortality because their martyrdom continues to spread the Gospel in a world marked by hatred, violence and war; it is a hope filled with immortality because, even though they have been killed in body, no one can silence their voice or erase the love they have shown; it is a hope filled with immortality because their witness lives on as a prophecy of the victory of good over evil.
Yes, theirs is an unarmed hope. They bore witness to their faith without ever using the weapons of force and violence, but rather by embracing the hidden and meek power of the Gospel, in keeping with the words of the Apostle Paul: “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. […] For whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:9-10).
[…] These courageous servants of the Gospel and martyrs of the faith “stand as a vast panorama of Christian humanity… a panorama of the Gospel of the Beatitudes, lived even to the shedding of blood” (John Paul II, Commemoration of the Witnesses of Faith in the Twentieth Century, 7 May 2000). […]
Pope Francis, Message for World Mission Sunday 2023,
Hearts on fire, feet on the move (cf. Lk 24:13-35) […]
3. Our feet set out on the way, with the joy of telling others about the Risen Christ. The eternal youth of a Church that is always going forth.
After their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus “in the breaking of the bread”, the disciples “set out without delay and returned to Jerusalem” (cf. Lk 24:33). This setting out in haste, to share with others the joy of meeting the Lord, demonstrates that “the joy of the Gospel fills the heart and the whole life of those who meet Jesus. Those who allow themselves to be saved by him are freed from sin, from sadness, from inner emptiness, from isolation. With Jesus Christ, joy is always born and reborn” (Evangelii Gaudium, 1). One cannot truly encounter the risen Jesus without being set on fire with enthusiasm to tell everyone about him. Therefore, the primary and principal resource of the mission are those persons who have come to know the risen Christ in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, who carry his fire in their heart and his light in their gaze. They can bear witness to the life that never dies, even in the most difficult of situations and in the darkest of moments.
The image of “feet setting out” reminds us once more of the perennial validity of the missio ad gentes, the mission entrusted to the Church by the risen Lord to evangelize all individuals and peoples, even to the ends of the earth. Today more than ever, our human family, wounded by so many situations of injustice, so many divisions and wars, is in need of the Good News of peace and salvation in Christ. I take this opportunity to reiterate that “everyone has the right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the duty to announce it without excluding anyone, not as one who imposes a new obligation, but as one who shares a joy, signals a beautiful horizon, offers a desirable banquet” (Evangelii Gaudium, 14). Missionary conversion remains the principal goal that we must set for ourselves as individuals and as a community, because “missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church’s activity” (ibid., 15).
As the Apostle Paul confirms, the love of Christ captivates and impels us (cf. 2 Cor 5:14). This love is two-fold: the love of Christ for us, which calls forth, inspires and arouses our love for him. A love that makes the Church, in constantly setting out anew, ever young. For all her members are entrusted with the mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, in the conviction that “he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again” (v. 15). All of us can contribute to this missionary movement: with our prayers and activities, with material offerings and the offering of our sufferings, and with our personal witness. The Pontifical Mission Societies are the privileged means of fostering this missionary cooperation on both the spiritual and material levels. For this reason, the collection taken on World Mission Sunday is devoted to the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
The urgency of the Church’s missionary activity naturally calls for an ever closer missionary cooperation on the part of all her members and at every level. This is an essential goal of the synodal journey that the Church has undertaken, guided by the key words: communion, participation, mission. This journey is certainly not a turning of the Church in upon herself; nor is it a referendum about what we ought to believe and practice, nor a matter of human preferences. Rather, it is a process of setting out on the way and, like the disciples of Emmaus, listening to the risen Lord. For he always comes among us to explain the meaning of the Scriptures and to break bread for us, so that we can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, carry out his mission in the world. […]
Pope Francis, Address to Participants in the General Chapter of the Comboni Missionaries, Consistory Hall, Saturday, 18 June 2022
[…] The essential trait of the Heart of Christ is mercy, compassion, tenderness. This should not be forgotten: God’s style, already in the Old Testament is this. Closeness, compassion and tenderness. There is no organization, no; closeness, compassion and tenderness. And so I think that you are called to bring this witness of God’s style — closeness, compassion and tenderness — in your mission there where you are and where the Spirit will guide you. Mercy, tenderness is a universal language that knows no boundaries. But you bring this message not so much as individual missionaries, but as a community, and this entails not only care for your personal style, but also for your community style. Jesus said to his friends: “They will know you are my disciples by the way you will love one another” (cf. Jn 13:35), and the Acts of the Apostles confirms this when it narrates that the first community in Jerusalem was esteemed by all the people because they could see how they lived (cf. 2:47; 4:33): with love. […]
I would like to note that […]t is essential that everything be done in the docility of the Spirit so that the necessary plans, projects and initiatives all respond to the needs of evangelization, and I mean also the style of evangelizing: may it be joyful, meek, courageous, patient, filled with mercy, hungry and thirsty for justice, and peaceful, hence, the style of the Beatitudes. This matters. […]
Pope Francis, General Audience, Paul VI Audience Hall, Wednesday, 29 January 2020
[…] Today we are beginning a series of catechises on the Beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel (5:1-11). This passage, which starts the “Sermon on the Mount”, illuminated the lives of believers and also that of many non-believers. It is difficult not to be touched by these words of Jesus, and the desire to understand them and welcome them ever more fully is righteous. The Beatitudes provide the “identity card” of Christians — this is our identity card — because they outline the face of Jesus himself, his style of living. […]
But what does the word “blessed” mean? Because each of the eight Beatitudes begins with the word “blessed”. The original term does not mean one with a full belly or one who is doing well, but rather it is a person who is in a condition of grace, who progresses in God’s grace and progresses on God’s path: patience, poverty, service to others, comfort…. Those who advance in these things are happy and shall be blessed. In order to give himself to us, God often chooses unthinkable paths, perhaps the path of our limitations, of our tears, of our defeats. It is the paschal joy of which our Oriental brothers and sisters speak, the one that has the stigmata but is alive, has been through death and has experienced the Power of God. The Beatitudes always bring you to joy. They are the paths to reach joy. It will do us good to take Matthew’s Gospel today, chapter 5, verses 1-11, and to read the Beatitudes — perhaps a few more times throughout the week — in order to understand this very beautiful path, so sure of the happiness the Lord offers us. […]