The beatitudes: A challenge to the spirit our age

Jesus' beatitudes have been translated into our language long since: they are not in a foreign language to ours, so much as a foreign spirit to the times in which we live. "Blessed", blessing, a trust in benevolence of anyone or anything, seems foreign to us. The beatitudes tell us about God's values: Purity, humility, righteousness, peace, mercy -- these are not among the values of our times. The beatitudes are spiritually beautiful -- in an age which has deadened tastes for spirituality and for beauty. Reading them washes our minds, washes our spirits, re-baptizes us with the Spirit of God. 

The most important battle of our day is spiritual: regardless of which person comes out on top of any particular conflict, that person will not last long. It is "the way of all flesh": rulers come and go. But will hatred win, or love? Will honesty, or falsehood? Will debauchery win, or purity? So the beatitudes do not need to be translated into our culture by a linguist, they need to be transposed into our culture by souls who live them in faith. "Faith" is another word that is out of phase with our culture; only when we live in faith can our culture be reacquainted with faith.