The Sermon on the Mount, Part III of XL

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TEXT: Continuing with Mt. 5:9.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

COMMENTARY: All people, Jesus knew, are the "children of God." But not all are recognized ("called") as the children of Love. Only those who actually live in Love, and who thus create peace, are easily recognized as the children of Light. For God treasures peace as much as She/He hates war, and God resists all war-mongers-- violent, stupid people who are a shame to themselves.

TEXT:

10. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

COMMENTARY: People historically have revealed their profound ignorance and stupidity, their arrogance and barbarity, by persecuting-- slandering, hating, and even murdering-- the people of Love. Still, despite this persecution, Jesus knows and reveals that they are "blessed" in their eternal Soul-lives ("kingdom"). For the people of Love always receive Love in return.

TEXT:

11. "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

COMMENTARY: The people of Love ("Christ") are not masochists. That is, they do not try to nudge or encourage persecution, so that they can be "proud" of it. But on a primitive and tiny, spiritually arrested planet such as earth, persecution of the people of Love is inevitable.

And, historically, mystics have been persecuted, hunted down, tortured, and even murdered by religious traditionalists. It is ironic that the very religious have been the worst persecutors of the very spiritual, revealing the vast gulf between the two. This is true of the kabbalists of Judaism, the sufis of Islam, and the gnostics of Christianity.