10. Happiness

Dear children,

I want you to be happy. There's a great deal about happiness in the Bible - both the old and the new parts of it. It's another competition between our view of Yahweh and our view of Jesus.

First though, remember that we have already seen the invitation in the first psalm. Happy the person who delights in the instruction of Yahweh and in his instruction he mutters day and night.

Snoopy - Happy

These 'happy are' phrases are called beatitudes after the word beatus, the Latin for blessed. Really they should be called happiness-phrases. The Hebrew is awri roughly pronounced asheri - and it's a really happy word - insider joy - joy in the relationship with this mysterious God. (Yes, it’s a blessing too, but a different word, bruç, would be used for blessed.)

Jesus taught his students and everyone with them several such happiness phrases. In the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, we have five large sections of his words (a reminder perhaps of the five books of Moses). In the first section, Jesus speaks to the crowd several 'happy are you' statements. These are tricky - we are supposed to like them, but each one is a puzzle, sometimes saying the opposite of what we might expect. This can be troubling.

And like the 10 words, they are variously ordered - depending on which text was chosen for the translation. Matthew probably wrote in Hebrew or maybe Aramaic, but the texts we have for him are Greek and Latin - and different languages give us a different way of thinking. So treat these as puzzle pieces too.

We don't know what it means till we have thought about it, mulled it over, maybe conversed with the author of life more fully - with the wind of God brooding over the formless and empty state that we are in ourselves. All 7 days of creation run concurrently and are present to us.

Here's my paraphrase:

Happy are the poor of spirit, for the realm of heaven is theirs.

We would expect ‘happy are the rich’ - but it's not there. Instead it is 'of the poor in spirit (in Luke, the third Gospel, it is just the poor), God is with them and things are good for them even in their poverty.

Happy are those who lament, (or weep or mourn) for they will be consoled.

Happy and lament or weeping are not considered the same thing, are they! Who will console them? Someone who really cares.

Happy the afflicted, for they, they will possess the earth.

Afflicted is not a traditional translation - tradition has 'meek' or ‘gentle’. I think the thought is people in trouble, not people who are calm and collected or passive (the modern idea of meekness).

Who is it who really cares for the poor or the weeping or the afflicted? We know that Yahweh does. So Jesus is channeling Yahweh via the Psalms for these words. I count 27 happiness-phrases in the psalms and a few more elsewhere in the Old Testament. (If this was tennis, that would be a lot of points.)

Happy those hungering and those thirsting for righteousness, for they, they will be satisfied.

Ah - this one is not hard to imagine. We do want things to be right. And it's hard work getting there.

Happy are the compassionate, for they, they will be shown compassion.
Happy are the pure of heart, for they, they will gaze on God.
Happy those who make peace, for they, they will be called the children of God.

These four are not so difficult to get.

Happy those who are persecuted with foot planted for their righteousness, for the realm of heaven is theirs.

Happy the persecuted! That's unexpected. Something I try to avoid.

Happy are you if they reproach or persecute you, or they bring falsehood, your defamation, evil over my name. Be glad and rejoice, for your wage is very abundant in the heavens, for so they persecuted the prophets who are in your presence (or who were before you).

You are the salt of the earth. And if the salt is insipid, in what way will it be made salty? It is no longer useful for anything much except to cast outside and to be trampled under foot.

Hey! - you love salt and salt in sweat is what measures CF. So do you want to be the salt of the earth and make salty - interesting - the things that happen among us?

You are the light of the era. A city resting on a hill cannot be hidden. Furthermore, there is no one who will light a lamp to put it under a barrel, but rather for the lamp stand to light for all who are in the house.

We need light to do these puzzles. I counted the ones in the New Testament. The famous ones to Christians are the 8 (or 9) above. There are 7 more (8 if you count a double) in Matthew, 1 or 2 more in Mark, the second Gospel (good news), 12 in Luke some of which overlap with Matthew, 2 in John (the last gospel of the 4 that are included in the New Testament), in the book called the Acts of the Apostles - maybe 1. Romans cites the Psalms - so I won't count them. James has 1. Revelation has 7. A total score of 32 or so. And how about the Old Testament? I count 38 in total. (The Old Testament has many more words than the New.) Happiness is a puzzle piece of course.

Anyway - enough salt for the day.

Till the next letter ...