Being a peacemaker means daily practicing simple acts of kindness.

If Jesus, the victim of our sins, can forgive us for his death, how much more so should we forgive our enemies, instigators, and victims alike.

Think of a situation in which you are avoiding peace because it would take too much effort, cause too much conflict, or create too much trouble for you.  What is God calling you to do in that situation?

Peace means not only freedom from all trouble, but enjoyment of all good. Peace is not just the silencing of the violence of warfare and strife, but a state of well-being and fullness. And this gets to the heart of some of our problems today

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 

Jesus blessed purity of heart as Jesus knew from out of the heart flow our words and our actions. It's not just enough to refrain from outward sins. We must be pure from the inside out if we are to see God.

We mock the gospel when we reduce the demands of the gospel to simply believing that Christ died for our sins, giving intellectual assent to that truth and accepting by faith the eternal securities it offers us. But the true demand of the gospel is a changed heart, a pure heart, an unadulterated heart, a heart washed clean, a heart free from chaff, a heart purged of discontent.

The heart is what you are, in the secrecy of your thought and feeling, when nobody knows but God.

How pure is your heart? Are your actions pure, showing a pure heart?

When Jesus speaks of a pure heart, he speaks of a heart that has been purged and cleansed so that it is unadulterated and unspoiled. That’s the high calling of this beatitude and it puts us at odds with our culture from the outset.