The Beatitudes are among the literary and religious treasures of the human race. We can savor them, affirm them, meditate on them, and engrave them on plaques to hang on our walls. But a major question remains: How are supposed to live in response to them?

This isn’t an idle question. Misunderstanding the “blesseds” given by Jesus in Matthew 5 has caused pain and confusion down through the ages that continues today.

Strangely enough, his “blesseds” haven’t uniformly been a blessing.

It’ll help us know what to do—and what not to do—with the Beatitudes if we can discover what Jesus himself was doing with them.

So remember that, according to the river, for the Israelites to leave the corners of their fields unharvested so that the widow, orphan and alien, and their animals, could glean and graze – this wasn’t an act of charity. It was justice – giving them what they were legally entitled to as sacraments of the LORD’s ownership of all land. So too for us, as we mark the corners off our incomes and our days to act in the world so that the hungry can be fed, the alien supported, the ‘orphans and widows’ of our day given hope – this isn’t self-sacrifice or high nobility. It’s justice, and only justice, and in doing justice in the world we bear witness to the one who called Israel to care for the widow and the orphan, and who became a resident alien as the son of man who had no place to rest his head. Therefore go and do justice, and love mercy, and walk in humility with Jesus.

A key question in counseling and professional coaching (as well as the rest of life) is, “If you’re saying Yes to this, what are you saying No to?” It’s key because it reflects a simple reality: saying Yes to certain things necessarily means saying No to others.

The reverse true, too.

Some Yeses begin with Noes. For St. Paul, one thing especially.