Bono and Beatitudes

The beatitudes keep coming across my frame of reference lately. A colleague is teaching a new course called “The Composition of Happiness” in which she surveys a wide range of writings that address happiness and what it means to be truly happy. She got in touch with me about the week in which her students will be reading the beatitudes and asked for some background information I had that might help in opening up their meaning. Sure thing, I said, and sent her a few introductory pieces that I thought would be helpful, particularly seeing the beatitudes in the larger context of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount. Of particular interest is the idea that there are two versions of the beatitudes, one in Matthew 5 and one in Luke 6. Each author provides a slightly different take on what Jesus taught in the parables, giving us a concrete illustration of the idea that differences of interpretation of the words of Jesus is not a new thing: it was already happening with the writing of the New Testament. For example, Luke has “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (6:20), which links well with Luke’s concern that the good news about Jesus is for all people, including the poor and the marginalized. Matthew, with a concern for the qualities Christians ought to embody as members of the Church, takes a more spiritual approach: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:3). A similar variation happens in the beatitude about those “who hunger” (in Luke) versus those who “hunger and third for righteousness” (in Matthew). It is fascinating how each author picks up on a different dimension of what Jesus taught.

More challenging is figuring out what the beatitudes actually mean. Are these statements prescriptive telling us how we should be or live? Or are they descriptive, describing the way it is in God’s kingdom, the people who are blessed in God’s eyes though not necessarily in the world around us? My sense is that the beatitudes are largely a counter-cultural announcement of the reversals that Jesus was inaugurating with the arrival of the new age of his advent. He, as he often did, took conventional thinking and turned it on its head. He called people “blessed” that the world would never consider to be so. At any rate, those are the kinds of issues that the beatitudes raise for those who ponder them. Incidentally, I pointed my colleague to the Bible Odyssey website produced by the Society of Biblical Literature as a means of promoting general understanding of the Bible from an informed, academic perspective. For anyone wondering what might be called the “academic” perspective on the Bible, the Bible Odyssey site is a good entry point. As a good academic site it points to research and information about genre, significance, and cultural context. Those looking for an approach that is more devotional/doctrinally oriented can find many of those, including sites like GotQuestions.org.

Since sending her that information, I’ve become enamored with U2’s new album, Songs of Experience. One song (“Get Out of Your Own Way”) ends and another (“American Soul”) begins with Kendrick Lamar reciting a contemporary “re-interpretation” of the beatitudes. In it, he turns the genre on its head and uses the expectations generated by beatitude-style language to surprise us and confront us. 

Blessed are the arrogant, for theirs is the kingdom of their own company.

Blessed are the superstars, for the magnificence in their light, we understand better our own insignificance.

Blessed are the filthy rich, for you can only truly own what you give away, like your pain.

Blessed are the bullies, for one day they will have to stand up to themselves.

Blessed are the liars, for the truth…can be awkward.

This reinterpretation “works” because we have a certain expectation about what a beatitude should be and communicate. It should tell us about those who are in a favored situation for whatever reason—those that God blesses. However, these beatitudes take qualities that we associate with ungodly traits and values, and makes them at least sound like a source of blessing. But when we consider each line on its own, we see that it is not really a blessing at all; each line contains within its logic a reversal for these individuals who embody these traits (and in the context of the album, it is clear that one might picture a certain reality TV star on the mind of Bono as he wrote this).

This notion of “reversal” is central to the genre of beatitudes. And it is interesting here to note again that Jesus’s beatitudes were a portrayal of reversal as well. When he used the genre of beatitude, it was not normal for anyone to consider the poor, the hungry, the persecuted as being “blessed” in any way. So Jesus himself took a genre that already existed and turned it on its head to give us our expectation of beatitudes as we have them today. U2 has taken the genre and used it in a similar way to call out some concerning trends in our public figures.

Last week I came across another “reinterpretation” of the beatitudes in a new document from the Sisters of Mercy—a document they wrote calling for the Sisters to work on global partnering with other groups to address issues of degradation of God’s earth and of the suffering of displaced peoples. This version, I think, captures not the surprise twist that U2’s do, but rather this version captures the heart of the message of Jesus. See what you think:

The Beatitudes as we see the world today, developed by Anna, Mary, and Chris.

1. Blessed are those who live from the depths of their being.

They will see, radiate and attract goodness and know true freedom.

2. Blessed are those who recognise that our earth is in mourning because of human abuse and destruction.

They will comfort it.

3. Blessed are those who recognise their littleness in the whole of the cosmos.

They shall share in the co-creation of an unfinished universe.

4. Blessed are those who live in right relationship with all of life.

They will bring about change in the world.

5. Blessed are the merciful.

For they shall know the heart of God.

6. Blessed are those who are so in God's love.

They shall know it is God who lives and acts in them.

7. Blessed are those who live in harmony with all earth's creatures.

They will come to experience a deep peace within themselves.

8. Blessed are those who seek justice for people who are throwaways in our society.

They will know the true worth of all of Creation.

~ Brisbane Group, Ireland

(Source: Mercy Interational Reflective Process, p. 20)

Clearly, the beatitudes of Jesus are just as timely today as they have been in every generation. In their simplicity, they capture profound truth that is difficult to explicate without making it sound trite. In this, Jesus shows himself to be a master teacher. In addition, the beatitudes of Jesus continue to invite people to reflect for themselves on what it means to be blessed in the context of the current world in which we live.