The Mystery of Christ
The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience

by Father Thomas Keating

Chapter 4 Part V

Ordinary Time

The Ultimate Beatitude

    Jesus said to his disciples: To you who hear me, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who maltreat you. When someone slaps you on one cheek, turn and give him the other; when someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. Give to all who beg from you. When a man takes what is yours, do not demand it back. Do to others what you would have them do to you.
    If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, how can you claim any credit? Sinners do as much. If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what merit is there in it for you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.
    Love your enemy and do good; lend without expecting repayment. Then will your recompense be great. You will rightly be called sons of the Most High, since He Himself is good to the ungrateful and the wicked.
    Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you shall be pardoned. Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will they pour into the fold of your garment. For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you.
[Luke 6:27-38]
Gospel of the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Humility is a relationship of honesty to everything: to God, oneself, other people and all reality. God is selfless love, giving to the point of emptying himself and trying not to be God. It is a great gift to be detached from this world's goods; it is a still greater gift to be detached from all spiritual goods. This is the way that God relates to us: not interested in his own majesty or transcendence, but trying to be nobody--without, of course, much success. It must be fun when you are everything to be nothing. In any case, his disposition to give away everything that he has or is, seems to characterize the divine goodness and compassion.

    This is the disposition that Jesus invites us to imitate on the mountainside in his seemingly casual sermon. Jesus urges us to have the freedom not to harbor a possessive attitude toward anything, including oneself; to be, without wanting to be anything special; and to be one with everything that is, in an all-inclusive attitude of belonging and sharing. One of the examples of this attitude is lending without hope of return. Actually, from the perspective of the beatitudes, one is only lending to oneself.  Again, there is no sense in judging others because that would be judging oneself. This disposition of giving everything away-- one's time, energy, space, virtues, spirituality, and finally oneself-- is not really giving anything away because, in the truest sense, whatever we give away, we are giving to ourselves. The gesture of opening one's hand is the same gesture as receiving.

    This emptying of ourselves for the good of others is a continuation of the same movement of emptying-- kenosis-- that goes on in the Trinity: giving away (or throwing away) all that the Father is to the Son and vice-versa, and each receiving everything back in and through the Person of infinite love, the Holy Spirit. As one manifests this love, one is giving everything away and receiving everything in return again and again, but each time with greater inclusiveness. The same love that one gives away keeps coming back, "Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over." [Luke 7:38]  In the same degree that love goes forth, it returns into our lap. This compassionate, non judgmental, selfless love is the Source of all that is; the ultimate beatitude is to disappear into it.

More information can be obtained by reading the book The Mystery of Christ by Fr. Thomas Keating.  It is offered in our Book Store.