radical words

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Matthew 5: 3-11

I recently returned from a three day retreat in the Galilee, complete with stops in Capernaum (Peter's home), Tabgha (site of the multiplication of loaves and fish), the Mount of Beatitudes, and many more such sites. To be honest it is a little difficult for me to actually imagine all of the history that is supposed to have happened at these sites because they are so filled with buildings and tourists, but the Mount of Beatitudes was probably my favorite simply because these words, no matter where they were first said, have always struck a chord in me. They have renewed meaning for me in this land and among these people. The peacemakers- who are Palestinian and Israeli, Christian, Muslim and Jew- know that they are children of the same God.

While on retreat on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, I finished the book Blood Brothers, by Elias Chacour. It tells the story of a Palestinian Christian family uprooted from their home in the Galilee in 1948. Elias, a young boy at the time, narrates the story with the innocence of a child and I was so repeatedly struck by his empathy and love for his Jewish brothers, even as he recognizes the injustice against his people. His father explains to his young, frightened children, that the soldiers who will come to "stay" with them will only come briefly- and in celebration for their Jewish brothers, the family kills a precious lamb to share with their "guests."

"But how do we know the soldiers won't harm us?" Rudah pressed him.
Father smiled, and all the tension seemed to relax. "Because," he said, "the Jews and Palestinians are brothers--blood brothers. We share the same father, Abraham, and the same God. We must never forget that."
-Blood Brothers, page 34

Chacour, who spent most of his life in the Galilee, does a lot of reflecting on the Beatitudes throughout the book, and I would highly recommend it. Especially as Netanyahu uses rhetoric that seems to equate all Palestinians as "terrorists", Chacour's experiences of being treated as a terrorist by the soldiers who eventually evicted his entire village from their home, is an enlightening example of how powerful (and misused) this word can be.