Highlighted New Testament Bible

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Monday, December 6, 2010

St Matthew, Chapter 5, verse: 6, The Beatitude: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for Justice.

Today we are still working with the Beatitudes:   

6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they  
   shall be satisfied. 

Again today, we see that Christ in his teachings gives us another group of people living on this earth who's desires will be satisfied.  Who among us has not been treated unjustly?  Who among us has not been given a fair shake?  Who among us has not burned with the desire for vengence to correct the wrong that we felt? 


Our desire and need to be justly treated, whether we are right in our need or whether we are wrong in our need, leads us, often times, to seek our own revenge to satisfy that unquenchiable desire for justice.  In many cases that desire is accepted as a way of life, and chalked up to the way we live, since we feel there is nothing that we can do.  And in other cases we see those individuals who feel that there is no justice in society and so they take matters into their own hands, provide justice outside of that which society offers.  We applaud the hero in the movies who walks tall and carries a big stick, taking revenge on his own hands. 


Each minute of the day we see news reports where people are killed, beaten, brutalized, murdered, based on some sense of justice.  A teenager is brutaly stomped to death, simple because three other teens felt wronged and decided to take vengence into their own hands.  They only knew of one way to deal with their feelings of anger.  We see mysterious murders where people are killed in their own homes, tied up and shot in the head, because of some wrong that was committed outside of the legal system, according to some code of justice that is not based upon God's laws.  We live in a society of violence. 


Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice.  Hunger for justice is like a good meal that we long to have and have not had in a while.  Hunger for justice is like a longing to be on a far distant vacation away from the cares and worries of the day, where we are relaxed and forgetful of the place we just left.  Thirsting for justice is like a desire for a drink that when we have it will relax our inner being and bring a sense of calm within us.  What we deisre is that which will change how we feel about something that is within us.  What we want is that which will give us a change of mind and a way fo viewing life from a different perspective. 


Christ has said to us in this passage that those who hunger and thirst shall be satisfied.  Is this enough to satisfy us??  Are his words a calming effect that will begin to change how we feel??  His words are words of truth.  There is no lie in him.  Then, therefore, we can take our injustices to him and place them at his feet, saying: "You told us that we shall be satisfied."  Here are our injustices, here are the wrongs that have been done to us, here are the hurts and pains that we have suffered at the hands of others.  Give us the satisfaction that you have promised. 


Many years ago I was given a practice by my sponsor to create a God box.  Take all of my hurts and pains and write them out and put them in my God box and put it on the shelf of my closet, I was told.  I wanted to take them back, when I was reminded of the hurt and pain.  I wanted to act out on the thoughts that I had against the people whom I felt had harmed me.  I had thoughts and plans as to how to carry out my revenge to satisfy my need for justice.  However, the God box was an exercise in letting go.  It was an opportunity for me to learn how to place my trust in God and an opportunity of ridding myself of the constant thoughts of revenge.  I had to practice letting go of those thoughts when they came up in my mind.  I had to push them aside and not let them take control of me.  I had to work daily and sometimes, every mintue, to keep myself from thinking about how I would exact my revenge. 


The devil wanted to control of my thoughts and actions but with the help of my God box, I refused to pick them up.  I blocked out the thoughts.  I focused on something different.  I did something  different, i.e., took a differnet position, or stopped what I was doing and did something different, or in many cases, just took a deep breath to slow my breathing and heart rate so that I could just think again.  I can remember in one instance of my life I wanted to kill a person.  My thoughts were consummed with how I would go about doing that.  I thought about what would be the best place, i.e., at work, or at his home, when he was coming and going.  I was sick and almost followed through with this plan.  I was on the brink of death.  And yet there was something inside me that brought me back from the brink.  Something that kept me from going through with this plan.  I know now that it was the hand of God that kept me from going over to the dark side.  Later, I put those thoughts in my God Box and learned how to let go of that anger by forgiving the person and forgiving myself.  I hungered and was thirsty for justice but did not exact it.  Today, any injustice I encounter, I place it in my God box and put it on the shelf.   Today, I know that I shall be satisfied.