These verses, the opening phrases of the Sermon on the Mount, hold some of the Bible’s most beautiful and best-loved poetry. Part of its beauty, though, lies in the fact that the meaning is not quite clear. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? What does it mean to “inherit the earth” or to be called “the children of God.” The fact that there are many possibilities causes us to linger over the phrases, pondering them.

Understood in the internal sense, these blessings show the spiritual states of the various people who could be receptive of the Lord and the new church he was launching. On a deeper level it shows that states within ourselves that can lead each of us to the Lord and to a deeper understanding of His truth today.

The “poor in spirit” are those who know little about spiritual things, but want to learn. Those that “mourn” are those who want to be good, but see no desire for good in their church. The “meek” are those who love to care for and serve others. To “hunger and thirst after righteousness” shows a desire to rise up, to learn about what’s good and to come to desire it.

The “merciful” are those who love their fellow people. The “pure in heart” are those who love only what is good. “Peacemakers” are those who are in harmony with the Lord, gaining knowledge from Him and wanting what He wants. And to be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” means acting out of love and care for others, even though you are condemned by others for it.

There’s something of a progression there, from those who simply want to learn to those who actively want to be good people to those who actually are good and acting out of love for others. None of it, though, describes those who are learned in the Jewish traditions, or even necessarily observant in terms of ritual; they are, rather, those who sense that it is possible to be a good person and are willing to make the effort.

And they are promised their rewards! The “kingdom of heaven” is the understanding the angels have of the Lord; “comfort” represents ideas that lead to the good of life; “inheriting the earth” is a state of loving others and being loved by them in return. The overall message is simple: If we truly wish to be good people, and are willing to let the Lord teach us how to be good people, we will end up filled with love and wisdom from Him. And that’s what we need to focus on: The desire to be good, and openness to ideas from the Lord. It’s not about ritual and intellectual “correctness”; it’s about ideas that lead us to be good.

But what of being reviled and persecuted? This depicts temptation, when the hells attack our newborn good desires and true understanding. They cause us to doubt our ability to be truly good and question the ideas that are leading us. And they can do it in many ways, reminding us of the fun we’ll be missing or reminding us of all the bad things we’ve ever done to render us hopeless. They will even attack the Bible and the ideas that come to us through it from the Lord; that’s represented by the idea that people also attacked the prophets.

These states, however, are blessed in their own way; only by battling these evils, which are rooted inside us, can we finally fully embrace the good life we have been striving for. That’s why it is pictured last, and that's why it leads to the “great reward” in heaven.

2373. 'Now we will do more harm to you than to them' means that they would reject the good of charity even more than they rejected the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'Lot' as good that flows from charity, for Lot represents those with whom the good of charity is present, 2324, 2351, 2371; and from the meaning of 'the men', who were angels, as the Lord as regards the Divine Human and His Holy proceeding, dealt with above. From this it is evident that 'doing more harm to you than to them' has this meaning. Those inside the Church who are immersed in evil reject charity even more than they deny the Lord, the reason being that in so doing they can look favourably upon their own lusts through a semblance of religion and engage in external worship which has no internal, that is, a worship of the lips and not of the heart; and the more they regard this worship to be Divine and Holy, the greater the positions and wealth they attain. And in addition to this there are many other hidden yet manifest reasons. For the fact of the matter is that the person who rejects charity, that is to say, rejects it in doctrine and at the same time in life, also rejects the Lord. Though he does not dare to do so with the lips he nevertheless does so in his heart, a fact which is expressed even in the sense of the letter by the statement 'they came near to break down the door' which means that they went so far as to try and destroy them both. But what prevents the actual realization of the attempt is no hidden matter.