Summary of The Cross and the Beatitudes by Fulton Sheen (The 7 Last Words and the 7 Beatitudes)

Since the Beatitudes are the “perfect charter for the Christian life” (St. Augustine), the roadmap to holiness, and the summary of the Gospels, it only makes sense that Our Lord would perfectly display these on the Cross, right?

Fulton Sheen thinks so. In this book, Fulton Sheen enters the mystery of Our Blessed Lord’s 7 final words from “the pulpit of the Cross” (St. Augustine) through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount. Introducing this connection, he states: “Our Lord began his public life on the Mount of the Beatitudes and closed it on the Mount of Calvary.”

The 1st Beatitude: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Jesus is the model of the beatitude of meekness. Rather than being vindictive and rendering evil for evil (as the world promotes), Our Lord, in complete self-mastery of His emotions, showed strength under control when He forgave and prayed for those who crucified Him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

“It took so much strength that only Divinity’s cry of forgiveness could overcome the hatred of those who crucify.”

We must follow Our Lord in meekness. To respond to evil with goodness is not weakness; it is strength, the strength that makes man master of himself and the conqueror of hate. If you doubt it, try it sometime and see how much strength it takes to bless those who persecute you.

“What right have we to hate others, since our own selfishness is often the cause of their hatred? The first word from the Cross and the Beatitude of meekness both demand that we tear up self-love by the roots; love our executioners; forgive them, for they know not what they do; do a favor for those who insult us; be kind to the thieves who accuse us of theft; be forgiving to liars who denounce us for lying; be charitable to the adulterers who charge us with impurity. Be glad and rejoice for their hate. It will harm only our pride, but not our character; it will cauterize our conceit, but not blemish our soul — for the very insult of the world is the consecration of our goodness.”

“We know it is not the worldly thing to do — to pray for those who nail us to a cross. But that is just the point: Christianity is not worldliness; it is turning the world upside down. We know it is not “common sense” to love our enemies, for to love our enemies means hating ourselves; but that is the meaning of Christianity — hating that which is hateful in us… Our enemy is often our Savior; our persecutor is often our redeemer; our executioners are often our allies; our crucifiers are often our benefactors — for they reveal what is selfish, base, conceited, and ignoble in us. But we must not hate them for that. To hate them for hating us is weakness.”

The 2nd Beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

Jesus is the model of the beatitude of mercy. Rather than be selfish, ego-centric, and focus on my rights and privileges (as the world so often promotes), Our Lord, showed mercy not only by forgiving the thief but also in giving him a divine promise when He said: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

We must follow Our Lord in mercy. Interestingly, Fulton Sheen ties the good thief’s act of mercy to the other thief as a reason why the Lord showed him mercy, thus fulfilling the beatitude. 

“If our heart is filled with the sand of our ego, how can God fill it with the fire of his Sacred Heart? If there is no “for sale” sign on the selfishness of our souls, how can God take possession of them? If, then, we wish to receive mercy, we must, like the good thief, think of others, for it seems that God finds us best when we are lost in others.”

The 3rd Beatitude: “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.”

Jesus is the model of the beatitude on purify of heart. As the model of perfect purity, Our Lord on the Cross is “someone so detached from the ego, so strange to selfishness, so thoughtless of the flesh that he looks upon His Mother, not uniquely as his own, but as the Mother of us all: “Woman, behold your son… Behold your mother.”

In our culture “of carnality, which glorifies sex; hates restraint; identifies purity with coldness, innocence with ignorance,” we must be counter-cultural in following our Lord in purity of heart. The more we grow in purity of heart, whether that is in marriage or celibacy, the more we escape from the selfishness of the flesh and use our bodies to love more and more people. The more we grow in purity of heart, the greater capacity we have to see God in others. 

The 4th Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus is the model of the beatitude of poverty in spirit. In a word that focuses on acquiring, owning, and possessing, Our Blessed Lord came into the world to destroy this spirit of possessiveness by preaching the blessedness of the poor in Spirit. In being utterly forsaken on the Cross, Our Lord experienced the extreme of spiritual poverty by knowing what it was to be without God: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

We are called to follow Our Lord in poverty of spirit. “The poor in spirit are those who are so detached from wealth, from social position, and from earthly knowledge that, at the moment the kingdom of God demands a sacrifice, they are prepared to surrender all. The beatitude means then: Blessed are those who are not possessed by their possessions; blessed are they who, whether or not they are poor in fact, are poor in their inmost spirit.”

The 5th Beatitude: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.”

Jesus is the model of the beatitude of hungering and thirsting for justice. When Our Lord said, “I thirst,” it was not a thirst for earthly waters, for the earth and its oceans were His. And when they offered Him vinegar and gall as a sedative for His sufferings, He refused it. It was therefore, not a physical, but a spiritual thirst that troubled Him — the thirst for the beatitude of justice — an insatiable thirst for the souls of men.

We too must thirst for justice and be on fire for the kingdom of God. Why? “Because everything that is good diffuses itself. The sun is good, and it diffuses itself in light and heat; the flower is good, and it diffuses itself in perfume; the animal is good, and it diffuses itself in the generation of its kind; man is good, and he diffuses himself in the communication of thought. A Christian is good, and must therefore diffuse his Christianity, throw sparks from the flame of His love, enkindle fires in the inflammable hearts of men and speak of his Lover because He is Love, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:34). Strong love makes strong actions, and the measure of our zeal in bringing souls to the feet of Christ is the measure of our love of Him.”

“Converting souls to Christ, then, is based not on the pride of propaganda, but on a desire for perfection. An apostle desires to bring men and women to Our Lord, not for the same reason a businessman wishes to increase his trade. The businessman advertises to increase his profits; the Christian propagandizes to increase the happiness of others. He wants to bring souls to Our Lord for the same reason he wants to see the sun shine, the flowers bloom, and lambs grow into sheep — because it is their perfection and therefore their happiness. If a pencil is made for writing, we do not want to see it used for digging; if a bird is made for flying, we do not want to see it change places with the mole; if a soul is made for the fullness of life, we do not want to see it clip its wings and wallow in hatred, half-truths, and marred loveliness. We want to see it united with its perfection, which is the life and truth and love and beauty of God. That is why a Christian soul is apostolic — it loves perfection, wholeness, completeness, happiness: God. And therefore it wants everyone to be Godlike and Godward.”

The 6th Beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.”

Jesus is the model of the beatitude of being a peacemaker. When He uttered the triumphant cry, “It is finished,” He made peace again between man and God so that men might become children of God. In a world where might is right and aggressiveness is a virtue (cancel culture), Our Lord established true peace, which St. Augustine defined as “the tranquility of order.” All things are in proper order to the sovereign good, which is God. “Therefore, the subjection of senses to reason, reason to faith, and the whole man to God as his eternal end and final perfection — that is the basis of peace.”

We must follow Christ in seeking to establish His peace on this earth. In doing so, we will be hated by the world. “Our Lord brought the sword — we might say, He even made war, war against war, war against selfishness, war against sin, war against godlessness. And if His war against evil brought Him to the Cross, then His followers who preach His peace must also expect to be crucified.” The Lord’s peace is the peace after defeating the enemy in war. 

“If He had come down, there would have been peace; but a false peace! Our Lord stayed on the Cross until it was finished. He would not compromise His divinity. He would not compromise obedience to His Father’s will. He would not minimize the horror of sin. And so He stayed on the Cross, making war against evil until the battle was over, like a dying soldier who feebly fights with ebbing strength until his cause is victorious. That is why He could cry at the end: ‘It is consummated.’“

The 7th Beatitude: “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.”

Jesus is the model of the beatitude finding that blessed comfort after mourning. His life on earth was a fast and now He feasts in Heaven: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Like all the other beatitudes, this beatitude of mourning is quite different from the beatitude of the world: “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” The world never regards mourning as a blessing, but always as a curse… It can no more understand the beatitude of mourning than it can understand the Cross.

Which of the two roads, then, shall we take: the royal road of the Cross, which leads to the Resurrection and eternal life, or the road of selfishness, which leads to eternal death? The first road is filled with thorns, but if we traverse it far enough, we find it ends in a bed of roses; the other road is filled with roses, but if we traverse it far enough, it ends in a bed of thorns.

The sorrow of Our Lord is over. He who mourned is comforted. But how about us? Which beatitude are we going to follow?

We cannot have our reward both in heaven and on earth. That is why we believe one of the most tragic words in the life of Our Lord is the word he will say to the worldly at the end of time: “You have already had your reward.”

Why would we mourn on this earth? Out of all the many reasons, “we should mourn for the greatest of all reasons — namely, because of what our sins have done to Him. If we had been less proud, His crown of thorns would have been less piercing; if we had been less avaricious, the nails in the Hands would have been less burning; if we had traveled less in the devious ways of sin, His feet would not have been so deeply dug with steel; if our speech had been less biting, His lips would have been less parched; if we had been less sinful, His agony would have been shorter; if we had loved more, He would have been hated less.”

To all you who mourn, He has said: “Blessed are you, for you shall be comforted.” You have had your fast with Christ; now you shall have His feast. He has saved much for you; He kept something back when He was on earth. He has reserved it for those who have wept. And that thing which He has kept for eternity, which will make your life’s crucifixion seem as naught, which will make your eternity a blissful, ecstatic passionless passion of love, which will be the ending of all beatitudes and the crown of all living, that thing that He has guardedly treasured for eternity, and which will make heaven heaven, will be . . . His smile!