THE BEATITUDES (4)
Jesus said,
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Mt. 5:6)
Hunger and thirst express intense longing comparable to a starving man yearning for food. Such intense longing for complete righteousness can be satisfied only by God through Christ’s righteousness.
God is always willing. Lost sinners may receive Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, which made His own righteousness freely available to all. To a believer, Christ imparts his righteousness. It manifests increasingly in life as he empties himself of “self” and allows the Holy Spirit to fill him.
St. Augustine, marveling at the overflowing measure of God’s Spirit in the first Apostle’s hearts, observed that the reason they were so full of God was because they were so empty of themselves. “They were so very full, he said, because they were so very empty.”
---Beverly Nickles