The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 5
Fifth Day
FOURTH BEATITUDE
To hunger and thirst after justice. — Matt. v. 6.
BLESSED are those who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled.’ ' Hunger and thirst’ means an ardent, eager, and urgent longing, which proceeds from extreme need.
'Seek ye the kingdom of God and his justice.’[1] Justice reigns in Heaven, and ought to reign also in the Church, which is often called the Kingdom of Heaven. It really reigns whenever we give to God what is His due; for when we do this we at the same time give, for love of the Creator, all that is due to creatures, whom we look at in Him. By the same act, again, we give all that is due to ourselves; for when we have filled ourselves with God we possess all that we can contain. Then have we fulfilled all justice, as God said to St John. The soul then hungers and thirsts no more, for she has her true food. ' My meat is to do the will of him that sent me,’ said the Saviour, ‘that I may perfect his work.' [2] This, therefore, is what Christ calls ‘ all justice ’: — to accomplish in all things the perfectly just will of our Heavenly Father, and to make it the rule of our own wills also in everything. But when we do the will of God, He will do ours. The Psalmist sang: 'He will do the will of those who fear him,’ [3] and thus he will satisfy all their desires. Blessed are those who desire justice as eagerly as they long for meat and drink when they are exhausted with hunger and thirst; for then shall they be filled. With what, indeed, should we be filled if not with justice? We shall be partly satisfied even in this life; for the just man will become more just, and the holy man more holy in return for his eager longing; but perfect satisfaction will come in heaven, where eternal justice will be given to us, together with the fulness of the love of God. 'I shall be satisfied,’ declares the Psalmist, 'when Thy glory shall appear.’ [4]
But are we always to thirst for justice? Our Saviour said to the Samaritan woman, 'He who drinks of this water ’ — that is, of earthly pleasures — ‘ shall thirst again; but he who drinks the water that I will give him shall never thirst; for the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ [5] He is, then, never to thirst again? In one sense, certainly, never: — for he will never again wish for any pleasure, any joy, any good, except what he possesses in Jesus Christ. Yet in another sense he will always thirst; for he will never cease to desire this supreme good itself, and will long to possess it more and more completely. Thus, then, his thirst will be everlasting: — but so also will be the quenching of his thirst, as he will have that ever-springing fountain within him. He will not suffer the painful and exhausting thirst of those who seek the pleasures of the senses. He will continually thirst for justice; but with his lips always held to the source of life that he owns, this thirst can never weary or weaken him. ‘If any man thirst,’ cries the Son of God, ‘let him come to me and drink. He that believeth in me... out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ [6] Come, then, ye holy souls — come to Jesus! Desire — drink — be satisfied! Fear not that this heavenly stream will ever fail you; the fountain is greater than your thirst; its abundance far beyond your need. 'Fons vincit sitientem,' says St Augustine.