1. The Supreme Good.
The Supreme Good is the goal of all. The angels, down to the animals and plants, aim at what is good for them. Man, like the angels, is unique in that he can know what is his Supreme Good and desire the same.
For Catholics, the Supreme Good is God, referred to as the uncreated good or Beatitude. The way that leads to the supreme good is referred to as the created good or, also, Beatitude.
So, our goal is the life of Beatitude. And the steps that lead to it is, also, called Beatitudes. While God is the perfect Beatitude, the eight created Beatitudes are the seven different degrees that leads a soul towards God.
2. The Beatitudes.
They show the different degrees of perfections within the Catholic Church. Those who are within the Beatitudes are true Catholics. Those who are outside the Beatitudes are not yet Catholics.
Consequently, those falling within the 8 different Beatitudes will naturally have the visible signs of the true Church. While’st those who are outside the 8 Beatitudes will surely not have the visible signs of the Church; either the four visible signs enumerated in the Nicene Creed or the 15 ‘Notae’, the expanded signs by St. Robert Bellarmine.
3. The Beatitudes in the Gospel of All Saints is a preparation for Christ the King.
We are approaching the end of the Liturgical Year. It ends with the Feast of Christ the King, which reminds us of the General Judgment each man will undergo. What will the basis by which God will judge each men? The Beatitude!!! If we have one of the Beatitudes we are saved. If none, we shall be condemned.
4. Degrees of perfection.
As mentioned, the Beatitudes are the different degrees of perfection within the Catholic Church. We begin with the first and end with the seventh. The eight is the overall crown of the Beatitudes. To be saved it is enough to reach the first Beatitude, ‘to be poor in spirit.’
5. The three sources of human happiness.
The three sources of human happiness are first; happiness that comes from satisfying the senses. This is the lowest kind man has in common with the animals. Call it sensual happiness.
The second is a higher kind called human happiness that satisfies the intellect and the will. It is the active life represented by Martha. and is the proper disposition necessary for the third.
The third is the highest and is called the contemplative life. It is spiritual happiness represented by Mary.
6. Sensual happiness.
Since sensual happiness is an impediment or obstacle to the spiritual life sensual happiness must be minimized to almost nothing. And the first three Beatitudes are meant to do that. The first source of sensual happiness are possessions. So the Gospel narrative declared; go home, sell your possessions and give it to the poor. This is how ‘poor in spirit’ is developed.
The second source of sensual happiness is absence of enemies. The Beatitude tells us not to desire the absence of enemies; but to allow evil from enemies but overcome evil with good. So. blessed are the meek.
The third source of sensual happiness is to have human consolation. The Beatitude tells us not to desire human consolation but instead to mourn; thus blessed are those who mourn.
7. Active Life.
Beatitude 4 and 5 describes the active life, so called. It is the proper disposition necessary to be able to rise up to the contemplative life, which is the perfection of the theological virtue of Faith.
The beginning of the active life is the virtue of Justice. We must give all what is their due. The virtue of Justice is important because the next virtue, Mercy, depends on it.
The next Beatitude of the Active Life is Mercy, when we give others what they do not deserve. It is the extra mile Christ wants us to accompany those who has to be accompanied without them having to ask for it. With Justice and Mercy we can now proceed to the contemplative life, the life of Perfect Faith.
8. Contemplative Life.
The first requirement for the contemplative life is a ”clean or pure heart.” With the mind and hearts focused on God alone is the ‘pure heart’ that can see God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
A soul with pure heart is a person at peace with himself; thus he can become a peace maker for others; Blessed are the peace maker for they shall be called children of God.
9. Pope Francis
The Pope, of course, is the personification of all Catholic priests. His interests are Global warming, migrants, adulterers, sodomists, Evangelical Pentecostals, Synodal liturgies, homos, liberalism, modernism, atheists, the sad old age, the unemployed youth, the Statue of Liberty, establishing new protestant sects and other peripherals. His interests are sensual if not outright sinful as it appeared during the Bishop’s Synod 2015. These are precisely what the first three Beatitudes are contradicting. Wouldn’t this be a sign that many priests do not even have the first Beatitude?
Because he does not have the first Beatitude, his concept of mercy, which is the fifth Beatitude is not preceded by Justice, the fourth Beatitude. And it is not followed by ‘pure in heart,’ the sixth virtue. Which means that his mercy is not Catholic but the heretical ‘mercy’ of the spirit of liberalism first condemned by Pius IX and Pius X; and during the recent Synod, condemned by Cardinal Arinze accusing Pope Francis of being a heretic.
10. The ‘mercy’ of the fifth Beatitude.
The Beatitude on ‘mercy’ has ‘Justice’ before it and ‘pure in heart’ after it. St. Thomas writes that these three, like all the beatitudes, are intertwined; one being born from the previous one. St. Ambrose wrote; ‘The merciful lose the benefit of his mercy(5th Beatitude) unless he shows it from a pure heart (the 6th Beatitude). St. Thomas of Aquinas adds; ‘ Justice(4 Beatitude) and mercy(5th Beatitude) are so united that the one ought to be mingled with the other. Justice without mercy is cruelty, mercy without justice is profusion.’
If the Pope does not even have the first, wouldn’t that mean he is outside the Catholic Church and would certainly will not be able to show that he has the four visible signs of the true Church of Christ? And, therefore, he would not have the 15 ‘Notae’ of the true Church described by St. Robert Bellarmine? Would it not mean that as Bellarmine’s ‘de Romano Pontifice’ states, he cannot be the Pope?
If this is a possibility, can’t any of his Jesuit confrere have the fraternal charity to sit down with him and sort this out? Or, maybe, his companions are, also, outside the life of Beatitude and, therefore, outside the Communion of Saints?