I’m a little bit slow on technology, I have to admit. But one of the things I’ve come across with lately more and more is emoji. An emoji is originate in Japan, and it’s an ideogram or kind of we seen it often as smiley face or other kind of face representing several different emotions, or expressions, or images. I was thinking, when I listen to the Beatitudes, if we were to make an emoji out of that, what would the emoji be for the disciple or for the word “blessed”? What would it look like? Well, Jesus says over and over again when He looks at His disciples, He calls them blessed, happy. Would it be a big happy face? Would it be kind of a contentment that Jesus speaks about in these Beatitudes? He’s teaching the crowds.

In Matthews’ Gospel, he’s giving them these eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount over and over again, basically saying, “Happy are you. Happy are you,” he tells them. But the happiness that they’re experiencing or should experience in their life, is the contentment for knowing that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and that their reward will be great in Heaven, that they are happy even when there is hardship in their life that they are content and blessed knowing that the Lord is with them even as they mourn and suffer, or pursue righteousness and are rejected. Over and over again, the blessed are called forth to rejoice, to be happy.

Saint Paul even reminds us that this happiness and contentment is knowing that God loves us and calls us to be His humble servants. He calls us when we are humble, when we seek Him with humility. In the first reading, we hear over and over again the Prophet saying, “Seek the Lord. Seek justice. Seek humility.” We’re called too, if we are the blessed ones, to seek the Lord as we live out those Beatitudes each day as we carry that image of the emoji, that face of the disciple, that face of happiness and contentment in following the example of Christ. Following His example means serving those who are poor, means doing what is right in charity and love for others. So today, as we celebrate these Beatitudes, let’s live them out as we seek the Lord in every opportunity of life that we are given.