Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Christ knew the hypocrites would come with furious madness against His small flock, so He gave them a sure defense: that reproaches need not break them. The Pope's excommunication is nothing to fear when those tyrants cast us out for refusing to renounce Christ.
AI summary
Christ crowns His sermon with blessings because He came to bless us, and His pronouncement makes us truly blessed. The world is wrong about happiness: it calls the rich and powerful blessed, but He calls the poor in spirit blessed instead, overturning every carnal notion of what makes a man happy.
AI summary
Commenting on Matthew 5:3-12
The disciples must know they will not escape reproach and persecution; men will revile them, invent the worst lies, call them seditious and guilty of murder. But those charges are false, born of malice, and brought for Christ's sake, the same He Himself endured.
AI summary