Interestingly, the first phrase of each of Jesus’ Beatitudes is an adjective in the biblical Greek. There is no verb. Literally, the phrase is rendered:
- Correct: How blessed the…
- Incorrect: Blessed are the…
In speaking this way, Our Lord makes a declarative statement that is laudatory and congratulatory in meaning. What Jesus intends to express is the divine delight not in what someone does, but rather for what one already holds as a personal point of view from an interior disposition.
In this instance, we also might consider the word “fortunate” as an equally fitting way to express Jesus’ intended meaning as this word accents the person in question to be in have the desired good – a good that others either have not yet or simply will never accept as their own.
- Correct (also): How fortunate the…
