Fr. Ignatius John Schweitzer: Exegesis of the Word: On the Beatitudes as a Spiritual Portrait

By Fr. Ignatius John Schweitzer, OP, Catholic Exchange, Jan. 30, 2026

Fr. Ignatius John Schweitzer, OP, recently coauthored the book How to Be His: A 33-Day Dedication to Our Eucharistic Jesus with Fr Jesse Maingot, OP, and coauthored a book on St. Elizabeth with Julie Enzler and Dr. Anthony Lilles, called Named for Glory: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s Identity and Mission, both of which are available through Sophia Press. Fr. Ignatius is a professor and the director of spiritual formation at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York, the provincial promoter of the Lay Dominicans, and the chaplain for Emmaus Journey. His YouTube channel, Dominican House of Prayer, may be located here.

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth article of a CE series on “Exegesis of the Word” by Fr. Ignatius Schweitzer, breaking open each Sunday’s readings for eight consecutive weeks. Catch up on previous articles here!

Some time ago, I had the practice of reading the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7) or the Last Discourse of John (Jn. 14-17) at least once a week. I did so because these passages are so fundamental to the Christian life. Regularly going through the Sermon on the Mount caused varying dimensions of the Sacred Page to come forth, such as seeing it in terms of Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit in our life as Christians. Our Gospel this Sunday, on the Beatitudes, is a brief, introductory summary of the whole sermon and so gets us to the heart of the Sermon on the Mount.

Learning the Heart of Jesus

Jesus practices what He preaches more than anyone else does. He perfectly lives out the Beatitudes and the Sermon of the Mount. This causes Pope Benedict XVI to approach the Beatitudes as “a spiritual portrait” of Jesus’ interior character, a sketch of Jesus’ meek and humble heart. The Beatitudes help make up Jesus’ cruciform existence in their poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting, mercy, purity of heart, peace-making, and being persecuted for righteousness’ sake. The Sermon on the Mount opens up for us Jesus’ interior life and His character. And as we contemplate the beauty of His heart, we are drawn to cry out to Him to “make our hearts like unto thine.” …

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