Happy or Sad

Reading the 'be happy' beatitudes in  Matt. 5 I wonder, are believers in Jesus to be happy or sad?   Jesus describes those who follow his way as 'blessed' which in the Greek text of Matt is  is makarios.   Makarios makes for  great word study, but if you do that study you will discover that a decent translation of this word is our word 'happy.'   Now,  look at this opposing thought  in  Ecclesiastes:  "Grief is better than laughter, for sadness can improve a person."  Ecclesiastes 7:3 CJB   Complete Jewish Bible      I like the way the New International Version puts Eccl 7:3:  "Sadness is good for the heart. That's why sorrow is better than laughter." 

Jesus stirs up the pot with some antithesis  by saying, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." But I don't see this as hopelessly conflicting.  Good theology and all creative thought is paradoxical.  

You just have to get used to that.   This kind of tension between conflicting ideas  is what you expect from  the rich teaching of the Hebrew Bible and of  Jesus, which can't be reduced to any simple formula.  These highs and lows are something which the anawim (who are the subject of recent posts)  understand - you see that from a reading of the Psalms.  And this is just life, a mixture of good and bad.  The key is to 'offer up'  the sorrows as a Romans 12: 1-2 sacrifice, and to learn from them.

Here is another way that you could frame the issue:    Are the 'blesseds'  (makarios) in Matt. 5  a promise for the future, or the present?   I'm sure that the bible scholars have many articles on this subject because the verb tenses in Matt 5: 3-12 have some of both.   After I first thought of this issue while studying the Sermon on the Mount with Jack, Joe and Carrie during Lent, it bothered me for several weeks.  But about a month ago  I got some help from  Pope Benedict,  reading  his  2 Cor. 4 example from St. Paul, but that is for another post.