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The Beatitudes are not rigid moral rules cloaked in kinder, gentler language. Rather, they are above all a portrait of Christ whose coming into the world ushered in the Kingdom of God with reversed views and values, very different from the world all around us.

I am delighted that you came here to Baltimore to discern how best to carry forward your ministry, so important for the life of the Church, and pray your deliberations, emboldened by trust in God’s providential love, will bear fruit in abundance for the Church in the United States and for the dioceses which each of you represent. Welcome!

God gives us grace, a share in his life, not merely to affirm us but to cleanse our hearts of sin and to transform our lives with love.

In calling us to discipleship, the Lord doubles down on what it will cost us. If we would personally share in the poverty of the poor, then we must be detached from property and possessions.

It is Christ who has conquered sin and death and if we wish to win the victory we must acknowledge him as our leader and participate in his life and mission, principally through the Eucharist but also by an active life of faith.

I am here to celebrate with you because I am confident you are teachers but more than teachers – you are witnesses to the Lord’s love – those who first allow yourselves to be loved by the Lord and by others so that you can hand on that same love to your students by loving them with a supernatural love, a love that is divine – and this in the give and take of the classroom, the gym, and the cafeteria.