And then Jesus appears and says, “Blessed are you.” He repeated it. His disciples repeated it. Christians continue to repeat it, even if only as a kind of talismanic gesundheit. The repetitions accumulate, and the world changes. The world changes from a place where people expect, as a matter of course, to be unhappy to a world where people expect to be happy. The change pivots on Christ’s word. I think that is an astounding accomplishment, a terrific victory, reversing that climate of expectation. Obviously it is not universal and complete, but something significant has happened.
