“Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.”
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man — the fourth beatitude is specifically about persecution: the hatred, exclusion, insult, and rejection that come because of the Son of Man. The because of the Son of Man identifies the reason for the persecution — not general social difficulty but specifically the cost of identification with Jesus.
Church Fathers on Luke 6:22
After the ordination of the Apostles, the Savior directed His disciples to the newness of the evangelical life.
But being about to utter His divine oracles, He begins to rise higher; although He stood in a low place, yet as it is said, He lifted up his eyes. What is lifting up the eyes, but to disclose a more hidden light?
And although He speaks in a general way to all, yet more especially He lifts up His eyes on His disciples; for it follows, on his disciples, that to those who receive the word listening attentively with the heart, He might reveal more fully the light of its deep meaning.
Read all 23 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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