Dear Friends,              As we begin this new year I think of the blessings Jesus introduced in his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit. . . Blessed are those who mourn . . . Blessed are the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemaker, those persecuted for the sake of righteousness. . . .” Pope Francis has called the Beatitudes a Christian’s identity card. And in this time, our time, it is important to realize the immensely counter-cultural import of these qualities in the context of the Roman Empire: a world that honored–that literally deified--might, force, wealth, and ruthlessness, that disdained the weak and powerless, that glorified violence and found cruelty entertaining. In such a world the values blessed...