Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

To be a peacemaker, eirenopoios, is to make peace, to be harmonious. This is not so that we can make others peaceful but that we might be peaceful ourselves. If we are peaceful we are free from disturbance, we have inner stillness, we are calm. This is not easily achieved in this modern world which can make us jittery in an instant. Read my earlier blog about peace http://bibleunlocked.blogspot.com/search/label/peace
The operative word here is ‘make’. Perhaps the world is as it is today to assist us in our peacemaking. What would be the purpose of being naturally peaceful? To be naturally peaceful suggests a certain weakness or impotence. To strive to be peaceful speaks of strength.
Each time we become anxious or irritable we could imagine our being expanding, embracing all that is around us if we can make ourselves peaceful. Anxiety has a contracting quality and irritability is totally self-focussing. Of course, there is a process involved here and we can start with the small things that irritate us or make us anxious. We will each have our own way of doing this. If we extend our view to encompass the other person or situation, placing the situation within our being instead of seeing it outside us and separate, we will feel more at home with it.
To be blessed is to be expansive and embracing of all our experiences. When we are able to make peace with our inner conflicts then we will be called sons of God.
To be a son of God would be to have God’s genes in us so to speak. We would be like him. We might wonder why we aren’t already sons of God if he is our maker. Here lies the difficulty, however. If we are made by God we are not free. Human beings were given freedom in the Garden of Eden and this is why we need guidance, like these beatitudes, to reach the highest human potential. When we have done this work through our own efforts we earn the title son of God and with it we receive our inheritance.