Nowadays if you want a blessing, you have to sneeze. There is an irony attached to this blessing offered to those who have tickly noses. In medieval Rome, a respiratory plague first showed itself with a sneezing fit, and shortly afterwards, the victim died. Witnesses immediately prayed for the afflicted, because they would shortly be among the Blessed.
Jesus loved to talk about The Kingdom of Heaven and ironically those who attain the Blessed state (The Beati), are all those you would not expect. The Kingdom of Heaven is not what we expect it to be. God, and only God, knows what it will be like. And ironically, there is a lesson in that.
Thy Kingdom come!
Noel Moynihan C.S.Sp.
