Hungering And Thirsting For Righteousness

Beati qui esurient et sitiunt justitiam, quoniam ipsi saturabuntur. Non facili desiderio, nec levi cupiditatis ardore expetendam a nobis esse justitiam docuit. Siquid hos beatos esse significat, qui ad eam consequendam, esuriendi ac sitiendi modo, interni desiderii cupiditatibus inardescunt: quia si eam unusquisque nostrum esuriens ac sitiens desiderio concupiscat, non potest aliud semper, quam justitiam cogitare, justitiam quaerere: quia esuriens ac sitiens, necesse est, id quod sitit atque esurit, concupiscat. Merito igitur his taliter esurientibus ac sitientibus eum, qui panis coelestis ac fons aquae vivae est, satietatem refectionis illius perpetuae repromittit, dicendo: 'Beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam, quoniam ipsi saturabuntur. Illam utique justitiam fidei, quae Dei et Christi est, de qua et Apostolus retulit: 'Justitia autem Dei per fidem Jesu Christi, in omnes et super omnses qui credunt in eum. Vel certe ipsum Dominum ac Salvatorem nostrum, qui nobis secundum Apostolum: 'Et justitia, et sanctificatio, et redemptio factus est; cujus desiderio, velut cibi ac potus modo, beati semper exaestuant, secundum quod ipse Dominus per Salomonem testatur, dicens ex persona Sapientiae: 'Qui me manducant, adhuc esurient: et qui me bibunt, adhuc sitient. Hanc ergo justitiam etiam nos semper esurire ac sitire debemus, ut saturari cibo refectionis perpetuae mereamur. Bene autem cum additamento dictum est in loco praesenti: 'Beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam, quoniam ipsi saturabuntur: quia qui non justitiam, sed injustitiam esuriunt, scilicet qui aurum, et argentum desiderant, qui divitias vel honores saeculi concupiscunt, et qui numquam terrenis opibus vel carnis desideriis satiantur; ii tales, non beati sed infelices sunt; quia eis, non spes promissae gloriae, sed damnationis poena debetur.  Sanctus Chromatius Aquileiensis, Tactatus III in Evangelium Sancti Matthaei

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 1 Not with an easy desire, not on account of some light wish does He teach that we should seek righteousness. He marks them blessed who would come to it hungering and thirsting, burning with longing of eternal desire, because if anyone is hungering and thirsting with desire for it, it is not possible that he would think of something else but righteousness, than to seek righteousness, because, hungering and thirsting as he is, it is necessary that he eat and drink it. By this merit, therefore, that they hunger and thirst for that which is the bread of heaven and fount of living waters, he promises the satisfaction of His perpetual rest, saying, 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,' That righteousness, then, which is of faith, which is of God and of Christ, concerning which the Apostle said, ' The righteousness of God through Jesus Christ for all and over all who believe in him.' 2 Certainly the same Lord and our Saviour who is to us according to the Apostle: 'Righteousness and sanctification and redemption' 3 with desire of which, as for food and drink, the blessed ever burn, according to which the Lord through Solomon testifies, saying in the person of Wisdom: 'He who eats me, yet he will hunger, and he who drinks me, yet he will thirst.' 4 For this righteousness, then, we should always hunger and thirst that we be worthy to be filled with the bread of perpetual peace. For well with addition is said in the present place: 'Blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled, because those who hunger not for righteousness but unrighteousness, such as those who desire gold and silver, those who long for the riches or the honours of the age, and who will never be filed with the wealth of the earth or the desires of the flesh, such folk are not blessed but wretched, because for them is no hope of promised glory, but the punishment of the damned. Saint Chromatius of Aquileia, from Tractate 3 On The Gospel of Saint Matthew  1. Mt 5.6  2 Rom 3.22  3 1 Cor 1.30  4 Sir 24.29