By Fr. Eugene Lobo SJ –
Fourth Sunday of the Year January 29, 2023
Readings: Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12
The readings of today tell us how we can pattern our lives according to the divine invitation. They call us to reflect upon the many ways in which we can respond to God and give him our total attention. God communicates with us in many ways and he seeks a response from us. The whole church always strives to follow faithfully in the footsteps of Christ. The Gospel of today directs us to a method in which we can respond to him. We have the Sermon on the Mount as presented by Matthew, which is the Christian ethical teaching and the core of the Christian way of life. Jesus gives us the Beatitudes in his sermon delivered from a Mountain and the Mountain in the Bible indicates a holy place where God is present. Here Jesus presents us with real opposing values, those of Jesus and the world. He teaches us that we can create happiness and the capacity for joy by ourselves and radiate them to others, to receive the Kingdom of Heaven.
Today’s First Reading from the Book of Zephaniah suggests that if the humble seek to obey the commands of the Lord, seeking righteousness and humility, then on the Day of Judgment, they will be hidden from the wrath of the Lord. Because of their simplicity, their humility, their righteousness, the Lord God will go easy on them, and overlook their faults. It is because the humble of the world maintain a personal daily relationship with the Lord, abandoning them to His Divine Will. This opposes the rich and proud who do not have time for their Creator. Zephaniah urges kings and people to value justice and humility. Both ideals are grounded in total service to God. If God’s standards take precedence over earthly concerns, the sort of conditions will prevail that value all citizens of the kingdom as God’s children. Humility before God is essential to realize the gracious gifts from God.
In today’s Second Reading Paul tells us that God’s choice is unique and he chooses those whom the world considers weak. Obviously, some Corinthians thought that they were elite and superior to others. Paul puts them in their place by emphasizing that most who came to believe in Christ were the nobodies. He tells them that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. He chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in His presence. By this Divine choice, God destroys the pride of those who consider themselves as something special. Paul reminds the faithful that among the educated in Corinth, those of authority, the powerful and those of the noble class, only a few had been called to the faith.
In the Gospel of today Jesus presents the disciples with his discourse, the Sermon on the Mount and begins with a series of nine Beatitudes. Here Matthew’s presents Jesus as the new Moses proclaiming the divine message to people. The Sermon on Mount is in fact the first of the five discourses of Jesus as given in Matthew’s Gospel. This Sermon is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus focusing on the personal qualities expected of a disciple. In a religious context beatitude is a statement in the indicative mood beginning with a form of the adjective Blessed, declaring certain people to be in a privileged, fortunate circumstance. The Beatitudes have a quality and depth which goes far beyond the mere moral requirements of the Ten Commandments. They call for a very special relationship with God and with the people around us. They involve not merely a personal observance of some ethical rules but a deep concern to be involved in the building up of the world we live in, helping to make it a place of truth, love, compassion, justice, freedom and peace.
Beatitudes are much older than the gospel and can be found in the wisdom literature of the Bible in the O.T. Jesus uses Beatitudes to instill hope in people whose lives have given them little to hope for. This hope can be found in the very structure of each of the Beatitudes. The first part of the Beatitude describes a serious condition of diminishment ranging from poverty to persecution. No doubt these conditions were real and people suffered greatly in each situation. The good news is found in the second part of the Beatitude. This second part proclaims a future situation that will be reversal of the present. However, one can ask what that situation is which brings about a change. The fullness of the Kingdom of heaven will bring with it the reversal of the current state of diminishment and powerlessness. The radical change has already begun with the preaching and ministry of Jesus. Current reality is not the only reality, nor is it the fullness of reality.
The beatitudes of Jesus are the prophetic pronouncements aimed at those who are presently in dire circumstances but who will be vindicated at the final coming of God’s Kingdom. All of the beatitudes express a conviction that those who believe in and are committed to the coming and already present Kingdom of God and will experience a radical transformation that can only be captured by the word blessed. Each of the Beatitude starts with the word ‘blessed’ which is sometimes translated ‘happy’. However, it is more accurate to translate it as ‘fortunate’ meaning, persons who belong to the ‘kingdom of heaven’. These describe a situation that exists when we live according to those values, namely of truth and love, of compassion and justice, of peace, freedom and sharing, qualities which emanate from God himself. Jesus says that blessed are those who are poor in spirit that is those who are aware of their basic poverty and are in need of help and support of God. The poor in the Bible are not just the materially destitute but all those who in their need turn to God. Poor in spirit are those who clearly acknowledge that they depend totally on God. The word meek is found only in Matthew and then just three times. It is normally translated as “gentle and kindly”. It is the very opposite of arrogance, bullying and violent manipulation.
Those who hunger and thirst for what is right and work for it will have a life of dignity and self-respect. Those who are merciful will have compassion and forgiveness all around them. Special praise is given to those pure in heart and they will be able to see God in the sense that they will know God. In their knowledge of God, they will enjoy a filial relationship with God. The peace makers are blessed as they are the ones who will be called the children of God. Finally those who are persecuted in the cause of right are blessed and will rejoice because reward is great in heaven. Here, the Gospel speaks of two kinds of persecution, namely being persecuted for what is right and secondly for spreading and defending the Word of God in fidelity to Jesus and his Church.
We must remember that just as the Ten Commandments are the core of the Jewish way of life and a law to follow, so Beatitudes are the core of the Christian way of life. Yet, they are often not understood as such. In many ways, they are largely ignored as guides to Christian living and many Christians still regard the Ten Commandments as their life guide. They are the norms to be observed even without any inner feelings. The Beatitudes are not commandments and they are not so much things to be done or rules to be kept as deep-down attitudes of mind. Their observance is only possible with a deep love of God and of other people. They can never be kept fully as they are goals that are always calling us further.
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. ‘How much is an ice cream sundae?’ he asked. ‘Fifty cents,’ replied the waitress. The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. ‘Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?’ he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. ‘Thirty-five cents,’ she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. ‘I’ll have the plain ice cream,’ he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn’t have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.
Several years ago, a priest was transferred to a distant village church in his diocese. Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his church to the nearest town. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he told himself, ‘You’d better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.’ Then he thought, ‘Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? it as a ‘gift from God’ and keep quiet.’ When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, ‘Here, you gave me too much change. ‘The driver, with a smile, replied, ‘you are the new priest in the village, right?’ ‘Yes’ he replied. ‘Well, I have lately been thinking a lot about going somewhere to pray. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you extra change. You’ll see me at church on Sunday.’ When the priest stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, ‘Oh God, I almost sold you for a quarter!’