FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“REJOICE AND BE GLAD, FOR YOUR REWARD WILL BE GREAT IN HEAVEN”

MT. 5, 1-12

Today we are celebrating the fourth Sunday of ordinary time, and in this Gospel Jesus gives us a reason for our existence: “The Beatitudes”. The Beatitudes consist of ten (10) simple capsules, that at first sight seem very insignificant, hard to understand and in a certain way, ridiculous because thru them Jesus expresses elements that make no sense to a person who has not encountered Him, because the beatitudes only make sense when there is an encounter with Jesus .

Like a new Moses, Jesus preaches from the top of the mountain the new law of His Kingdom. It is the “Sermon on the Mount” that begins with the Beatitudes, and it is interesting that they all build on the first one: “the poor in spirit”, those who leave everything behind to follow and imitate Christ.

In the Old Testament, voluntary poverty was a sign of humility, since

rity and docility; a fundamental characteristic of the people of Israel, a nation who was to have received in its bosom the Messiah.

The first reading of today’s Mass is from the prophet Zephaniah, who prophesied in the VII (seventh) century before Christ, at time when there were great differences between the rich and poor of Israel. Poverty had notably increased and the prophet denounces this situation and announces the protection of God over the poor and humble.

In today’s gospel we are presented with the Beatitudes. How many times have we heard lots of people, and maybe even ourselves, speak of the importance of “being healthy”? Or the famous saying, that many say as a joke but is very serious, “the most important thing to be happy is to be healthy, have money and love”. Nevertheless, there are many people who are

healthy, with lots of money but terribly unhappy, lonely, who reflect bitterness over the skin, they find no meaning to anything that exists. They are full of material things and look healthy on the outside, but in reality, they are like the typical apple, red and well polished on the outside, but bitter and tasteless inside. On the other hand, there are so many sick people, with incurable diseases, disabled, handicapped, terminally ill, that suffer in their bodies the torments of physical pain caused by their illnesses, people who hardly have anything to survive on, who are unable to get their medication, people who are overwhelmed by loneliness and yet are the most happy, optimistic people you have ever seen, people who have dreams, who are so full of joy that they make others feel healthy, feel sane. A blind person used to say, “ever since being blind, I see things much better now” and this is because many times, even though we can see, we are blind to so many things.

In today’s Gospel, we find God’s vision for mankind. Many times this vision does not match ours and Jesus seems to put everything in an opposite sense to what we are accustomed to seeing and hearing. He calls the ones who are crying, the ones who are being persecuted and insulted: happy, in our human logic this makes no sense, it does not coincide or agree; because humanly speaking, these people are unhappy, they need help. Jesus with these phrases wants to invite us to be confident and gentle in our interior when confronting the hurt and challenges that life gives us continually, to blindly confide in divine justice, justice that is always present in our lives.

Now I ask myself: Is it us, who are the blind ones and twist everything in a negative way, or is it Jesus, the one who does it? Today Jesus wants to open our eyes and show us the real path to happiness.

The “Sermon of the Mount”, is a type of elemental catechism of our Christian lives and starts just with an introduction, which are the Beatitudes. Just as Moses, after gathering the people of God, went up to the mountain, the traditional place for the manifestation of God, Jesus did it the same way. Seated in a teaching attitude, just like Moses, Jesus proclaimed solemnly the Law, in a new formulation that demands a “Justice, superior to the Old Alliance, in order to enter the Kingdom of God. The Will of God manifested in this famous Sermon, is valid for everybody. The Beatitudes are also promises and demands. Promises because it let us see that we are not alone, even in the darkest moments of our lives, that there is always a way out, a way out with justice and equity; and with demands because it requires that each and everyone do something, in order to change and transform ourselves to be better children of His.

Do you dare to be different, if you are, you will be called “blessed” and the ones who are called “blessed” are tried and tested as gold in the kiln?

Amen!

God bless you

Fr. Alex