Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A) [Mt 5:1-12]
29.01.2023
The
Beatitudes
1. Theme in brief
Jesus’ vision of
true and internal happiness
2. Focus Statement
True
and internal joy called “blessedness” does not lie in wealth, pleasure, power
and popularity, but in acquiring the attitudes and living the values of God’s
Kingdom that are outlined by Jesus in his Beatitudes.
3. Explanation of
the text
Today’s gospel is
something like Jesus’ Inaugural Address
after announcing the main theme of his teaching and preaching in last Sunday’s
gospel – “the Kingdom of Heaven (God) has come near” (4:17). In the first part
of his Sermon on the Mount (5:1), traditionally called the Eight Beatitudes,
Jesus outlines the principles that
govern this Kingdom and lays out his vision of life in this Kingdom. His vision
goes absolutely contrary to the mentality and values of the world. If the world thinks the rich
are the most fortunate ones, he says the poor in spirit are fortunate, etc.
Whereas the world applauds and rewards the selfish, powerful, aggressive,
arrogant and corrupt people, Jesus pronounces blessings on the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek,
the hungry and the thirsty for righteousness, the pure in heart and the
persecuted. In each of the
beatitudes he declares those people blessed who are usually regarded by the world as miserable, wretched
and timid.
Jesus uses the words
“blessed are those…” eight times (5:3-10), and “blessed are you…” once (5:11)
in today’s text. Though the word “blessed”
is commonly translated as “happy,” it
transcends the normal connotation of happiness; that is, being delighted, or
being in a good mood, cheerfulness, and having a pleasurable feeling. It is a
state in which one finds oneself being really fortunate
because of the inner joy and peace that comes from being righteous or upright in God’s sight. The blessedness mentioned in this text is about serenity and inner peace and
joy that is independent of what happens to us externally – a joy which cannot
be taken away by sorrow, loss, pain and even death. Whereas worldly joy can come
and go with fortune and success, this joy cannot be lost with the
change of fortune or failure of our plans. That is why this blessedness
can be experienced even under intense persecution.
Jesus says that true and inner joy does not
lie in abundance of wealth, success, pleasure, power, prestige and popularity,
but in living or putting into practice the values of God’s Kingdom.
This sort of internal joy comes from acquiring the following
attitudes and principles and trying to live by them:
1) Acknowledging one’s utter helplessness and putting one’s whole trust not in possessions or material things
but only in God. It means acquiring a spirit of detachment from worldly wealth and becoming conscious of one’s total dependence on God (5:3);
2) Expressing solidarity with the broken-hearted of human society by weeping with those who weep, and by expressing
sorrow for one’s own sins (5:4);
3) Keeping one’s passions and aggressive or violent instincts under control, and cultivating
non-aggressive behaviour or action (5:5);
4) Longing for justice/ righteousness and holiness just as one longs for food when very hungry (5:6);
5) Feeling one with the feelings/ pain/ joy/ troubles/ needs/ problems
of others with a compassionate heart (5:7);
6) Purifying one’s motives and intentions so that they do not become totally selfish, dubious,
ulterior and adulterated (5:8);
7) Promoting and building up peace
and reconciliation among people (5:9);
8) Suffering for justice or righteousness and for Christ’s values; as well as willingness
to undergo persecution for the sake of Christ (5:10).
After listing the eight beatitudes, Jesus changes the words “blessed are those” into “blessed are you” in 5:11. This verse is not traditionally added to the list of beatitudes not only because of the change of words but also because it only explains further the eighth beatitude by applying it directly to the persecution suffered by the early Church for the sake of Christ. Since he himself is going to suffer a death on the cross for his faithfulness to God, he calls his followers to be willing to suffer persecution for their faithfulness to him.
To sum up, what Jesus
says here is: How fortunate are those who live a life of detachment from material possessions and depend
totally on God; those who mourn over evil
in their personal lives as well as in the world; those who are meek in admitting their sins and failures and follow a
non-aggressive path; those who are hungry
for God’s justice and holiness; those who are merciful towards the needy; those who are pure in their intentions and dealings; those are
peace-lovers and peacemakers, not
peace-breakers; those who go through rejection, persecution,
trials and abuse for his sake. According to him, true and internal joy comes
from acquiring the attitudes and following the principles befitting the
citizens of God’s Kingdom.
4. Application to
life
Beatitudes are the right
attitudes one must
have in order to be the disciples of Christ. In today’s gospel, Jesus calls for
an exemplary Christian discipleship lived according to the following norms laid down by him in his eight beatitudes, and promises rewards for such a conduct:
The first norm is to be poor in
spirit. Jesus says that those who possess a spirit of detachment from worldly wealth and always are
conscious of their total dependence on God are truly and internally joyful. This beatitude prompts
us to humble ourselves and accept that we are helpless and hopeless sinners before God. It calls us to acquire an
attitude of total dependence on God and refrain from all sorts of arrogance, self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. All of us, whether materially rich or poor, have to admit that
we are “spiritually poor,” and are totally in need of
God’s gift of salvation. When we do this, our reward is God himself becoming
the only ruler of our hearts; that is, in the technical language
of today’s gospel, the Kingdom of heaven becomes ours (5:3). This beatitude
makes us question who or what is our ultimate security; whether it is God or somebody or something else.
The second norm is to mourn over evil in ourselves and in the world,
or over any disaster such as an accident, loss of valuable life at death, loss of one’s
possessions, name and health due to serious illness. In such situations, our
mourning is not only because of physical or mental pain caused by these misfortunes
but also mainly for our sinfulness that often causes suffering. When we do this, the
reward promised by Jesus is, we will be comforted by God himself who is
our hope and who will definitely save us sooner or later (5:4). This makes us
question whether we mourn for our own sins and the sins of the world; whether
we share our neighbours’ pains and sorrows; and whether we go to comfort the broken-hearted
of
our society.
The third norm is to practice meekness that becomes visible
in one’s gentleness and self-control. Meekness does not mean weakness
of character but refraining from exploitation of the weak and the marginalized.
It implies a non-aggressive and non-violent behaviour. The reward promised
to these people is an inheritance of the earth (5:5). In the OT it
means the Promised Land and in the NT, the bliss of heaven. This norm leads us
to examine whether we regularly try to tame something of the animal lurking
inside each one of us, just waiting to pounce at our opponents; and whether we
constantly try to cultivate a non-aggressive and non-violent behaviour in the
midst of so much violence in our world today.
The fourth norm is to acquire a hunger and thirst, an intense longing,
desire or passion for righteousness, justice and truth. This
beatitude makes us question whether we are found right or just before God and do
justice for others. It calls us to acquire a greater sensitivity to injustice and unrighteousness
in the world. The reward promised here is God himself who will to satisfy our
spiritual hunger by doing justice to us (5:6).
The fifth norm is to show mercy
to the suffering and the needy as well as the sinners. We are called to be merciful to
others because we have received mercy from the Lord in all our needs,
insufficiencies and inadequacies, and also have received forgiveness from him umpteen times. The reward promised here
is a gift of mercy from the Lord for being merciful towards others (5:7). This
beatitude makes us question whether we are doing any work of mercy for the
needy and the suffering; and whether we show mercy towards those who sin
against us or against others.
The sixth norm is to be pure
in heart. Jesus tells
us to constantly purity our thoughts and intentions so that they are not contaminated by evil or impure motives. This calls upon us to constantly strive to purify our minds from all worldly impurities, sinful desires and dubious or ulterior motives. The reward promised here is the ability
to “see God” (5:8) here on earth with the eyes of faith and hereafter in
heaven.
The seventh norm is to be peacemakers. Those who work to bring about reconciliation of broken relationship with God and with one
another in human society are called blessed because such people actively
promote one of the important aspects of God’s Kingdom. They try to build
bridges of understanding, remove hatred, reconcile people in conflict with one another, bring together adversaries and try to seal divisions. The reward promised to these disciples is such a unique and close relationship with God because of which they will be called the
children of God or belonging to the family of God (5:9).
The eighth norm is about a disciple’s willingness to persecution for righteousness’ sake (5:10). As in the days of
early Church, even today those who live by the norms of these beatitudes, that
is, those who stand for justice, those who work for peace, those who are meek,
etc, will face criticism, opposition, intimidation, attacks and even martyrdom,
This continues to happen in one or other parts of the Church even today in a
bigger scale, and happens within our own families and communities in a smaller
scale.
A thought may come up in our minds: Who can attain so high ideals outlined by Jesus in these beatitudes? We think
only saints can practice them. Since we find these ideals too hard to practice we
do not even give it a try. In spite of that, all of us are called to aim at the
path of the beatitudes. Whenever we put any of these values into practice even
in a small way, we should be happy that we too are following the path of
blessedness or holiness. But since as humans we often fail to live up to these high ideals, we should always
regret for not having done our best to
advance in holiness. These high ideals give us the
satisfaction of having done something whenever we put them into practice, but
not having done our best. Surely, the
rewards assured by the Lord spur us on.
Sadly enough, today, we have so many short-cut methods or ways contrary to these norms to attain momentary happiness and temporary relief such as habitual or addictive use of drugs, alcohol, sex, T.V., cell phones, internet, etc. Sooner or later we come to the realization that lasting and internal happiness cannot be attained by these. When we trust only in wealth, or do not admit our mistakes or sinfulness, do not comfort those who weep and suffer, compromise with worldly standards, become peace-breakers instead of peacemakers, we can never experience internal joy and fulfilment. If we are not really happy, we have to ask ourselves why we are not. Do our principles and methods to attain happiness coincide with Christ’s? They are inner dispositions of disciples that should influence their outward behaviour. The attitudinal change required by these beatitudes has to take place first of all in our relationship with God which in turn will influence our relationship with fellow human beings.
5. Response to God's Word
As Christ’s disciples,
do we place our full security in God? Do we
mourn over the miseries and sins of the world and share our neighbours’ pains?
Are we humble enough to admit our sins and mistakes? Are we compassionate
towards the needs of the deprived and the marginalized? Do we work to build
bridges and bring reconciliation between warring and divided groups or persons?
Do we stand for Christ’s values even when there is criticism, opposition,
ridicule and persecution?
6. A prayer
O holy God, send on us
your Holy Spirit to give us the courage and strength to practice the values outlined
in the Beatitudes and experience internal joy and peace. Amen.
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