4th
Ordinary Sunday (Year A)
First
Reading: Zephaniah2:3, 3:12-13 Second
Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Gospel
Reading: Matthew 5:1-12a
“HAPPY
ARE THOSE WHO TRUST IN THE LORD!”
Once
a philosopher was walking along a sea-shore reflecting, and trying to
find out an answer to the question - “How to achieve happiness?”
Then suddenly, he noticed just little distance ahead, a poor
fisherman lying on a mat and resting under a tree, outside his hut.
“You shouldn’t be wasting your time like that.” he told
the poor fisherman. “What should I do then?” asked the
fisherman. “You should get into your boat instead, and be out in
the sea, fishing; That way you will get more fish and selling them
and you will have more money,” he
told him. “What should I do then?” again asked the
fisherman. He told him, “If you keep doing so, one day you will
have enough money to buy a bigger boat and you will be able to go
into the deeper and farther part of the sea and catch bigger fishes,
and selling them you will make still more money.” “What should I
do after then?” asked again the fisherman. He answered him,
“Then you should buy more boats, hire men to help you and make
fishing a big business. This will make you plenty of money.” “What
should I do then?” asked the fisherman again. The philosopher
then said, “Now that you have plenty of money, you should go and
buy a big mansion, marry a beautiful woman, have children and enjoy
your life.” “What should I do then?” the fisherman further
inquired. Immediately, the philosopher said, “Oh! Then you go,
lie down, relax, and be happy.” At this the fisherman smiled
and said to the philosopher, “ And what do you think that I am
doing now!”
Everyone
wants to be happy. God too wants all human beings to be happy. So,
the question is not in happiness, but rather - how to achieve
happiness.
Today
is the 4th
Sunday in Ordinary Time. All the Scripture Readings of today speak
about how to achieve true and lasting happiness which comes from God,
and which is different from the way world sees it. In the
First Reading, the Prophet Zephaniah says that those who seek God
with lowliness and humility, on the day of judgment they will escape
the wrath of the Lord. If they serve God and obey His commands, they
will find the peace and happiness they desire. Today's
Gospel Reading is Matthew's version of 'the
Beatitudes.' In them Jesus gives his
prescription for true and lasting happiness. In the Second
Reading, St. Paul implores the Corinthians to consider their calling
and shows them the true contrast between the values of Jesus and the
values of the world. He reminds them that they owe everything good in
their lives to God; therefore, if any one boasts, should boast in the
Lord.
SEEK
THE LORD WITH HUMILITY AND LOWLINESS:
In
Today’s First Reading from the Book of Zephaniah, the Prophet says
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
spared from the wrath of the Lord. He then speaks about God leaving a
remnant of Israel, a people humble and lowly, who take refuge in the
name of the Lord and who observe his law - neither doing wrong nor
speaking lies. They are the happy
people, whom God greatly loves. In the final verses the prophet
presents with the image of the sheep grazing peacefully in a pasture.
It is in faith in God and in serving Him in humility that true
happiness and peace is found.
THE
BEATITUDES:
In
today's Gospel Reading we have St. Matthew's version of 'The
Beatitudes,'
which open Jesus' 'Sermon
on the Mount.' St.
Matthew thought of it as a sort of 'New
Law,' a new
disclosure of God's overall will for human beings, comparable to what
happened at Sinai in the Old Testament, and with Jesus cast in the
role of a new Moses.
He gives
five
long discourses by Jesus, which can be seen to match the Pentateuch,
the five first books of the Bible, traditionally attributed to Moses
as their author and which embody the Jewish Law. Just as the
Pentateuch embodies the Jewish way of life, so these discourses
embody Jesus' vision of the life he proposes for his disciples.
'The
Beatitudes' is
in fact the first
of the five discourses of Jesus' to his disciples and forms a preface
of the Sermon on Mount. It is not a verbatim record of an actual
sermon or address. Rather, it is a collection of sayings and
teachings focusing on the personal qualities expected of a disciple
of Jesus. It is given on a mountain, just as God gave the Law to
Moses on Mount Sinai . Mountains are traditionally seen as holy
places where God is specially present and there are several instances
in both the Hebrew and Christian Testaments where mountains feature
in a significant way.
The
Beatitudes have been called “the
Compendium of Christ’s Doctrine;' 'the Magna Carta of the Kingdom,'
'the Manifesto of the King.' They actually form the
essence of the teaching of Jesus and are necessary to be his
follower. Most likely, the Beatitudes must have been more than one
sermon, as they are far too much for one hearing. They are difficult
to digest in one go, as each beatitude will actually take a full
sermon to explain it. It is Matthew’s artistic creation, who put
them as representative summary, giving them a beautiful systematic
pattern.
The
Gospel says that particularly blessed are: Those who are poor in
spirit; those who mourn; those who are meek; those
who hunger and thirst for what is right; those who are
merciful; those who are clean of heart; those who are
peace-makers; and those who are persecuted in the
cause of right. This is the
vision Jesus wanted to proclaim to his disciples as he began his
public ministry. It is, as if he places on them the code of conduct
as they begin their lives as his own disciples. If they have the
courage to follow him they will remain blessed both now and in the
age to come. Again,
one may be tempted to say there are eight different persons
corresponding to each of the beatitudes; but it is not so. Actually,
there is only one way of the Beatitudes and all these qualities would
be found in one and the same person in varying degrees. They all are
important to be a
believer in God and a follower of Christ.
The
Beatitudes must be understood in the context of the Kingdom. The
beatitudes are the prophetic pronouncements of Jesus aimed at those
who are presently in dire circumstances but who will be vindicated at
the final coming of God’s Kingdom. Therefore, believers are not to
expect instant gratification as the immediate result of faith. They
are to be committed followers of Jesus who can fully grasp the
present circumstance with an eschatological conviction of the future
fulfillment of the Kingdom. The Beatitudes give the hope that the
kingdom of God will come and is already in the hearts of people.
Just as the
Ten Commandments are the core of the Jewish way of life and a law to
follow, so the Beatitudes are the core of the Christian way of life.
However, there are major differences between the Commandments and the
Beatitudes. Strictly speaking, the Beatitudes are not commandments.
The Beatitudes are expressed in positive
terms. They also express not just actions but attitudes. In a way,
they can never be fully observed. No matter how well I try to observe
them, I can always go further. They leave no room for smugness, the
kind of smugness the Pharisees had in keeping the Law. Moreover, 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. So, the
Beatitudes show us the way to sanctity too. They are not so much
things to be done or rules to be kept as deep-down attitudes of mind.
And, in fact, their observance is only possible with a deep love of
God and of other people. 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. This is what
the Kingdom is all about. It is a completely different ball game.
The
Beatitudes predict that if we are to discover deep
happiness at all it
has to be via a list of fairly obviously unpleasant life-situations:
in poverty, tears, hunger, and even being hunted down by agents of
the State. It sounds rather implausible, doesn't it? Right at the
beginning of his teaching, Jesus throws down a challenge to
conventional thinking. With the Beatitudes, he turns the world
upside-down. Each Beatitude begins with the word 'Blessed.'
It is a translation of the Greek word 'makarios'
and the Latin word 'felix.'
The meaning of these words is a combination of happiness
and good fortune.
So we could translate either with 'Happy
are those...'
or 'Fortunate
are those...'
Yet, who are those whom Jesus calls thus? The poor, the mourners, the
meek or lowly, those deprived of justice, those persecuted and
abused. In the eyes of the world, such people can hardly be described
as happy or blessed. In fact, they are the world's embarrassment. It
is not the rich, nor the strong, nor the powerful, nor the well-fed,
nor the good-life chasers, but those who place their total trust in
God are the truly happy or blessed ones. The Beatitudes tell us then
that we are not losers but winners because God is on our side. We are
blessed even as we suffer because we believe that we will be
vindicated, partly here and now, and fully when Christ resolves all
things in the end-time. This compensates for any misfortune that may
befall us - persecution, contempt, sorrow, poverty or injustice - in
living the values of the Kingdom of truth, justice, love and peace.
“WHOEVER
BOASTS, SHOULD BOAST IN THE LORD.” :
In
today’s Second Reading from his 1st
Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul asks the Corinthians to consider
their calling. Obviously, some Corinthians thought that they were
elite and superior to others. So, he 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 is clear
that we don't have anything at all to boast about, at least not
before God. God's love, his goodness, is without limits and is worthy
of all praise. He is worth every boast. He gave His only Son our Lord
Jesus Christ to us and he has become our
wisdom, our
righteousness, our
sanctification and our
redemption. By his own
free gift God has become ours.
So, St. Paul says, “Whoever
boasts, should boast in the Lord.”
CONCLUSION:
The
message of today´s Scripture Readings, particularly the Beatitudes,
is that God's ways are different than the world's ways. The world has
its own understanding about and criteria for achieving happiness; but
unfortunately none of them are true and lasting. But the true winners
are those who submit to God's rule in their lives, and those people
are not necessarily the ones racking up the most points on society's
scorecards. But to understand this, everything comes down to a
question of faith. Do we believe in eternal life? Do we believe in an
eternal reward in heaven? The supreme happiness that Christ promises
is true and lasting. He will give a joy that no one can take away to
the ones who, like him, are willing to embrace the values of the
Kingdom: purity, love, justice, peace…
Let
us then today pray that as a believer in God and a follower of
Christ, we may proclaim the beatitudes with clarity and live them
with fidelity, so that we truly become the children of God and
inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. “Happy
is the man who trusts in the Lord!”
And this is the Good news of today.
******************************
No comments:
Post a Comment