Sunday, January 30, 2011

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

MATTHEW 5:1-12
IF YOU COME TO CHURCH REGULARLY, YOU HAVE HEARD THE GOSPEL ABOUT THE BEATITUDES BEFORE. IT IS ALSO THE GOSPEL FOR ALL SAINTS DAY. THE BEATITUDES APPEAR IN A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FORM IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE. WHEN I HEAR THE BEATITUDES, I ALWAYS FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE. SURE, I WANT TO BE BLESSED, OR BLEST, OR HAPPY, DIFFERENT WORDS THAT YOU WILL RUN ACROSS IN DIFFERENT TRANSLATIONS. BUT THOSE CONDITIONS! FIRST, I DON'T REALLY WANT TO MOURN, OR BE PERSECUTED, OR BE POOR, IN SPIRIT OR IN REALITY. I'M NOT PARTICULARLY MEEK, SO IT LOOKS AS THOUGH I WON'T INHERIT THE EARTH ANY TIME SOON. I LIKE RIGHTEOUSNESS, BUT I DON'T HUNGER AND THIRST FOR IT; AND I COULD GO ON.
SO WHAT IS JESUS TALKING ABOUT? ODDLY ENOUGH, DOWN THROUGH THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY, MANY GREAT THEOLOGIANS AND PREACHERS HAVE ATTEMPTED TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION, AND TWO THOUSAND YEARS HAVE NOT RESULTED IN AGREEMENT.
FOR EXAMPLE: THE BEATITUDES INSPIRED MANY OF THOSE WHO FOUNDED MONASTIC MOVEMENTS, OR BECAME MEMBERS OF RELIGIOUS ORDERS LIKE THE FRANCISCANS. BUT WHILE YOU CAN PRACTICE SOME OF THE BEATITUDES, SOME SEEM ACCIDENTAL – MOURNING, FOR EXAMPLE, REQUIRES SOMETHING TO MOURN ABOUT. AND IF YOU TRY TO CREATE SOMETHING TO MOURN ABOUT, IT SOUNDS LIKE THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU. THE SAME IS TRUE OF PERSECUTION. IF WE GO LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO PERSECUTE US, THAT SEEMS A LITTLE MASOCHISTIC. SO IF WE TAKE THEM ABSOLUTELY LITERALLY, AS IF THEY PRESCRIBE A WAY OF LIFE, THAT DOESN'T WORK.
THE OPPOSITE EXTREME, TAUGHT BY SOME OTHER CHRISTIAN THINKERS, IS THAT THESE ARE ALL SPIRITUAL. LUKE QUOTED JESUS AS SAYING, “BLESSED ARE THE POOR.” BUT MATTHEW CAME ALONG AND SAID, “BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT. MAYBE HE WAS GIVING US A HINT. IT'S A LOT EASIER TO BE POOR IN SPIRIT AND KEEP MY SUV AND FLAT PANEL TV THAN IT IS TO BE REALLY POOR AND WONDER WHERE MY NEXT MEAL IS COMING FROM. AND IF I SPIRITUALIZE EVERYTHING, THAT WORKS WELL. I CAN BE ARROGANT AND DOMINEERING ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT MEEK IN MY HEART; I CAN LAUGH AND PARTY A LOT, BUT IN MY HEART I CAN MOURN THAT THERE IS SIN IN THE WORLD. SEE HOW IT WORKS? WHEN SOME POLITICAL LEADER PROMISES TO MAKE ABORTION EVEN MORE AVAILABLE AND TELLS THE WORLD THAT THOSE WHO OPPOSE ABORTION ARE TRYING TO FORCE EVERYONE TO ACCEPT THEIR PRIVATE CONVICTIONS, WELL, I CAN FEEL PERSECUTED BECAUSE I AM AGAINST ABORTION, AT LEAST ENOUGH SO THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE ONE MYSELF.
KARL BARTH, A PROTESTANT THEOLOGIAN WHO POPE BENEDICT CALLED THE GREATEST THEOLOGIAN OF THE 20TH CENTURY, SAID THAT JESUS HIMSELF FULFILLS THE BEATITUDES, SO THAT WE DON'T HAVE TO. AND CERTAINLY EACH BEATITUDE IS FULFILLED PERFECTLY BY JESUS; HE IS POOR, HUNGERS AND THIRSTS FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS; HE IS MEEK; HE MOURNS ESPECIALLY ABOUT THOSE WHO REJECT WHAT HE OFFERS; AND OF COURSE HE IS PERSECUTED. BUT WHILE YOU CAN'T ARGUE WITH THAT LOGIC, JESUS IS CLEARLY TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE, NOT A PERSON.
SO WHEN YOU CAN'T FIGURE SOMETHING OUT IT'S TIME TO THINK ABOUT HOW THINGS ACTUALLY WERE IN JESUS' DAY; WHAT WAS THE WORLD LIKE IN THEN?
DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN JESUS TOLD HIS DISCIPLES THAT IT WAS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO SQUEEZE THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE THAN IT WAS FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN? WHAT DID THE DISCIPLES SAY? SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT THAT IF A RICH MAN CAN'T DO IT, HOW CAN ANYONE EXPECT THEM TO DO IT? AFTER ALL, A RICH MAN HAD THE LEISURE TO FOLLOW THE LAW PERFECTLY; HE HAD THE MONEY TO OFFER SACRIFICES; HE HAD THE TIME TO STUDY SCRIPTURE; AND IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT GOD HAD BLESSED HIM, BECAUSE HE WAS RICH! AND THE APOSTLES DEMONSTRATED THIS MIND SET ANOTHER TIME, WHEN THEY ASKED JESUS WHETHER A BLIND MAN WAS BLIND BECAUSE OF HIS OWN SIN, OR THE SIN OF HIS PARENTS? IT WAS CLEAR THAT THE BEING BLIND FROM BIRTH WAS A SIGN THAT GOD DIDN'T LIKE YOU, AND GOD DIDN'T LIKE PEOPLE WHO SINNED, SO LOGICALLY, SOMEONE BLIND WAS AFFECTED BY SIN.
AND IF YOU LOST A LOVED ONE AND WERE MOURNING, OR IF YOU WERE TOO SHY TO STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU DESERVED, OR IF YOU WERE POOR, OR PERSECUTED, WELL, THOSE WERE ALL SIGNS THAT SIN HAD AFFECTED YOUR LIFE.
SO CAN YOU IMAGINE THE EFFECT OF JESUS' WORDS ON PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT LIKE THIS? WHY, IT CHALLENGED EVERYTHING THEY KNEW. AND IN A SOCIETY WHERE THERE WAS ALWAYS CONFLICT BETWEEN JEWS AND ROMANS, PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES, JEWS AND SAMARITANS, AND WHERE EVERYONE ASSUMED THAT WAS THE WAY IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE, JESUS BLESSED PEACEMAKERS, EVEN THOUGH THEY NEVER SEEMED TO SUCCEED. AND WHERE EVERYONE WAS OUT TO GET WHAT WAS COMING TO THEM, EVEN IF IT MEANT CHEATING A BIT, JESUS BLESSED THE RIGHTEOUS, THOSE WHO WANTED JUSTICE, EVEN WHEN IT MADE REGULAR PEOPLE FEEL GUILTY AND SOMETIMES ANGRY. AND IF GOD IS BLESSING ALL OF THESE PEOPLE, NOT IN THE FUTURE, BUT RIGHT NOW – IT MUST HAVE SLOWLY DAWNED ON JESUS' HEARERS THAT GOD WANTS TO BLESS, INDEED DOES BLESS, EVERYONE. HE DESIRES TO BLESS EVERYONE; HIS JOY IS TO GIVE US WHAT WE NEED TO BE HAPPY.
AND NOW THE BEATITUDES START TO MAKE SENSE. FIRST, JESUS IS SAYING, LOOK AROUND YOU. DO YOU SEE PEOPLE WHO LOOK GOD-FORSAKEN? PEOPLE LIVING IN SIN, PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY, STUMBLING ALCOHOLICS, DOPE ADDICTS? DO YOU SEE THAT WOMAN FURTIVELY ENTERING THE ABORTION CLINIC FOR THE FOURTH OR FIFTH TIME? DO YOU SEE THAT OLD MAN WITH ALZHEIMER,S DISEASE, THAT WOMAN WHOSE MENTAL ILLNESS WAXES AND WANES? GOD IS BLESSING ALL OF THEM, HE IS SHOWERING THEM WITH HIS GRACE, HE IS CALLING THEM TO HIMSELF, HE IS LOVING THEM. AND IF HE IS DOING THIS, HE IS BLESSING YOU, AND THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU. AND HE IS MADLY IN LOVE WITH THE PEOPLE HE CREATED, THE PEOPLE HE DIED FOR, THE PEOPLE IN WHOM HE MAKES HIS DWELLING. SAINT PAUL SUMMED IT UP: “NEITHER HEIGHT NOR DEPTH, NOR ANYTHING ELSE IN ALL CREATION, WILL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD.”
AND THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS, THE GOSPEL. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A HAPPY BABY? I'VE SEEN QUITE A FEW. BABIES ARE HAPPY BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED. THEY CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE THAT ANYTHING THEY DO COULD CHANGE THAT FACT, AND KNOWING THAT ONE ELEMENTARY BIT OF INFORMATION, THEY FEEL FREE TO EXPLORE, TO LEARN TO WALK, TO ACQUIRE LANGUAGE, TO GROW INTO BEING THEMSELVES, TO BECOME PERSONS. AND IF I TRULY BELIEVE THAT GOD UNCONDITIONALLY LOVES ME, I CAN DO AMAZING THINGS, AND I CAN BE BLESSED, I CAN BE HAPPY.
ISN'T THIS WONDERFUL NEWS? DON'T YOU WISH EVERYONE KNEW THAT GOD LOVES THEM PASSIONATELY, THAT HE IS RIGHT NOW BLESSING THEM, THAT EVEN WHEN THEY FEEL THAT THEY ARE ABANDONED AND MISERABLE, HE IS THERE, HE IS ALWAYS THERE. AND JESUS TELLS US THAT EVEN IF WE DIE, GOD'S BLESSING IS STILL WITH US, AND IF WE ACCEPT HIS BLESSING, WE WILL LIVE FOREVER IN THE HOUSE OF OUR FATHER. GO OUT AND SHARE THIS GOOD NEWS, AND AS YOU DO, YOU WILL FIND IT BECOMING MORE AND MORE REAL FOR YOU.