FOURTH SUNDAY IN OT A 2023
Today’s Gospel are taken from
the beginning of the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount – the oldest teaching of
Jesus. The Gospel Beatitudes are to
shape our lives as the disciples of Jesus.
Further, they are to shape our life as a parish community.
The Gospel Beatitudes are to
be the rule of our life.
Jesus himself is the
prime example of the Beatitudes in practice.
The blessings of the Beatitudes is how Jesus lived His life.
The Beatitudes constitute a whole. They are eight aspects of Christian
discipleship, the Jesus way of being human. There is a movement between the eight
so that the full picture of the ideal human being unfolds gradually, one
beatitude leading spontaneously to another, until we grasp the entire teaching
in its complex harmony.
The first Beatitude: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is
the Kingdom of heaven. As we poor in spirit, our lives are not
exclusively focused on the dying and the rising of the Dow Jones. Our lives are to be focused on the dying and
the rising of Jesus. There are many who
build bigger barns for their surpluses, ignoring the Christian advice of St.
Ambrose, who in the fifth century said that the place to store our surplus is
in the mouths of the poor.
Jesus says we are to be poor
in spirit. That is, we are to
acknowledge our radical dependence on God and place our trust in him.
There is a story of a woman
of AIDS. She asked to be anointed by a
priest.
“I am lost,” she told the
priest. There is no hope for me. Even God has given up on me.”
The priest saw a framed
picture of a pretty girl on the dresser.
“Who is this?” he asked. The woman brightened: “She is my daughter,
the one beautiful thing in my life.”
“And would you help her if
she was in trouble, or made a mistake?
Would you forgive her? Would you
still love her?”
“Of course, I would!” cried the woman, “I would do anything for
her!”
“Why do you ask such a
question? Because I want you to know,”
said the priest, “that God has a picture of you on His dresser.” He has that same love for you and more so
than you have for your daughter.
Conversion happens when this
woman experiences God’s love in her life.
This too is the story of our
conversion when we are in touch with God’s unconditional love for us. The Beatitudes are to be read by people who
have experienced conversion in their lives.
This week we celebrate
Catholic Schools Week in our parish and in our diocese. To ask the question, what is the value of
Catholic education? I strongly suggest that education without God is a
radically incomplete education. Further,
religion without a relationship is just an empty set of rules and regulations. The
Catholic identity of the education offered at St Joseph’s
School is for us to know
God’s unconditional and unending love for us. In terms of the above story, of
the woman dealing with AIDS, God has a picture of each of our students on His
dresser. There is a profound truth to
this statement.
But as a people of faith, we
need to experience the love of Jesus in our hearts. We need to encounter the Lord. The purpose of
faith formation at St Joseph’s School is to deepen our relationship with Jesus.
Each and every school day
begins with prayer. How important is
this spiritual dimension of the educational process for your son or daughter? How important is the gift of faith to our
daily living. Without question, we need to
value the spiritual dimension of life.
We need to live lives filled with the blessings of the Beatitudes.
Let me also be clear that I
highly value all our parish’s faith formation initiatives in which we form
parishioners of all ages in the meaning of Christian discipleship.
Today’s gospel is
described by Pope Francis: The Beatitudes are the new law of Christian discipleship. They highlight attitudes of the heart rather than just a set
of rules to be followed.
We do not stay just with the words of Jesus. His life and
teaching were a commentary on this sermon. Jesus invites us to watch how the
sermon is lived out in his life. All the qualities – being poor in the spirit,
able to mourn our losses and work for peace – are qualities of the human
person. This is how we know our need for God, our need for each other. Even in
his risen life he was the humble one who could listen to the doubts of his
disciples and guide them to further faith, each in his or her own way.
The church is called to live these qualities, which lead us to
the compassion of Jesus and to bring compassion in our lives. Compassion
and understanding come from listening deeply to others, especially their joys
and sorrows.
Compassion also grows in prayer – by asking for it, and by
watching the compassion of Jesus in his life.
Someone once said that ‘an ounce of compassion is worth a
ton of exhortation.’ Marriage, friendship and family life are all enriched
by the quality of compassionate listening.
Again, the value of St Joseph’s School is not just knowing about
the words of Jesus. It is the living out
the actions of Jesus. That each student
is loved, is listened, and is call to grow after the mind and heart of Jesus.
At St Joseph’s School, more that learning strategies of how to
deal with bullying in school, rather our students learn the Gospel way of
living in which we love and respect each and every student.
The first Beatitude: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is
the Kingdom of heaven. As we poor in spirit, our lives are not
exclusively focused on the dying and the rising of the Dow Jones. Our lives are to be focused on the dying and
the rising of Jesus. There are many who
build bigger barns for their surpluses, ignoring the Christian advice of St.
Ambrose, who in the fifth century said that the place to store our surplus is
in the mouths of the poor.
Have a Blessed Day.
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