Matthew 5:1-12
Dear Friends, Today, on this Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we have the first of five Sundays in which we will be invited into the Sermon on the Mount. These three chapters (5-7) in Matthew are a summary of the Gospel message. Today’s passage on the Beatitudes is a summary of the Sermon on the Mount.The Beatitudes are not laws. They are a summons into the mystery of Jesus. He is the one who is truly blessed. The Beatitudes are a revelation of the depth and breadth of the mystery of love that is Jesus Christ.
Thomas Merton has a beautiful definition of prayer. He says, Prayer is yearning to be in the presence of God, a personal understanding of God’s Word, knowledge of God’s will and the capacity to hear and obey it.”
The Beatitudes are a description of Jesus. They are an invitation to cross the threshold into the mystery of God. They are a call to ponder the Word that is Jesus. This draws us to embrace God’s will. The next step for us is to translate this new wisdom into action. This is exactly what Merton is describing in his definition of prayer. Prayer is forever connected to life.
I would like to use one short example of this wisdom of the gospel world of the Beatitudes where the first are last and we need to lose our life to save it.
Jesus says, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted”. (Mt 5:4) This, like all the Beatitudes, shatters our common sense perception of reality. Mourning and being comforted just do not fit together in our ordinary quest for happiness.
A deeper look at the mourning that Jesus is proclaiming begins to shed light on the reality. For Jesus, death is truly part of life. Death is part a passage to a new life that has always been part of God’s plan for each of us.
Why do we mourn? The reason we mourn is because we love. Without love there is no need to mourn. Jesus it teaching us that in the end, love will win out. All our losses are in transition when we walk with Jesus. He invites us into a way and a life and a truth that guarantees the victory of love. He reveals that victory in the Resurrection. He gives us the presence of a new reality where every tear will be wiped away. That reality begins now when we love. In the end, that love will share the fullness of the victory that is the Risen Christ. We are much richer when we mourn because we love. When we are indifferent and have no need to mourn we operate in a selfishness that leads to death not life. Indeed, we can say in the fullness of truth and joy, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Mt 5: 4)
In similar fashion, all of the Beatitudes are an invitation into the upside down world of the gospel. They each reveal to us a deeper truth of the great reversal that is the coming of God’s kingdom where love will have the last word.
