4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 29 January
29th January 2023
4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 29 January
“Let your way of life among the people be such that whoever sees or hears you will glorify and praise our Heavenly Father.” - St Francis of Assisi
A reflection on today's Gospel by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Two mounts are related as the first and second acts in a two-act drama: the Mount of the Beatitudes and the Mount of Calvary. He who climbed the first to preach the Beatitudes must necessarily climb the second to practice what He preached. The unthinking often say the Sermon on the Mount constitutes the 'essence of Christianity.' But let any man put these Beatitudes into practice in his own life, and he too will draw down upon himself the wrath of the world. The Sermon on the Mount cannot be separated from His Crucifixion, any more than day can be separated from night. The day Our Lord taught the Beatitudes, He signed His own death warrant. The sound of nails and hammers digging through human flesh were the echoes thrown back from the mountainside where He told men how to be happy or blessed. Everybody wants to be happy; but His ways were the very opposite of the ways of the world.
"One way to make enemies and antagonise people is to challenge the spirit of the world. The world has a spirit, as each age has a spirit. There are certain unanalysed assumptions which govern the conduct of the world. Anyone who challenges these worldly maxims, such as, 'you only live once,' 'get as much out of life as you can,' 'who will ever know about it?' 'what is sex for if not for pleasure?' is bound to make himself unpopular.
"In the Beatitudes, Our Divine Lord takes those eight flimsy catch-words of the world —'Security,' 'Revenge,' 'Laughter,' 'Popularity,' 'Getting Even,' 'Sex,' 'Armed Might,' and 'Comfort'—and turns them upside down. To those who say, 'You cannot be happy unless you are rich,' He says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.' To those who say, 'Don’t let him get away with it,' He says, 'Blessed are the patient.' To those who say, 'Laugh and the world laughs with you,' He says, 'Blessed are those who mourn.' To those who say: 'If nature gave you sex instincts you ought to give them free expression, otherwise you will become frustrated,' He says, 'Blessed are the clean of heart.' To those who say, 'Seek to be popular and well known,' He says, 'Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely because of Me.' To those who say, 'In time of peace prepare for war,' He says, 'Blessed are the peacemakers.'
"The cheap clichés around which movies are written and novels composed, He scorns. He proposes to burn what they worship; to conquer errant sex instincts instead of allowing them to make slaves of man; to tame economic conquests instead of making happiness consist in an abundance of things external to the soul. All false beatitudes which make happiness depend on self-expression, license, having a good time, or “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die,” He scorns because they bring mental disorders, unhappiness, false hopes, fears, and anxieties.
"Those who would escape the impact of the Beatitudes say that Our Divine Saviour was a creature of His time, but not of ours, and that, therefore, His Words do not apply to us. He was not a creature of His time nor of any time; but we are! Mohammed belonged to his time; hence he said a man could have concubines in addition to four wives at one time. Mohammed belongs even to our time, because moderns say that a man can have many wives, if he drives them in tandem style, one after another. But Our Lord did not belong to His day, any more than He belonged to ours. To marry one age is to be a widow in the next. Because He suited no age, He was the model for all ages. He never used a phrase that depended on the social order in which He lived; His Gospel was no easier then than it is now.
"The Beatitudes cannot be taken alone: they are not ideals; they are hard facts and realities inseparable from the Cross of Calvary. What He taught was self-crucifixion: to love those who hate us; to pluck out eyes and cut off arms in order to prevent sinning; to be clean on the inside when the passions clamour for satisfaction on the outside; to forgive those who would put us to death; to overcome evil with good; to bless those who curse us; to stop mouthing freedom until we have justice, truth and love of God in our hearts as the condition of freedom; to live in the world and still keep oneself unpolluted from it; to deny ourselves sometimes legitimate pleasures in order the better to crucify our egotism—all this is to sentence the old man in us to death.
"On the Mount of the Beatitudes, He bade men hurl themselves on the cross of self-denial; on the Mount of Calvary, He embraced that very cross. Though the shadow of the Cross would not fall across the place of the skull until three years later, it was already in His Heart the day He preached on “How to be Happy'.” (Life of Christ)
Beatitudes Prayer
Lord, make me poor in spirit, so I can receive the kingdom of heaven.
Lord, when I mourn, help me find comfort.
Lord, make me meek, so that I may inherit the land.
Lord, help me to hunger and thirst for righteousness, so I may be satisfied.
Lord, make me merciful, so I may obtain your mercy.
Lord, make me pure of heart, so I may see you.
Lord, help me to make peace, so I may be called your child.
Lord, when I am persecuted for righteousness’ sake, show me your kingdom. Amen. 🙏💖💐