Roadmap for life

Fourth Sunday - Year A

YouTube Video for this reflection is available here.

Mount Sinai is 2,285 meters high, Mount Beatitudes is just around 200 meters above the Sea of Galilee. Mount Sinai is formed of rocks of red granite, Mount Beatitudes is covered with grass, trees, and lilies. Mount Sinai witnessed the proclamation of the Old Covenant with its commandments, laws, blessings, and curses (see Ex. 20-23), Mount Beatitudes became the Mountain of the New Covenant (Matt. 5-7). Could the beauty and friendliness of nature influence the character of Jesus’ Good News?

The beatitudes present a kind of biography of Jesus (Matt. 5:3-12). He had nowhere to lay his head (Mt 8:20), He mourned over the death of Lazarus (John 11:35), He was meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:28-29), and He is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). His mercy is seen on the cross when He prayed for his persecutors: “Father, forgive them because they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). He is pure in heart and sees God (John 1:18). By His death on the cross, Jesus destroyed the dividing wall of hostility bringing peace to us all (Eph. 2:14-17). Finally, the entire story of His passion is a testimony of being persecuted for the sake of righteousness. 

The beatitudes are also a roadmap for the Church. The best interpreter of the first beatitude was St. Francis. Such poverty is a sign of trust in God's providence (Matt. 6:25-34) and it liberates us for the service of God. Peter wept over his sins (Mark 14:72) and the disciples mourned the death of Jesus (Mark 16:10); all of them were comforted after Easter. Conquerers come and go, but the meek and humble remain (2 Kings 25:12). Jesus was meek and humble and the earth belongs to Him (Ps. 24:1). It will belong to us who imitate his meekness and humility (Rev. 5:10). To be hungry for righteousness is to be hungry for God. “Anyone who honestly and passionately searches for truth is on the way to Christ” - Saint Edith Stein. The best inspiration to practice the fifth beatitude can be found in the parables of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) and the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:31-46). We cannot grasp God with our minds, but we can love Him with our hearts, and how to purify our hearts is explained in Psalms 15 and 24:3-6. Peace has to be founded on truth, built on justice, nurtured by charity, and flourished under “the auspices of freedom” (Blessed John XXIII). Finally, when it comes to the last beatitude, more Christians died because of Christ in the twentieth century than in the previous nineteen centuries.

Life for Christians presents a huge challenge because the values of the Gospel go against the values of this world. Paul contrasts the wisdom of this world with foolishness, the might of this world with weakness, VIP statues in this world with being nobody. At the root of the problem is human boasting. The builders of the Babel-Babylon project, the godless city-empire, wanted to make a name for themselves and failed (Gen. 11:1-9). On the other hand, God chose old Abraham to begin His project of blessing and uniting the entire humanity into one family of the nations (Gen. 12:1-3). “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:28-29).

There is a saying that only dead fish goes with the flow. We are called to be alive. Let us swim against the current of the world by taking Christ’s beatitudes as a roadmap for our lives. He lived what He preached, the saints followed this path, now it is our turn.