Daily Reflection – 6/12/2023
Sacred Scripture
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. (Matthew 5:1-12a)
Reflection
Jesus boldly proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount a fresh, new roadmap to true happiness and blessedness. But Jesus’ ways are the very opposite of the ways of the world.
This is Christ’s manifesto, telling us what members of the Kingdom of heaven should be like. Above all, it tells us what Jesus Himself was like.
Beatitudes express the meaning of discipleship.
The first four beatitudes concern those who are in different ways poor. Not that poverty is a blessing. But there is a danger with wealth, in that the rich can become self-satisfied and self- sufficient. They can feel that material success can satisfy all their needs. They can think they can manage very well without God.
Whatever hardships the poor may suffer they don’t have that problem. Instead, in their need they are more likely to turn to God, knowing that He has a special concern for them. In that they are really blessed. So too were those who mourned. This applies both to us as we repent for our sins and confidently seek God’s forgiveness, and to us as we mourn the death of our loved ones. We are blessed in the comforting hope of resurrection.
The last four beatitudes are about those who defend the rights of the needy and poor. Again, these first describe Christ’s work and mission, which He expects us, His followers, to imitate. Like Him, we must show mercy and compassion to those in need of forgiveness. That’s a condition of our being forgiven. Like Jesus, we must work to bring about God’s justice or righteousness. To achieve this, we will need to be single-minded or pure in heart.With Jesus we are to be ministers of reconciliation, making peace between God and man, through our repentance and His forgiveness.
This is the God that the Beatitudes reveal to us: a God who lifts up the lowly, who cares for the poor, who stands with the oppressed. It is this vision of who God is that stands at the center of Jesus’ ministry and forms the heart of Jesus’ teaching.
There are two distinct and immediate consequences that flow from this God of the Beatitudes, two things which those who follow Christ must adopt: hope and solidarity. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must be a people of hope. Because we know that when we are poor, when we are grieving, when we feel rejected or worthless or struggling or in need, God comes to us.
We must also be people of solidarity, solidarity with the poor and oppressed. If God is close to those who struggle, if God is close to those who are persecuted or in need, we must act towards them in the same way. We cannot worship God and ignore those for whom God cares. We must as followers of Jesus be people who are committed to eliminating poverty and injustice and oppression because those are the very things that our God is also committed to eliminate.
The Beatitudes summarize what Jesus is about and who those who follow Jesus must be. Jesus is looking for as many people as possible who will see the world as God sees it and therefore be people of hope and solidarity.
Prayer of The Day
“Dear Lord Jesus, You have called me to be holy. Enlighten my mind today to know where true happiness lies. Grant that I may desire only this true happiness and reject all deceiving imitations that the world throws my way.”
Daily Note
Jesus does not want to push us. He wants to lead us. If his purpose was to force us to the place we needed to go, we would be cows and he would be the herdsman. But he says that he is the shepherd, and we are the sheep. He calls us sheep because he wants to attract us by the sound of his voice, so that trusting him we might follow him into the Kingdom of God.
