Jan29 Written by:Graydog
29/01/2005
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 5:1-12a
Ah yes, the Be-attitudes again! How easy they are to read and go on, as they are so familiar. It's not that familiarity breeds contempt, but rather familiarity sometimes can reduce our awareness of the amazing message given, while at other times it can enhance our awareness of the amazingness of the message. Anyway, I digress... All the readings this weekend, not just the Gospel, tell of how God takes care of the humble. The Gospel itself is both rosy and thorny (hmmm, funny how those go together...) Just as we apply ourselves to meekness, mercy, peacemaking, etc., we will get our reward from God himself, in comfort, peace, seeing the kingdom, inheriting the kingdom, and more besides. BUT, we will also get beat up real bad by the world! We'll be persecuted and insulted because of our discipleship. The world doesn't like Jesus' disciples so much. It is challenged by that message of goodness to convert and be selfless, but the world prefers to be selfish and powerful in its own right, not powerful through God's might. As the old adage goes, misery loves company, so the world wants us all to be slaves to that misery, that false feeling of ourselves being in control. So our challenge in the beatitudes is not so much to change what we are doing, as most of us are doing good things already, but rather to change our attitude in how we do it. Rely not so much on our own strength, but rather God's strength within us. Rely not so much on our own wisdom, but on the Wisdom of God available to us. Give not kudos to ourselves but rather praise to God for His love and mercy and help in all we do and are. And then continue doing good things! Hmm, I've got some work to do.
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