Sunday's Gospel: Those Countercultural Beatitudes

The following is republished with permission from my column in Catechist Magazine.  For subscription information, visit Catechist.com.

JAN. 29 , 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Gospel Reading: Matt. 5:1-12a

This week we have the familiar teachings of Jesus known as the “beatitudes.” Beatitudes are blessings, and they were common expressions in Jewish writing. For example, Proverbs 8:32 reads, “Happy are they who keep my ways.” As is the case in this verse from Proverbs, the word “blessed” is sometimes translated as “happy.” The blessed one is the happy one, the one whose life is governed by God’s will and wisdom.

Having heard these verses so many times, we often forget how surprising they were and how countercultural they still are. Wouldn’t it have been more logical for Jesus to say blessed—or happy—are those who have everything they need, who have nothing to mourn, who own things, who have land? Aren’t these the people that God has blessed? Aren’t these signs of their prosperity and favor with God?

A major thrust of Jesus’ ministry was to dispel these myths about the supposed connection between worldly prosperity and God’s favor. The wealthy are not prosperous because God loves them more than he loves the poor. Those who are heartbroken have not displeased God. Those who are sick or in pain do not deserve their plight due to their own sin or the sin of their ancestors. Instead, Jesus says, God loves those who are suffering—the poor, the marginalized, those who are hurting. They are blessed— happy—because they are God’s special ones. If they turn to God in their poverty, their mourning, their lowliness, their hunger, they will be satisfied by the abundance of God himself.

As you can imagine, Jesus’ teachings not only comforted the poor and suffering, but they disturbed the wealthy and prosperous. Suddenly their complacency and self-assuredness was dislocated, thrown off balance. Jesus challenged the notion that their wealth and status were automatic signs of God’s favor. Jesus the teacher strikes again: soul-searching required all around.

NOTE: You may have noticed the letter a at the end of the biblical citation for today’s reading (Matthew 5:1-12a). The letters a and b (sometimes even c) are used to indicate the first half (a) or the second half (b) of a Scripture verse. (The letter c is used when the verse is easily divided into thirds. John 1:1 would be an example of this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”) Matthew 5:12a indicates that in today’s Gospel reading, only the first half of verse 5:12 is included.

ASK YOURSELF: Which of the beatitudes resonates most with me right now? Why? What is Jesus promising me or asking of me?

ASK YOUR STUDENTS: Which one of the beatitudes from today’s reading is hardest to understand? Why? Which one is special to you?

PRAY: Jesus the teacher, may your ancient words fall on fresh, fertile ground and change me.

LIVE THE GOSPEL: The beatitudes challenge us to see each other differently. This week seek out someone who is suffering in some way— poor, sad, lonely, ill. Treat them with the comfort, mercy, and peace Jesus promises in the beatitudes.

Elsie Anna Wood, Illustration from The Sermon on the Mount, by Elsie Anna Wood. Courtesy Sacred Art Pilgrim.

Are You in a Prayer Rut?

Save-the-Dates for Lent:

Is your prayer life in a slump?  Do you pray the same way every day?  Or do you find it difficult to pray at all?  Would you like to learn some new prayer techniques from within our rich Catholic tradition?  Join me for a Lenten Day of Reflection: “Prayer: An Invitation to Friendship with God” (Sat., Mar. 18 at Caritas Christi in Hamden).  We will talk about what prayer is, discuss approaches to some of its natural challenges, and explore some specific techniques for praying that you may have never tried.  We will take time to pray and to discuss our experiences.  Each participant will leave with a packet of prayer ideas and a new perspective on how to spend time in God’s presence.  For more information, see Upcoming Programs or this flyer.

Another Lenten program I’m really excited about this year is a collaboration with the amazing choir at my home parish of St. Ann in Milford, directed by Peter DeMarco.  If you’ve never heard the St. Ann choir (they sing on Sundays at 9:45 a.m. and also have concerts throughout the year), please come and be inspired!  “Be With Me, Lord: An Evening of Music and Reflection for Lent” (Mon., Mar. 27, 7 p.m.).  The choir will sing, and I will offer meditations.  See Upcoming Programs for more information.

January Publications:

For readers of Magnificat and St. Anthony Messenger – keep an eye out for my articles this month!  My Magnicat reflection (“Christ’s Own Forever”) is about the challenge of allowing God to take care of our children so we can stop fretting over them.  My St. Anthony Messenger article (“I Will Remember for You”) is about our communal memory as a people of faith, and how at times our own faith memories can sustain the faith of others.  If these print publications become available online, I will be sure to share them with you!

A New Parish Resource:

For those of you who are Catechetical Leaders or members of various small groups in your parishes, I wanted you to be aware of a wonderful new parish resource.  Little Rock Scripture Study is publishing a new series called “Alive in the Word.”  Unlike the longer Bible studies typically offered by Little Rock, this new series consists of 3-session booklets that are available at a reasonable cost and are super-flexible in their use.  They can be used by individuals, or in small groups (meeting for 3 sessions) or even for a retreat day.  Titles out right now include topics like Mary, Moses, Mercy and Trust.  I’m working on one for Lent that will be available Lent 2018.  You can find out more and view sample pages at:  www.aliveintheword.org.

Now if you've put up with my announcements (sorry, I have to do it once in awhile!), the least I can do is offer you something interesting and beautiful to look at and maybe even meditate on.  Please see an explanation below the image.  Thanks as always to John Kohan at Sacred Art Pilgrim.

Sadao Watanabe, Christ Carrying the Cross, Stencil Print.  "This hand-colored stencil print on mulberry paper of Christ carrying the Cross was a personal favorite of Japanese Graphic Artist Sadao Watanabe. In a culture that had earlier embraced the compassionate teachings of Buddhism, Japanese converts to Christianity were drawn to the image of a God who suffered alongside them rather than the remote and judgmental Father God of the Western Christian tradition. Adapting a cloth-dying technique from the Okinawan Islands using hand-cut stencils and resist paste to make images on paper, Watanabe masterfully creates a Japanese vision of Christ, the God who has humbled himself to become man, falling to his knees under the weight of the Cross he has chosen to bear on his shoulders to redeem humanity. There is a hauntingly wistful and tender expression on Christ's understated, mask-like features. This Japanese Jesus gracefully turns his broken body to look back at those who are sending him to his death with both sorrow and forgiveness. His arm is draped over the upright beam of his means of execution, transformed with decorative patterns by this one-time designer of kimonos into an object of beauty. Divine love triumphs over hate in a scene of surprising harmony and tranquility" (John Kohan).  Courtesy sacredartpilgrim.com.

What Is the Kingdom of God?

The centerpiece of Jesus’ preaching ministry was the bold declaration that “the time is fulfilled” and “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk. 1:15).  In fact, Jesus said that preaching this message was his purpose for coming (Mk. 1:38)! 

But what is this kingdom of God?

God’s kingdom is best understood not as God’s place but as God’s reign.  The reign of God means that God is in charge, God’s ways have embraced all creation.  To put it simply, God’s reign means that God is present. 

When we hear this, we may be confused or even skeptical.  The time is fulfilled?  The reign of God is at hand?  God is present?  Sometimes it sure doesn’t seem like it.

When preaching the kingdom of God, Jesus simultaneously calls for repentance (Mk. 1:15).  Repentance is much more than sorrow for sin – it is a genuine change of mind and heart, a total reorientation of our lives.  But before we can repent, before our lives can change, we must first learn to see and believe in God’s reign in our world.  We must be open to possibilities beyond (or deep within) what we can see, smell, touch or hear.  We must look at our world with the most charitable eyes and the most sensitive hearts.  We must believe that God has drawn near.

If we do not live this way, with this kind of hope and openness, then we do not live in God’s kingdom.  We live in a kingdom of our own making.  And the kingdoms we make are small and confining.  Our own reigns are weak and always leave us wanting more.  But if we can listen to Jesus – there was never a bolder preacher – and believe the good news, the gospel, he declares, then we will learn to see God drawing near.  The reorientation of our lives will naturally follow.  And God will be all in all.

Charles Plessard, Gouache on Paper, Courtesy Sacred Art Pilgrim.  Heureux means happy.

Epiphany Prayer

Like the magi, we want to bring Jesus gifts.  But what gifts should we bring?  We should bring him what he wants the most.

Lord Jesus, I lay before you the gold of my sins and weaknesses, the incense of my painful memories and relationships, and the myrrh of my fears and anxieties.  These do not seem like gifts fit for a King, but I offer them to you from the treasure-chest of my heart, knowing that you wish to transform and redeem them.  I come to you open, empty and vulnerable; be a quiet, loving, saving presence in me.  Amen.

Anne Koken, color linocut.  Courtesy Sacred Art Pilgrim.

Guest Blogger: Something We Can Do for Families in Syria

Merry Christmas!  I hope you all enjoyed a peaceful and meaningful Christmas Day.  This year my six-year-old’s “second favorite” Christmas song (trumping “Rudolph” is no easy feat) is “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”  We are in full swing! 

Today I offer you a different kind of Christmas reflection.  The post below was originally published on the blog of my friend Jillian Ciriello (www.momingrace.wordpress.com).  Jillian is a thoughtful young woman, the mother of a lively toddler, a nurse by trade, a faithful disciple of Jesus, and a compassionate human being. 

Jillian’s post is a timely reflection on the conflict in Syria.  She helps us understand how near Syria is to Bethlehem (“less than the mileage I will log in the car while visiting family this Christmas”).  She explains the anxiety and needs of many Syrian families, expresses our own angst and uncertainty as we watch the suffering from afar, and offers a concrete way we can help.

"Underwear for Christmas"

As my heart turns to Bethlehem, I find it pulled closer to Syria this Christmas.  Amid a complex civil war, babies are killed and millions of widows and orphans flee trying to find safety. In this painful conflict I hear the words of Jeremiah 31:15:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted
because her children are no more.”

This Old Testament image of grieving mothers is too accurate for many in Syria today.  As I read about the birth of Jesus, this passage is quoted by Matthew 2:18 speaking ofHerod’s massacre of all baby boys two-years-old and under. A futile attempt to try and stop Jesus from changing the world.  I think of my two-year-old son and cannot fathom the anguish of those mothers. But evil did not triumph then, and it will not triumph now.

I hold my sona little tighter and thank God for all we have, but often feel paralyzed to do much more.  Paralyzed by images of wounded children, by my own disbelief and fear, by a struggle to comprehend what is happening and what I could possibly do that would make any difference.  It is overwhelming.  It is confusing.  It is too far away.

Far Away: But this week more than ever my heart is in Bethlehem, which is so very near to this conflict.  The distance between Bethlehem and Syria is difficult to measure because of unclear borders and shifting country lines, but the city of Damascus in southern Syria is just 129 miles, less than the mileage I will log in the car while visiting family this Christmas.  Aleppo, the site of greatest violence and tragedy at present is about 340 miles away.

Confusing: In this region violence seeks to overtake the holiest of lands where Jesus walked during his time on Earth.  We can become numb to the long complex history with many nations and groups fighting one another. But my focus in this present conflict involves the city of Aleppo where innocent civilians, women and children have been trapped for months with no way in or out surrounded by violence and death.  Evacuation efforts are in place but danger remains and the refugees have no where to go once they escape.

Overwhelming: This problem is clearly too big for me, or for any one person, group, or nation to resolve.  But I have been inspired by Nadia Alawa, a mom in New Hampshire who decided to stop waiting and start acting in 2011 to help these mothers and children in Syria and those living as refugees in neighboring Turkey.  She started an organization called NuDay Syria that built grassroots partnerships with people in Syria to get supplies and aid to the most dangerous of places.  Remarkably this is one of the few organizations still working on the ground in the war-torn nation.  They are meeting the most basic and important needs: getting diapers and milk to babies, undergarments and sanitary pads to mothers, not to mention food, clean water, tents, and warm blankets.

Now this is an idea I can wrap my head around.  A local mom, packing up supplies, shipping them oversees in giant 40 foot crates and getting them into the hands of suffering people within 6 weeks.  And I can donate via Amazon gift registry, super easy!

I wish I learned more sooner. I wish I understood more now. But at least I can Amazon up some supplies and know that a mom experiencing unfathomable pain will at least have milk for her starving child and some undergarments to wear.  One mom.  I can do that.

So this year the most important gift I am buying is underwear.  It is not gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but I do think its the gift that Jesus asks me to lay at his feet this year. It may be delivered by a wise woman instead of a wise man.  It will be given to a mother who is caring for her child, in a land that has no place for them, who would humbly welcome the shelter of a manger. It is a far away place and struggle that I am much removed from but Jesus understands it in a very real way.  He is present in this time of suffering as much today as when he lay in a stable just 300 miles away wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Where to go from here:

NuDay Syria
www.nudaysyria.net
Amazon registry

Excellent 5 Min Video Summarizing Syrian Conflict
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKb9GVU8bHE

Thank you to all my friends who posted on social media about the Syrian refugee crisis, until I finally took the time to listen and understand.

Thank you to the Boston Globe for this great article From Small Town NH, A Stream of Relief to Syria, Lisa Wangsness, 31 May 2015

The Killing of the Innocents by Herod, Detail, Leon Cagniet, 1824