Homily 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. THE BEATITUDES AND HOLINESS.

Homily 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A.
THE BEATITUDES AND HOLINESS.
The Beatitudes, a way to holiness and happiness.
AV Catechism + Gospel reflection.

1.The 1^st reading of the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A wherein Our Lord reminds us to seek Him in justice and humility, in order to arrive at our final destination which is our union with God in heaven.

“Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have observed his law; seek justice, seek humility; perhaps you may be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger. (Zeph 2:3).”

2. This is our calling – holiness-, which is equivalent to happiness, and which St. Paul, in the 2^nd reading, encourages us to consider knowing that

“God chose the lowly and the despised of the world…so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30-31)”

3. The way which leads us to holiness, to our identification with Jesus Christ, is the imitation of the attitudes which He Himself enumerated in today’s Gospel which deals with the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12a) contained in His Sermon on the Mount.

“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.”

• With these words, Jesus had just expressed the novelty of His message, a radical change in spirit as compared to the teachings of the Pharisees who considered misfortune and adversity as God’s punishment and earthly happiness as God’s reward.
• Humility, misfortune, adversity in our life are not God’s punishments but rather occasions to seek God and are pathways to real happiness and joy in this life and the next.
• With the Beatitudes, Jesus clearly laid down the necessary moral conduct and spiritual dispositions which He demands from all His followers. The struggle to practice these moral dispositions and virtues will ultimately lead to happiness in heaven: “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
• It is worthwhile to note that Jesus begins the Beatitude with the word “blessed”. The word “Blessed” means “happy,” “fortunate.” Poverty of spirit (humility and detachment), hunger for justice and righteousness, mercy, meekness, purity of heart which leads to purity of the body, peace, perseverance…all these are virtues which Christ taught and lived: virtues which we must strive to live as well with the help of God’s grace in order to find earthly happiness and arrive at eternal happiness.
• As Pope Francis said: With the Beatitudes, Jesus “shows us the way to life, the way that he himself has taken. Jesus himself is the way, and he proposes this way as the path to true happiness. Throughout his life, from his birth in the stable in Bethlehem until his death on the cross and his resurrection, Jesus embodied the Beatitudes. All the promises of God’s Kingdom were fulfilled in him. In proclaiming the Beatitudes, Jesus asks us to follow him and to travel with him along the path of love, the path that alone leads to eternal life. It is not an easy journey, yet the Lord promises us his grace and he never abandons us. We face so many challenges in life: poverty, distress, humiliation, the struggle for justice, persecutions, the difficulty of daily conversion, the effort to remain faithful to our call to holiness, and many others. But if we open the door to Jesus and allow him to be part of our lives, if we share our joys and sorrows with him, then we will experience the peace and joy that only God, who is infinite love, can give. (Message for the World Youth Day 2014).”

Dear brethren in Christ, taken in its entirety, the Beatitudes point to the calling we received from God: holiness. And Jesus is inviting us “to take seriously his approach to life and to decide which path is right for us and leads to true joy (Ibid.).” It is a wonderful occasion to ask ourselves: Are we willing to follow Him and his path to true happiness which leads to holiness? May we be able to reply like St. Peter: the courage to reply: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).

Let us ask Our Lord for the grace to generously correspond to God’s call to holiness, to really want it, knowing that those who seek Christ, ask for and foster an operative desire for holiness, are blessed, fortunate and happy in this life and the next.

A Blessed Sunday and week ahead! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo

SEE AS WELL:

AUDIO CREDIT: Palestrina – Sanctus – Benedictus – Osanna II by The Tudor Consort is licensed under a Attribution License in http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Tudor_Consort/~/12_Sanctus_-_Benedictus_-_Osanna

PHOTO SOURCES: Assumption of the virgin in http://luxfon.com/pic/201203/1600×1200/luxfon.com-14862.jpg

The Saints in http://www.sacramentobitonto.it/wp-content/uploads/i-santi.jpg; http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pCDbrm-6TRY/UoA_er7nxnI/AAAAAAAAGys/vEOWH7Iyb7I/s1600/allsaints.jpg; https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/66/e3/d6/66e3d67942a4986b70fb32a2bbe71e44.jpg;

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