Seeing the crowd,
[Jesus] went up the mountain. When he
had sat down, his disciples came to him and he began to teach them:
“Happy
the poor of spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is made up of them.
“Happy
those who grieve, for they will be comforted.
“Happy
the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Happy
those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
“Happy
those who practice mercy, for they will receive mercy.
“Happy
the pure of heart, for they will see God.
“Happy
the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Happy
those who are persecuted for their righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is
made up of them.
“Happy are you if they
revile you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you falsely
because of me. Rejoice and be glad for
your reward is great in heaven, for thus they persecuted the prophets who came
before you.”
God gives. If I was to sum up the beatitudes we’ve just
heard in one short sentence, it would have to be that: God gives. Comfort, inheritance, justice, mercy, vision,
adoption, entry into the kingdom: God gives.
It’s a factual statement, but on a deeper level it’s an exclamation, an
exercise of wonder and awe. It’s a happy
statement. God gives and we are most
fully happy, most genuinely ourselves, when we receive.
It’s also
a confession: a confession of smallness, of neediness, of incompleteness, a
denial of any pretense to be able to row our own boats, to find our own
happiness. God gives, we receive. It’s a happy confession, but we’re all
wounded with pride and so it’s an awkward one to make. It’s a confession of weakness that can only
make us happy if we stand absolutely convinced of the love God has, God is for
us: God will give what we need. It’s a
confession that does nothing to deny the pain of grief, of hunger, of poverty,
of persecution. No, it has a sober realism
about those things which could only lead us to despair if not coupled with a
joyful surety in God’s gracious generous love that is confident that the gifts like
comfort and satisfaction will come.
If we
want to know what the opposite of selfishness is, we see it in God. We see it in our own lives and the lives of
people we know well when we stop and recall all that we have to be thankful
for. And God is so unselfish that He’s
not even selfish about His status as ultimate giver. Remember the beginning scene-setting of our
reading and paint a picture in your mind: the crowd’s at the bottom of the
mountain, Jesus is on top giving the new Law (just like when God gave the
commandments on Sinai.) The disciples
come to him, but not the crowd. At the
end of this Sermon on the Mount we hear of the crowd’s joy in receiving
it. I know some of you have spent more
time on mountains than others, but I’m guessing you all know that when you’re
at the bottom, you can’t hear what someone’s saying at the top. The disciples were drawn into Jesus’ ministry
of giving, going up and down to communicate this new teaching, just like Moses
to the Israelites. God gives and God
gives the gift of giving: as to Moses, so to the disciples, and so to us.
Basil
Moreau would have his novices memorize two passages of scripture during their
novitiate: the Sermon on the Mount, which we started reading today, and the
farewell discourse from John’s gospel.
Throughout Ordinary Time and Easter, I’ll be preaching through the
Sermon on the Mount, turning to the farewell discourse during Lent. We’ll can see why our founder thought these
were foundational passages for young religious to etch in their minds and on
their hearts: to receive these gifts as the word of the Lord is to develop your
reverence for the gifts God has given you and your love for the world to whom
you’re called to pass them on. It’s to
be given the gift of giving.
No comments:
Post a Comment