BLESSED and HAPPY
Zephaniah 2:3, 3: 23-13; 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31; Matthew 5: 1-12a
I think it’s a safe assumption on my part that we all love Jesus. We wouldn’t be here this morning if we didn’t. But as I was reflecting on today’s Gospel this past week, an unsettling question came to mind: If we lived in first-century Israel, would we like him? Let me explain the reason for this question. Most of us tend to prefer people who are predictable. We like the person we know we can count on for a well-timed joke. We like the person who will show up when they commit to something. We tend to prefer people we can read; either they tell us outright what they’re thinking or their facial expressions do. We like it when people say what they mean and mean what they say. We tend to prefer people who are logical and draw understandable conclusions. Basically, we like people we can easily peg.
Jesus was not one of those people. He wasn’t predictable. He wasn’t easy to read. He wasn’t always logical, at least not by the norms of his culture. He was enigmatic. Everything about him was a puzzle. His birth to a virgin, his hometown, and most certainly his teachings were all confounding and defied conventional wisdom.
Matthew’s anthology of Jesus’ teachings, collectively known as the Sermon on the Mount, begins with the Beatitudes, a litany pronouncing blessings upon what are apparently the lowliest of people. Jesus climbs a mountain and below him, in the crowd, where the world sees weakness, he sees strength. Where the world sees poverty, he sees wealth. Where the world sees deprivation, he sees power. Here Jesus shows himself to be not only enigmatic but also counter-cultural. He was then. And he is now. Although Jesus presents the Beatitudes as blessings, we often perceive what he proposes as curses. Let’s listen to him again about happiness, about the way to heaven, about the way to holiness:
- Whereas the world says you have to be rich to be happy, Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven.”
- Whereas the world says, you’re happy when you don’t have a concern in the world, Jesus says “Blessed are those” who are so concerned with others that “they mourn” over the others’ miseries, “for they will be comforted” by him eternally.
- Whereas the world says, “You have to be strong and powerful to be happy,” Jesus says “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
- Whereas the world says, “To be happy, you’ve got to be a sex god,’” that “Happy are those who indulge themselves with pleasure.” Jesus says “Happy are the pure of heart for they shall see God.”
- Whereas the world says, “You’re happy when you accept yourself as you are,” Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for holiness and grace, for they will be filled.”
- Whereas the world says, “You’re happy when you don’t start a fight, but you finish it.” Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” and “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
- Whereas the world says, “You’re happy when you don’t make waves, you go with the flow, and everyone embraces you as nice,” Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” and “blessed are you when people revile you, persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,” “for your reward will be great in heaven.”
So what was the message to the disciples, and what is the message for all of us here today? Jesus is telling us that the very values that we hold so dear, prosperity, security, happiness, and everything we strive so hard to achieve for ourselves and our children are practically worthless when it comes to considering the values of the Kingdom of God. Jesus lays it on the line. He says to us, “It comes down to this: Do we trust the world to bring you happiness or do you trust God? And if it’s the world, how’s that going for you?”
Jesus proposes a different way to happiness – the way of the Beatitudes. It’s a way where we replace greed with simplicity, indifference with compassion, self-promotion with humility, ego and satisfaction with the status quo with a craving for holiness, the need always to be right with tolerance, the lust for pleasure with purity, the quest for power with justice, and our craving for acceptance and affirmation at all cost with fortitude.
Why does Jesus say that the poor in spirit, those that mourn, the meek, those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, the forgiving, the peacemakers and the persecuted are happy and blessed? Because they have allowed God to be close. There are no obstacles between them and God. On him, they are totally dependent. His words are their joy. His values are their treasure. His promises are their hope. His example is their guide.
We’re told that St. Francis of Assisi got completely undressed in the middle of his town square. He gave all his possessions back to his father and then he was ready to begin. We need to do the same. We need to be naked, to strip ourselves of all that comes between us and our God. For it is only when we rid ourselves of that which is an illusion and is fleeting that we can possess that which is real and eternal.
In the end, Jesus doesn’t merely speak the Beatitudes. He lives the Beatitudes. He is the Beatitudes. Looking at him you will see what it means to be poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, to mourn, to care for what is right, to be pure in heart, to make peace, to be persecuted. This is why he has the right to say, “Come, follow me!” He doesn’t say, “Do what I say”. He says, “Come, follow me!”
We’re called, too, not just to hear the Beatitudes, not just to live the Beatitudes, but to be the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes describe both the face of Christ and the face of a Christian, the face of one striving, with God’s help, to become a saint. St. John Paul II called it the Magna Carta of Christianity and said that the way of the Beatitudes is the way to happiness, holiness and heaven.
Let’s pray for that. Through this Eucharist, may Christ Jesus our Lord help us to have that hunger, have that thirst, have that desire for holiness, for living the Beatitudes, so that one day we will indeed be satisfied FOREVER.
Hmmm. Maybe had I lived in first-century Israel, I would have liked Jesus after all.
