FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

JANUARY 29, 2017

In this fourth Sunday in ordinary time the Gospel offers to us the proclamation of the Law of the Kingdom, which brings to fulfillment the Law on Mount Sinai, replacing it by the Beatitudes. At the end of his earthly life Jesus will condense the whole Law in his New Commandment “love one another as I have loved you.” 

FIRST READING  – Prophet Zephaniah  2,3; 3,12-13

Ø  This prophet preached around 650 B.C. in the Kingdom of Judah in the South   

Ø  In that time there was in the country religious degradation and political intrigues.

Ø  Zephaniah announces to his people the coming of the Day of Judgment, the Day of the Lord.

o   The Day of the Lord is a day of purification not a day of doom.

o   Little by little through the preaching of the prophets and especially with the coming of Jesus into our world, this day becomes the great day of God, a day of joy and of encounter with him.    

o   The judgment of God takes away what is an obstacle for us to be what the Lord wants for us,  which is our well-being, our happiness and,  our salvation.

 

Ø  In the readings for next Sunday the prophet promises peace and justice for the remnant of the land.

o   The remnant means the ānāwîm = the needy of Israel who prefer to serve God instead of looking for financial privileges. 

o   Jesus in the Gospel will take again this concept and will call the ānāwîm  happy, blessed, not because they are better than the rest, but because God takes care of them in their needs and in their poverty.

o    The promise of peace “Shalom”, which means much more than the lack of conflict, this word speaks of fullness in all the areas of our life and of our human relationships, we might say that in some way it is the synonym of happiness.       

Ø  These poor   

o   Will take refuge in the name of the Lord, that is to say, they will trust in his name above anything or anybody else (the name in the Bible means the  person ) 

o   They will not do any harm to anyone, and they will not lie. The lie is here a synonym of evil, of what is contrary to the truth and therefore harms very much the person.

o   They will live in peace, nobody will take away their peace. 

o   We may conclude that they will enjoy peace, truth and protection because they have put themselves in the hands of the God of Israel who protects them.

o   God is always ready to welcome us with tenderness and love. The problem is not in God, it is in the human person who needs to open him or herself completely to God but very often we close ourselves, and in so doing we are deprived of the benefit of experiencing the tenderness of God in our life.

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 5,1-12

«  In this fourth Sunday in ordinary time we begin to read   the Sermon on the Mountain which is found on chapters 5,6 and 7 of Matthew’s Gospel. 

«  We begin today reading the Beatitudes 

«  Jesus surprises us, as always.  He calls blessed those whom society considers unfortunate,  those who neither count nor are of interest to society because they do not yield any revenue and they make us uncomfortable. 

«  The text says that Jesus saw the crowd, went up to the mountain-side, he sat down and his disciples sat around him, and he began to teach them:

o   The Lord sees the crowd that was there, but the Lord sees also the crowd of all the times  who suffer, the poor, the afflicted those in need of so many things.  

o   He goes up to… to go up or climb requires an effort; to live the beatitudes will require an effort on our part. 

o   He seats down, as a teacher to teach his disciples who come to seat around him and are anxious to hear his words: 

§  Blessed, Happy!!! Who? And why?  

§  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in n. 1716: “The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus' preaching. They take up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. the Beatitudes fulfill the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of a territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven

§  Blessed, happy: the poor, the meek, those who mourn, those who weep, those who hunger and thirst for justice, the merciful, the pure of Herat the peacemakers, the persecuted, when you are insulted and persecuted. 

§  why? BECAUSE THEIR RECOMPENSE IS GREAT IN HEAVEN 

o   The Catechism in number 1717 “The Beatitudes” 

§  The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity

§  They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection(baptism)

§   they shed light on the actions and attitudes proper  of the Christian life;

§  they are the paradoxical promises that comfort us in our suffering

§   they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples;

§  they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.

 

§  The Catechism continues in 

§  1719 the beatitudes  

·         Reveal  the goal of human existence; the ultimate end of human acts 

·         God calls us to his own beatitude 

·         This vocation is addressed to each individual personally, but also to the Church as a whole,  

§  1720

·         In the New Testament the authors use different expressions to characterize the beatitudes: 
- the coming of the Kingdom of God;
- the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"  
- entering into the joy of the Lord;
- entering into God's rest:

·         There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end do we have, if not to reach the kingdom which has no end?

I copy below the beatitudes applied to the church. This text has been taken from the book of Jose Antonio Pagola “El Camino Abierto por Jesús.” (my Spanish translation)

• Happy the Church with the soul of a poor, because she will have less problems, and will be attentive to the needy, and she will live the Gospel with freedom. The Kingdom of God is hers. 
• Happy the Church full of meekness. She will be a gift for this world full of violence. She will inherit the promise land.
• Happy the Church who suffers because of her faithfulness to Jesus. One day she will be consoled by God.
• Happy the Church who seeks with passion the Kingdom of God and its justice. In her the best of the human spirit will abide. One day her longing will be satisfied.
• Happy the Church to whom God takes away her stony heart and gives her a heart of flesh. Mercy will be granted to her.
• Happy the Church that introduces in the world peace instead of discord, reconciliation  instead of confrontation. She will be “daughter of God.”
• Happy the Church that is persecuted because she follows Jesus. The kingdom of God is hers.

  SECOND READING   1 Corinthians  1,26-31     We continue the reading of this letter 

      Paul says to the community of Corinth to look at themselves  

o   They have been called but few of them are influential in society 

o   Few are from a noble origin  

o   Because God chooses what the world considers ignorant to shame the “wise” 

o   He chooses those who are nothing to reduce to nothing those who are something. 

o   Thus the human beings cannot boast before God  

o   God is he who has given us life in Christ Jesus 

o   Whom he has made our wisdom. Our justice, our sanctification and our redemption. 

o   Whoever wants to glory let him or her glory in the Lord. 

      Paul reminds us of a great truth, whatever is good in us has been put there by God, by ourselves we do not have anything. Why then are we so proud, so vain about ourselves? Our glory is in the Lord who continually creates us and recreates us through his Paschal Mystery. 

 CLARETIAN CORNER

We have said to the Bishops that God asks them to conform their lives and customs with those of the Holy Apostles.  Our Lord wants a living copy of his Apostles in his Bishops, for they govern the same Church which they established; it is necessary that they water it with the same water they used to fertilize it… Our Lord does not ask for anything new in his Church; he only asks all of us what we have promised him.  Our Divine Redeemer asks us to observe his Holy Law, and he asks this particularly of the Bishops in such a special way, and with so much eagerness that I do not know how to express… We have said that no one should excuse himself.  The Lord’s Holy Law is one and he orders it to be preached equally in the whole world without exceptions, neither of people, nor kingdoms, nor provinces.  Then his grace is ready to fulfill it in all parts and people.  (María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. “Plan for the Renewal of the Church” 11-13.)  

The Bishops are the successors of the Apostles and, thus they have to be with their good example the light of the world…   They have to practice the good works, in such a way that their example be as a bright light that may shine before others and move them to glorify their heavenly Father…  The Bishops have to be friends of prayer, in imitation of Jesus…  in the same way the apostles practiced it; so much so that seeing that other responsibilities, even being good, hinder their mission, they left them, and chose seven deacons to perform them … In the fire that burns in meditation all scoria is taken away, men melt and are molded into the image of Jesus, they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and begin to speak  like those that were at the Cenacle; thus the Apostles begin with prayer, thus they continued and persevered faithfully until the end, sealing with the blood of their veins the truth that they had preached; the bishops have to do likewise, if they want to fulfill their sacred duties, be faithful and obtain the crown of glory.   The Bishops have to teach, following the mandate of Jesus to his Apostles… The Bishops have to be the salt of the earth through their doctrine… protecting with the salt of wisdom, instruction and preaching opportunely and inopportunely against the corruption of errors and vices, and even when it seems that the listeners do not  take advantage, do not desist  because of it,  since, at least, always a great good is done, not letting the vices and errors grow;  it is well known that the Word of God never returns fruitless since the just  take root in virtue and   some of the bad ones take advantage from it, and if it is not noticeable at once, it will be known latter. (Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters.   Plan for the Restauration of  the Beauty of the Church, “To the Bishops.”)