Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2/13

Happy Sunday to you all! I love the beginning of Ordinary Time, as we get to follow the steps of the Lord at the beginning of his public life. A few weeks ago, we heard the Lord go up to the Temple in his hometown of Nazareth and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has anointed me to preach the Good News to the poor, and heal the broken-hearted.” (Lk 4)

This for me has become central for my personal prayer over the past 6 months. The Lord comes with Good News of salvation for the poor, and he comes to heal. Today’s Gospel follows in a similar path, and has come to be known as the path of the Beatitudes (which means blessing). “Blessed are you...” I’d like to focus on the tone. Many spiritual authors compare these to the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament. Instead of “You shall not...”, the Lord and his Spirit work with words that seek to inspire: “Wouldn’t you like...?” The Beatitudes are also striking for their contrasts with the worldly ideals. How could one feel blessed by being poor, hungry, weeping, etc.? These don’t seem to be values espoused by Fortune 500 companies, or by Penn or Drexel, where “Ambition can’t wait.” We have all likely fallen prey to these ideals. Yet those who have traveled these paths, know that they don’t lead to true peace and blessing.

The real Good News of the Gospels is that we don’t need to save ourselves. In fact, the Christian life is not about us and our effort. Jesus is the only one who can save us. Only when we experience our true poverty, and understand that everything that we are and have is a gift we have received, can we truly open up to discover the beauty of the Christian life. Our poverty and “hunger” are signs that point us back to the source of all goodness. Without them, we might fool ourselves into thinking that truly, “ambition can’t wait.”

Let us pray for the grace to touch our hearts, that we might discover the beauty of the life of the Beatitudes.

~Patrick Travers, Newman Director