Verbum Dei UK

Zephaniah 2:3 .3:12-13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 ; Matthew 5:1-12

MEDITATION:

This Sunday Jesus preaches the beatitudes and the first two readings are also in praise of being poor and humble.

He sits down up a hill and disciples gather around him, and that's actually very symbolic. It was the way a Jewish teacher would teach an important lesson. He wouldn't raiase himself on a podium but sit back and just let whoever wants to listen come and listen. With great humility Christ 'came down' from heaven, and got born in a stable, but the mission of his public life begins from a relevant 'podium'. Going up a mountain in the Bible is symbolic of the encounter between the human and the divine. Think of Moses up Mt Sinai (Ex 19), the Transfiguration up Mt Tabor (Matthew 17 , Mk 9, Lk 9) and this Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5 , Luke 6 ). The whole incarnation of Christ in itself is the encounter! And yet, the sermon today is not on a podium or in a fancy television studio. It's sitting on a hillside. He's calling us to break free of the selfish mundane search for riches, honours and pleasures that turn us into 'slaves'. God wants us to enjoy life in the world, but to be humble and avoid becoming dependant. They're called 'beatitudes' because the Latin 'beatus' means 'happy'. "Blessed are the poor etc" may sound like a masochistic challenge -but Jesus continues: "for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." And that happiness isn't postponed until after we die -it can begin now!

 

I think that the really 'rich' is the one who's free of riches! A family got a beautiful new carpet for the front hall of their house, but the children were unhappy -because their mum told them that when they come home from school, they've all to use the back door! The ancient Greek, Diogenes put it well: 'The rich man isn't the one who buys a lot, but the one who doesn't need to buy'. He's poor in spirit! A young nun once said to St Teresa of Avila "I lack so much to be saintly" and Teresa replied "Maybe the problem is that you have too much!" The riches of the earth are God's gift. The problem is when man clings to them and makes them his 'god'. That's an 'idolatry' -the worship of idols.

Jesus preaches clearly with the testimony of his life: 'We know of the generosity of our Lord Jesus Christ who being rich made himself poor' (2 Cor 8:9 ). I wouldn't say Jesus wants us to 'suffer' poverty but to enjoy a real wealth. That's the wealth of being free of mundane riches. 'Being rich, He became poor, to enrich us by his poverty' (St Agustin).

God doesn't call us to be masochistic, but to put the 'mortal' to good use -for the 'immortal'! Temporal things are to be used. Eternal things are to be desired. Let's not mix! We can hold things in the world but let's not be held by them. As Gregory the Great said: "If one possesses things of the world badly, he ends up being possessed by them". Much more than a 'physical' poverty, we should be 'poor in spirit' -be humble, and generous- and grateful. 'Eucharist' means 'thanksgiving' - so let's celebrate it today with gratitude in our hearts! Are we called to sacrifice what belongs to us? As St Paul puts it: "Nothing belongs to us. Everything's been given!".

Us 'crazy' missionaries try to live out our vow of poverty, but is it crazy? As the Gospel recounts (in Luke 18 ) the meeting between Jesus and a rich young man, it says the youth went away sad - 'because he was very rich'. Then in verse 29 Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive back an overabundant return in this present age and eternal life in the age to come."

We all use God's gifts starting with flesh and blood and the air we breathe. In that sense we're  'rich'. The call of Christ isn't to abandon them but to be grateful for them and from there use them not as the 'owners' but as the administrators. They're given to us as part of the project. What project? To enrich the whole human family.

Some may say that Jesus wasn't so poor since only wealthy Jews had a personal donkey on which to travel around and Jesus arrived in Jerusalem that way before the passion. Remember though, that it was a borrowed donkey! And today he wants to borrow you and I!

We had to acquire a sacristy for our chapel once. A man nearby knew about carpentry and said that he'd gladly make one for us. Then he asked if we had any wood? -then if we had any nails?! Jesus was born in a poor stable and lived in the poor house of a carpenter, so we were delighted to go in search for them!

It's in a little piece of unleavened bread that Christ wants to come to you today, and that's in the hope that you be a 'living host' to host Him. Blessed be the Son of God himself who is teaching us to be born into his family. To quote the Word of God in the first reading today:'I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly' (Zeph 3:12 ). Are we? Will we eat the host today in the hope that Christ will give us the great wealth of his poverty and the great power to be weak?

..............Dara.

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