Word to the Wise
Sunday, January 29, 2017 - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Zeph 2:3; 3:12-13; 1 Cor 1:26-31; Matt 5:1-12a]Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. [1 Corinthians]
St. Paul's words today are, in many ways, like a reflection on the gospel scripture for today, which is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount - the eight beatitudes. Those "beatitudes" are familiar to us, even if we might not be able to recite all eight of them off the top of our heads! I urge the Beloved Congregation to read them and then read the first scripture from Zephaniah and finally come to St. Paul. The people who are described in these passages might be described in some circles of our society as "losers." The preachers of the "gospel of prosperity" would point to them as sinners because they aren't wealthy.
The church's teachings on social justice continually highlight the "preferential option for the poor," not because of some political theory or out of a hatred for material well-being. It is because of the teachings of Jesus Christ, which are outlined in a nutshell in the beatitudes. We are told that before these are uttered, Jesus goes up the mountain (the place where God gave Moses the covenant) and sat down (the posture of the teacher) and his disciples "came to him." Do we consider ourselves to be in their number? Listening first to the beatitudes, reading the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (which includes the Lord's Prayer) and then going to Matthew 25:31-45, and then an examination of conscience may tell us how much of a disciple we truly are!
Right now the toxic political climate of our nation makes targets of the very people whom Jesus calls "blessed." It matters not whether the source of the policies are national, state or local, we can ask ourselves, "Is this what Jesus teaches?" Does our faith shape our political beliefs or is it the other way around? In the end we will be judged on what we have done for "the least of Jesus' brethren," because we did it for him. That is the real meaning of love. AMEN
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