Word to the Wise
Sunday, January 29, 2023 - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Zeph 2:3; 3:12-13; 1 Cor 1:26-31; Matt 5:1-12a,]When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God...." [Matthew]
These words begin the "Sermon on the Mount" in the Gospel According to Matthew. The evangelist sets the scene carefully because he wished to portray Jesus as a "new Moses" proclaiming a new "covenant." Jesus goes up on a mountain just as Moses went up Mt. Sinai to receive God's covenant engraved on stone. Jesus sits down, as a teaching rabbi would do to teach. He proclaims a covenant that is not written on stone tablets but to be written on the human heart. This covenant is expressed first in what are called, traditionally, the "Beatitudes." But all of chapters 5 through 7 outline the implications of those "beatitudes." Some clever person years ago took that word and called the "beatitudes" the "BE-ATTITUDES." This does come close to what Jesus proclaims.
The Mosaic Law focused on behavior. Jesus' "New Law" focuses on the interior, the heart and mind. There is no exaltation of physical poverty or food deprivation or self-hatred but rather a reform of spirit and love of neighbor. The beatitudes are not abstractions. Their familiarity can lull us into letting them in one ear and out the other instead of asking ourselves about our attitudes. The remainder of the Sermon on the Mount, which includes "the Lord's Prayer," will spell out what Jesus means. It is often much easier to change behavior than to change one's heart and mind, especially if the behavior can result in punishment.
Jesus exhorts us to be "clean of heart, merciful, peacemakers!" There's not a lot of that in the news, which shows all the more the need of the world for the gospel to be proclaimed by all of us who, by our baptism, have been called to proclaim it in word and deed that are motivated by faith. St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, calls the "new law of Christ" "Nothing more than the Holy Spirit working in our hearts through faith." How open are our hearts to what Jesus proclaims and how do we put skin on his words? AMEN