Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

  1.      A few days ago, I was waiting to board a plane. I love watching the passengers and their moods. There was a man dressed in a suit worth at least $2000 with Florsheim shoes worth another 500. He was very self assured. There was another on his cell phone talking to a banker to transfer half a million dollars. He was talking in a voice that could be heard over the P.A. system. Then there was a woman in a dress which was worn to reveal rather than cover her body. She wanted to attract the attention of others and succeeded. Finally, there was a woman with a voice that competed with the man and his cell phone. She demanded more than what was permitted and the timid attendant gave in to her.

The four types had qualities which make them a success in the world. They knew what they wanted and they went out to get it. The TV ads show these people as Number One in the world. And who would like to be second or third or worst still fourth best. Even our Catholic Schools are geared to achieve the best. And you will say what is wrong with that. However, it does seem odd to read in the Sports page: “Sacred Heart thrashes Our Lady”. Who wants to be poor?  the Ads tell us to imagine the Freedom when you win the Lotto 649.

2.       So it is pretty difficult to read the Beatitudes which tell us

 Blessed are the poor

 Blessed are the meek

 Blessed are the merciful

 Blessed are the pure of heart.

On the face of it, none of my fellow plane passengers were any of these. We may say to Jesus, “good for you, Lord,  but it is not the pattern of success.” In Canada people are kind and considerate. Some one said to me, “We are always apologizing” If someone pushes the door in our face, we apologize. I do not know how true that is. We have been generous to a fault. The charitable organizations found their fund raising efforts in the last weeks have gone beyond their expectations. But when it comes to or life styles we want to be rich and aggressive, sexy and powerful. We do not want to be poor, or meek or merciful.

3.         Zephaniah the Prophet who belonged to the same time as the Prophet Isaiah 640-609 was preaching to different people and in different circumstances. These were a people who abandonned the Covenant with God. They made alliances with the Gentiles. They adopted foreign gods and their customs. The day of Judgment was coming and these people would be punished.

            Zephaniah is used in our liturgy today because he too advocated something that echoes both the words and ideas of the second reading and Gospel. He spoke these over six centuries before Paul or Jesus taught. Zephaniah encourages the people to SEEK God, SEEK righteousness, SEEK humility. All these things will get them back into right relationship with God.

4.         Even though on the surface being poor in spirit, meek, merciful, mournful, seeking peace may not be the tools for being successful or even carrying on in this world, the BEATITUDES make enormous sense. We do not want to  trumpet or advertise that we are meek or poor, merciful or peacemakers, it does not make us macho enough. It is not the image we would like to portray when applying for a high tech or fast paced job. Yet these are precisely the qualities our parents sought to teach us. And they are so wise. Although they do not say it openly, big banks, big businesses also realise that in the long run, this is the pattern of success. Why would they say the Client is always right? When in so many occasions the client is foolish, has poor taste and often does not know what on earth they want.

5.         We do not need great religious motives, - common sense and philosophy will bring these truths home to us.  We find in the second reading, Paul telling us that God choose the

 weak to confound the strong

 foolish to confound the wise

 the low and despised to confound the movers and shakers of this world.

God does not and cannot choose the strong, the wise, the powerful of this world. These claim they know all the solutions to the problems of this world. They even go and try and fix them. They have no need of divine wisdom, divine power, divine riches. As a result they scorn the poor, the meek, the peacemaker, the pure of heart. They have no time for those who mourn or hunger after justice. Their philosophy of life is that you must get the End product. The means really do not matter.   As a result you have disasters like

 Enron collapse

 Sponsorship scandals

 Abu Ghraib abuses

 Watergate and Walkerton Contamination.

 the Ben Johnson story.

If our hands are full of the glittering and worthless toys of this world we cannot open our hands to receive the riches that God is willing to give us.

6.         When I was  a child our holiday spot was plagued with monkeys. They would steal the food, rip the clothes hanging out to dry, destroy the flower gardens, destroy the fruit. They were a menace. So somebody strung up some fine netting across between two trees and hung bananas on the other side. In the following week, 100s of monkeys were trapped. They were then caged and released in the jungles miles away. The monkey would not have been caught if they simply let go of the bananas. But they would not. They had not heard and they could not understand

Blessed are the poor in spirit

Blessed are those who hunger for justice

Blessed are the meek

Blessed are those who mourn.

Hopefully we are wiser than the monkeys, and leave the riches, the wisdom, the power, of this world - for the richness, the power and wisdom God offers us.