FOURTH SUNDAY IN Ordinary time: A. Feb 3, 2008

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 Psalm: 146 1 Cor 1: 26-31 Matt 5:1-12

1. A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said to help him. A man walked by and took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat with only a few coins in it. He then took the sign , turned it around and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up.

Next time the man passed by, the boy recognized his footsteps and asked: "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The man said: "I only wrote the truth". I said what you said but in a different way: "Today is a beautiful day and I can not see it". Both signs told the people that boy was blind. But the first sign asked people to help by putting some money into that hat. The second sign suggested to people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not.

Jesus is simply writing the truth. He is declaring what the world wants but in a different way. The world wants peace, joy, pleasure, happiness. We want more than all else to avoid pain and suffering and a way of maximizing pleasure. The only problem is that we think we can do it the quick fast and easy way. We want to be wise, strong and have our "moment in the sun." Jesus tells us that you can get all this by the Cross and suffering. You cannot get it by money, bribery, influence, stealing, or making deals.

Jesus proposes a way. It is a radical reversal of our common sense.

2. This message of the Gospel is introduced by a passage from Zephaniah. He is a minor prophet and appears only once in the three year Sunday Cycle.

When we look at our world today we see that we have wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sudan Kenya, Zimbabwe to mention those countries that make our headlines today. That is on the political level.

On our daily social level, one has only to go to a common laundromat to hear other dreary stories: women sharing horror stories of husband being unfaithful, of alimonies not being paid, of difficulties in bringing up children by themselves.

These stories are no different from Zephaniah's time over 2600 years ago. King Josiah was a king during a time of moral bankruptcy, political chaos, an attitude of arrogance and contempt for fellow human beings.

Yet in this social and moral vacuum of Zephaniah, there was a remnant of people who would remain faithful to the covenant. They were a ray of sunshine, a hope for the future. God would not abandon them. These were the meek and humble of the Lord. They were poor in reality, they would hunger for what was right and just. They were not forgotten by the Lord and they would be blessed.

3. Paul would pick up the same contrast in what the world considered "smart and the in-crowd." He would show the contrast between the logic of this world and the Logic of the Lord. It was a reversal of what seems to be common sense.

God would choose

the foolish to shame the wise

the weak to shame the strong

those despised and held in contempt to shame the honoured and exalted of our society.

This is a great reversal of the value system and what we consider important in the society in which we live. We are attracted to the glitter and the glamour in which we live. We are in awe of the "rich and famous". We want to know how the other half lives. We are enthralled with American Idol, Canadian Idol and how to become a millionaire. We live for the World Series and the Super Bowl. And even in our fascination and glamour we know that "all came to pass". A simple test would show us that:

1. Could you name the last five who won the Heisman trophies?

2. Could you name the men and women who won the Oscars from 2000-2005?

3. Could you name the persons who won the Nobel prize for the same period?

One could go on with a whole list of those who make the headlines and Entertainment weekly. And yet we could easily name the teachers who touched our lives in school perhaps 30 or 40 years ago. We could name a man or woman who was kind to us and gave us a sense of pride and dignity. They will never make the cover of the Time Magazine or News Week.

These are the men and women whom Jesus calls Blessed in the Gospel today. Like our Lady in her famous praise of the Lord, they can say:

"our soul glorifies the Lord and our Spirit rejoices in God our Saviour. The Almighty has done great things for us and Holy is God's name.

This last month, the Jesuits chose an New Superior General of the Order. He tells us a story of precisely the people Jesus describes as the Blessed in the Sermon of the Mount. When the Superior General, Fr. Nicolas was working with immigrants, he had an experience that deeply affected him.

A Filipina woman had experienced many difficulties adapting to the Japanese society. She was a woman who had suffered a great deal. She was asked by another Filipina for advice. The second woman said, "I have many problems with my husband and I do not know if I should get divorced or try to save my marriage..." In other words, she wanted advice concerning a rather common problem. The first woman replied, "I do not know what advice to give you right now. However, come with me to Church so that the two of us can pray because only God really helps the poor."

God is the servant's only strength. We do not have any other source of strength: not the external strength fund in politics, in business, in the media, in studies, in titles, nor the internal fortitude found in research. Only God. And when we learn the wisdom of this reality, we will experience how Blessed we are in God's sight, and even in the sight of the men and women who outwardly look with pity on us.