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Breaking Open Word

The Beatitudes reveal what it is to be like Christ. They are the program, the formula in the progress to Christian perfection. They do not promise salvation only to particular kinds of people: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted. We are to be all of these people in our growth in becoming more like Christ. And the beatitudes promise the rewards for each step. Blessed are the poor in spirit, which means humility. This is the opposite of pride. Humility is the beginning step to being more like Christ, the giving up self to God. Pride will always prevent any progress toward any of the other steps, and must be first conquered. Blessed are they who mourn. With humility in the greatness of God, you can truly be sorry for your sins, and they can weigh heavily on you. Fear of the Lord, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, is having such a deep respect and awe of God that you disdain and avoid sin out of reverence. Likewise you dread your past sins; but Jesus says you will be comforted. A good confession is like a heavy weight lifted off of you. Blessed are the meek, controlled strength. The promise is to not conquer the land but to inherit it. The meek will gain it through patience, kindness, trusting in God, the very nature of Jesus. It is also the letting go of anger and rage. The land which we really want to inherit is our home in heaven. Read Psalm 37 which repeats this theme over and over. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. A righteous person is one who strives to do the will of God through prayer and obeying the commandments and in relationship with others. Building on the previous beatitudes, the righteous person wants to strive for holiness in God’s eyes. Read Psalm 63:1-3. God thirsts for you so you might thirst for Him (St. Augustine). Blessed are the merciful. Showing mercy to others is a natural result of growing in righteousness. It allows a person to show compassion and understanding to others in their shortcomings and faults and sufferings. It is also mindful of the Lord’s Prayer when we say “Forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us.” That word AS is a powerful word, for we may be condemning ourselves with it, without mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart. Christ speaks often of the heart, and scripture makes reference to the heart as the source of one’s thoughts, words, and actions. The promise is that they will see God. With a purity of heart they have a much closer relationship with God and they will start to see God in the face of every person they meet as well. Blessed are the peacemakers. As we grow in the beatitudes we become more peaceful and wish to encourage peace not only in ourselves but in everyone we encounter, trying to bring others to the peace that is found only in God. We know that no other peace on earth compares to the peace found with God. As we progress to this level as followers of Christ, we openly share our faith in Jesus to the world, in fact it’s very hard to hold it in. We are truly children of God. But going back to the second reading, the world may not know us because though we live in the world, we are not of the world. This sad situation leads to the next beatitude. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness. So blessed are they who suffer for being true to Jesus. Up until now we’ve been on a personal growth, now we are dealing with the world who sometimes hates Jesus. Sometimes we have to take a stand for our faith that is not popular in the secular world, and sometimes the world will persecute us for it. This last beatitude tell us to remember that our gain is the kingdom of heaven, here on earth and as a saint when we die. Finally, the beatitudes close with a warning of how the world can persecute us for being a follower of Jesus and that we are to rejoice for our reward is great in heaven. Read Acts 6:40-42 of how the apostles reacted to this situation; they rejoiced in their punishment and refused to stop proclaiming Jesus even when imprisoned and flogged.

February 1

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Matthew 5: 13-16 As part of the great sermon on the mount narrative, Jesus here evokes today’s reading from Isaiah, which was well-known to Jews of that time. He uses powerful metaphors for the spiritual life. In calling his listeners “the salt of the earth”, he is using a very well-known part of life to describe the spiritual life. Salt of course enhances and enriches. It brings out flavor in whatever it seasons. Similarly, Christians are to enhance and enrich the world through their lives by allowing Christ to shine through them. Through our lives, we are to bring out the spiritual “flavor” of all we encounter in our lives. Salt also was the primary preservative available at the time. In the spiritual life, salt represents the preservation of faith and fidelity to God. Similarly, its absence (if it “loses its saltiness”) represents the danger that the evils of the world can replace the centrality of God in our lives and damage our intended role to enhance and enrich the world. Salt was also sprinkled on everything in liturgical temple worship as a symbol of God’s covenant with Israel.

February 8

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This passage from the Sermon on the Mount has a clear pattern that repeats four times: Jesus first recalls a commandment of the Jewish law and then, as his own teaching, insists on a more complete response to that commandment. Before the four examples, Jesus expressed his basic attitude toward Jewish law. The key point for this passage is the insistence that the righteousness of the disciples must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees. The four examples that follow call for a higher standard than simple observance of the law’s commands. The first example goes beyond the prohibition of murder to a prohibition against the anger that gives rise to violence and murder. This is followed by instruction about reconciling with our brothers and sisters, the complete opposite of responding with violence or murder. The second issue is adultery, and Jesus again calls for avoiding the root of the sin, the lustful desire to commit adultery. This discussion of adultery leads into the third issue, that of divorce. By prohibiting divorce Jesus restores the ideals of marriage. A husband and wife should strive for mutual respect, patience, forgiveness, etc. Jesus knows marriage takes work. He wants people to take marriage seriously, both before and after they marry. The final example concerns taking oaths. Jesus rejects not only false testimony but swearing at all. He insists that total honesty in speech would make oaths unnecessary.

February 15

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The English word temptation brings to mind seduction to evil, an enticement to sin or to take the wrong path. In Greek, however, the term used by Matthew to describe Jesus’ experience in the wilderness was peirazein, which means to test. Just as tempered steel is tested to determine its strength and its resistance to stress and strain, so the experience of Jesus was intended to test the degree of His strength and ability to withstand difficulties. Matthew placed the account of Jesus’ testing immediately after His baptism. Having been identified as the “beloved Son”, who was endowed “with the Spirit of God”, with whom “the Father was well pleased” (3:22-23), Jesus was then tested in His capacity as Son and Servant of the Father. The indication that He “was led into the desert by the Spirit” affirms the fact that His experience was in accord with God’s saving plan. Jesus first temptation recalled God’s gift of manna to Israel in the desert (Exodus 16:4-8) and tested Jesus’ capacity as the Son of God. Would Jesus use His powers as God’s Son to play the role of a political and social messiah by feeding a hungry mankind? Jesus’ responds that God’s Will and God’s Word would be His food which He will offer to a hungry humankind. The second temptation recalled Israel’s complaints against God in the desert and their demand of Moses to reveal God’s power and presence. Refusing to test God, Jesus’ quotes Deuteronomy (6:16) which reads in full, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you did at Massah.” In the third test, Jesus is offered a vision of all the world’s kingdoms in their splendor. People would remember Moses vision atop Mt. Nebo of the promised land (Deuteronomy 34:1-4). Refusing to worship His tempter, Jesus remained a faithful Son of the Father saying, “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve.” Later in the gospel, when Peter attempted to divert Jesus from His Father’s saving plan, Jesus would dismiss him just as He did the tempter, “Away with you Satan.” Jesus’ testing as God’s Son would continue during His passion. . . “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (27:40). But Jesus was not to be deterred either from living or from dying in fulfillment of His Father’s will.

February 22

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