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[__ver-05__] Homily – (11:30 am) February 16, 2025 / 6th Sunday ●Jeremiah 17:5-8 ● Psalm 1 ● 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20 ● + Luke 6:17, 20-26 ●
Title: Beatitudes. Direction.
[__01_] The Beatitudes reorient us: “Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn….” Naturally, we resist these as undesirable states, hoping they are temporary. But Jesus presents them not as destinations to avoid but as a way to navigate life spiritually.
Jesus delivers this message both on the mount
(Matthew) and the plain (Luke), signaling movement—calling us to a new
direction we may not expect.
This is Luke’s Gospel in which Jesus
comes down the mountain to give the “Sermon on the Plain”.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus rises in
altitude for the Sermon on the Mount.
In both locations – up the hill and
down the hill – Jesus is speaking about a new direction, and way of getting
there which – perhaps – we did not expect.
How do you know if you are going in
the correct direction?
[__02_] A few years
ago, I went to attend a family funeral in Atlanta, in Georgia. My uncle had
died. My aunt and my cousins and my uncle have lived in Atlanta, Atlanta,
Georgia, in the suburbs, for many, many years.
We all went down there, but each of us got
there his or her own way. I flew down by myself. I wasn't the only person on
the plane, but there was nobody I knew on the plane. I rented a car at the
airport, started driving, and I thought, how hard can this be? I've been here before,
but it had been many years.
But I thought the last time I was here, GPS hadn't
even been invented yet, and I didn't get lost.
I started driving, and found myself dependent on GPS
navigation satellites from on high, but they got weaker and weaker and weaker
as I got closer to my destination.
Eventually there was no signal at all, zilch, nada.
And I was still at least 5 miles away.
And I was not driving to a neighborhood where my
cousins lived. I was driving to a neighborhood where my brother from
California, my brother from Jersey, had rented a house that we were sharing. So
we were all strangers in a strange land. They couldn't help me that much, but I
still could talk on the phone. I still had my brother who had driven on these
roads a few hours before, and he guided me and got me safely.
I reached my destination, but I was nervous along
the way. It was and it was so dark and no cars on the road that I thought I
would have to sleep in my car until the sun came up.
Fortunately, that did not happen. I learned
something about trust and dependency on somebody else's voice, on somebody
else's advice, through that lesson.
[__03_] Do I trust?
Do I depend on God's voice in the same way? Do I just trust on the voice of
God, who might speak to me (to my conscience) and/or through others?
Do you?
Do
you recognize this Psalm, the 119th Psalm: “God's Word is a lamp to my feet and a light
to my path.”
God's word is meant to light us in the proper
direction, and Jesus is giving the Beatitudes as a direction in our lives,
perhaps a direction we would rather not go.
[__04_] We get
directions all the time. On the road, there's a speed limit, a speed limit I
might not want to follow, or you might not want to follow.
At times, we don't follow the speed limit,
but there are consequences for not
following the speed limit.
Jesus is urging us to see there are consequences for
not following the Beatitudes either, for ignoring them.
He says, Woe to you who are rich now, Woe to you who
laugh now. Do we not this is public and extraordinary ways, in extreme ways,
perhaps in People Magazine or the
newspaper. We see celebrities torn down by having too much money or not knowing
to do how to save and invest. So money, in extreme cases, can actually be a
curse and a liability.
How is poverty a virtue or a value? Is Jesus just
telling us to a no-fun, impoverished, rejection-based lifestyle? Don't get me
wrong, Jesus does not want that, but he does want us to learn that poverty can
be a blessing, or being in mourning can be a blessing. How is that?
????These are the Beatitudes and they
are your – they are my – GPS coordinates for the Christian life. ???
[__05_] When I
think, for example, of this. I think of my grandparents, who came to this
country in the early 1900’s without much. They had little money and lived a
poor lifestyle, very simply. And even when they got money, even when they had a
little more money and were a little more comfortable, they still lived a very
simple lifestyle.
With exactly one closet in an apartment for five
people, they still lived a simple life. So even when they got money, they lived
a simple lifestyle that poverty didn't just teach them the value of a dollar or
the value of a deal. It taught them the value of everything.
How is mourning and sorrow a direction? Are re you
in mourning or sorrow? Or do you know somebody in mourning or sorrow over the
death of someone you love, they love or you love. This teaches us something. It
teaches us how much we love the person who has died.
That's one thing it teaches us, but it also teaches
us the value of not just the person, the value of the person we lost, but the
value of every person's life, the value of our own lives. We learn through
mourning and sorrow.
[__06_] So Jesus's message about the
Beatitudes is not simply about emptying or having a lower bank balance or a
lower net worth, but simply teaching us about what are our values and moving in
the proper direction.
We are all poor, impoverished in some way, and we
need God's help. We need God's word to be a light to our path and a lamp to our
feet. For example, when I think of myself, I want things done in a certain way.
I want certain decisions made, certain deadlines met and way then they don't
get met. I'm easily upset.
I might become tense over that. I may come make
other people uncomfortable because I didn't get what I wanted, because the
traffic report didn't follow the way I expected it to go.
The universe didn't obey me. That’s a moment for me
to recognize that my GPS is not working perfectly, that I need God's GPS.
I need the coordinates and latitude of longitude of
God's word in my life, not just my own GPS, to lead me.
And Jesus is asking us to follow his direction, to
follow this way of simplicity and some humility, to go down the road with him,
down the way of the cross. For the kingdom of God is there
[__Addendum_]
Would it not be better me to recognize
my “poverty” and lack of control at times, and that God is in control?
Could being in the dark be a
good blessing? Could recognizing our
vulnerability be a good thing?
I am in the dark, again, because my
own version of GPS is not working, but there is a voice –God’s voice – to whom
I could listen more attentively. His voice works and is the lamp to my feet and
light to my path.
I pray we will all listen more
attentively both to God and to each other.
When we are in trouble, in difficulty, to proclaim a “fast” – not a fast
from food, but a fast from speaking always of our troubles and difficulties, or
if we do speak of them, to allow others to guide us, to listen attentively.
Fasting also allows us to be filled and open when something truly nourishing
and enlightening comes along.
How do you know if you are going in
the right direction?
Look for the poverty, the mourning… do not look away. Follow Jesus’ way of simplicity and humility, to navigate down His road. The Kingdom of God is there.
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