Fourth Sunday

Fourth Sunday Ordinary
January 30, 2005

"But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly (Zephaniah 3:12-13). ... God chose the lowly and despised of the world,those who count for nothing... (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). Blessed are the poor in spirit... they who mourn... the meek... the peacemakers... (Mt 5:1-12)

It is hard to miss the point this Sunday. In a conversation recently with a close friend, I was reminded that the beatitudes were probably intended by Jesus to be a consolation rather than a prescription for reform. Most of us, at some point in our lives inevitably mourn our losses, long for justice, experience emotional and spiritual emptiness (poverty of spirit), feel as if we must count for absolutely nothing and lack the strength or courage to go on. Jesus' words promise that, especially at these times, we are "blessed", close to and favored by the Most High. This seems to be a spiritual principle: the more we need, the closer God is, even if the immediate need for relief is not satisfied.

I find this extremely comforting in my own situation of dependence upon others for every aspect of my physical survival. I am the personification of "high maintenance". However, along with this dependence have come to wonderful blessing of gratitude for the wealth of family and friends and of God's closeness. Nevertheless, I have to remind myself that I am in a privileged, wealthy minority compared with most people on earth.

Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom of heaven. For most of history we have built many of our ecclesiastical, economic, social and political structures on power, wealth, physical beauty, talent and intelligence. By those standards most of us are outsiders, deserving the promised blessing. We are both wealthy and impoverished; impoverished in our wealth, wealthy in our poverty. When we are or, identify ourselves with, the "lowly and despised" we become blessed, intimate friends of God.

We show flashes of understanding this, in the outpouring of empathy and wealth for the victims of natural disasters and war, concern for the millions dying of AIDS and hunger, victims of terror and aggression everywhere, the poor and the outcast. At other times, when we forget them and become focused only on our little lives, resistant to sharing our wealth with others, we risk losing contact with the kingdom of God present among us. It is unwise, and shortsighted, for citizens of any country, or adherents of any religion, to assume that God and right are always and everywhere on their side, or that their wealth was given to them to protect and defend. The only reliable "side" to be on is the great mass of suffering humanity wherever it is found.