This Sunday’s Gospel Story (Matthew 5:1-12a) is from a part of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount known as the Beatitudes. We are hearing this Story in the setting of more shootings and violence on the part of government organizations and policies and, destruction of families by the same organizations, disturbing attitudes and events in government branches, the usual name calling and judging. The majority report sees the Sermon on the Mount as a nice synthesis of Jesus’ teaching.
There’s a saying in scriptural theology that “all the stories in the Bible are true, and some of them even happened”. The Gospels are not history, they are theology. They were written a generation or two after Jesus returned to his Father, and they offer insight to what Jesus’ followers believed and remembered about him. The majority report sees the Beatitudes as a part of the larger Sermon on the Mount and a nice summary of what Jesus said during his ministry. The minority report can be quite different because it is deeply personal as the Beatitudes speak to us in the particulars of our own daily living – when we let them do this.
For many claiming to act in Jesus name, the Beatitudes are abused or ignored. Along with many others who would preach Jesus’ word, I have been told fairly often over the years that “the Gospel stuff is ok for church, but has nothing to do with real life, so don’t tell us how to live”. As we look around today, this week, this attitude is very clear. Yet we can also see the Beatitudes being lived in ways that lead brave compassionate folks to jail, being assaulted, as they protest the terrible things that are happening. Even Bruce Springsteen has stepped up to lead many with his impressive and timely “Streets of Minneapolis”. So much is reminiscent of the Viet Nam protest era, yet now the violence is happening among us, not just in a faraway place that we watch on the evening news.
As we listen to, read, or pray the Beatitudes these days we notice they describe a reality, a way of living, that is complete foreign to what we are living in. Do any of us really want to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek or hunger and thirst for righteousness? Bering merciful isn’t all that popular either. Being a peacemaker is dangerous, and being persecuted for righteousness, insulted, slandered isn’t all that great. Yet, this is how Jesus lived and how he calls us, his would-be followers, to live. I need to look at myself, not project my feeling on others.
Jesus shows us everything we can know of his Abba from a human perspective. In the Story of the Beatitudes he shows us Abba’s value system, what is important to Abba. I can’t do much about Minneapolis, Congress, the Executive Branch, etc. I can, however, ask the grace to let the Beatitudes touch the way I live. Thinking back to the Psalm Verse from last week, “Abba, you are my light and my salvation”, can I try to open myself to the Spirit as she is happening in and around me here and now? I can focus my anger and frustration on others and join the chorus of pointing and blaming, which will probably mean more sessions with nitro and accomplish nothing for me or anybody. Or, I can ask, “Abba, what are you saying to me in this confluence of the Beatitudes Gospel and our violent, judgmental, and polarized reality?”. It is far easier to focus on others than to look deeply at myself. And yet as I look at my visceral reaction to the events of the last few weeks I can see I am far off the mark. I don’t need to add to the violence. This does no good for anybody.
As followers of Jesus we are all called to an ongoing journey of conversion, something that is not easy by any sense. The Beatitudes are a sort of road map for this journey. The first Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. It seems this might be a condition for living the others. Is there something you are asking me to get rid of so you can help me move in the direction of poor in spirit? Is there something I am holding on to that keeps me from moving towards living the Beatitudes? What pops up especially these days is my need to forgive folks for not being or thinking as I wish they were, getting annoyed when folks I know or taught express ideas that I don’t like. We are part of each other’s journey. We make our own but we walk with others. If I am open to the Spirit, I can learn from them. They don’t have to follow my map, and I would get lost in theirs. It’s all good. We are who we are and where we are — in different places together. Abba is with and in us all in all. I need to learn that I can’t expect others always to agree with me, and that’s good.
Perhaps I am being asked to let go of my need to know and to feel in control of my life and everything around me., especially these days with so many issues. Why am I so interested in control? What is, is. I need to accept this. I believe each of us reflects Abba in our own unique way, why am I so annoyed with some people? Why am I saying “no” to Abba? It is obvious that my attitude, what I bring to my every day living, has to change. Fr Arrupe: “Teach me your way of looking at people: as you glanced at Peter after his denial, as you penetrated the heart of the rich young man and the hearts of your disciples”. Perhaps I can let you penetrate my heart. May I move towards seeing others and their dignity as you see them, accept them as your grace to me, and maybe me as your grace to them. I believe you are in the nastiness that is all around us, not causing it, but inviting all of us, me, to bring it to an end. I believe you will show us if we are open and willing to look. Evil is real, as we see all around us, but so is good, which also we see all around us. “Haters gonna hate.” I do not want to be a part of that, yet I sense the stirrings within me at times. The Beatitudes are an invitation to trust in you, to see my daily reality as you see it, to accept and love the folks in my life as you do, just to let go. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Just sayin . . .