Reading 1: RV 7:2-4, 9-14
Responsorial Psalm: PS 24:1BC-2, 3-4AB, 5-6
Reading 2: 1 JN 3:1-3
Gospel: MT 5:1-12A Full Readings
Living the Beatitudes
Today we celebrate all Saints Day, the people who are living in heaven ever praising God and giving him glory in the company of the Angels. These are the people, as we see in the first reading from the book of Revelation, who went under every and different kinds of persecution in this world and washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. For that matter they are enjoying eternal life in heaven with God.
We too are able and should be our only goal, to become saints and live with God forever. St John in the second reading tells us that we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. But we know that if we live according to his will and wash our robes in the blood of the lamb, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, as saints are doing now. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. So today let us not only ask the saints to always intercede for us but also imitate and be inspired by their example, so that one day we shall be with God too.
One way of attaining this is living the beatitudes. In the Gospel, Jesus, the second Moses, the lawgiver of the new People of God, takes his seat on the mountain, as Moses did, and gives his New Law on how we should live. This teaching is for us to gain the Kingdom of heaven and so we have to live up to this teaching especially the beatitudes. As Mahatma Gandhi once observed, until one comes to live the beatitudes, one has not begun to live Christianity!
As Moses went to Sinai to receive the ten commandments from God which were to instruct the way Israelites had to live, Jesus, a new Moses, also climbed the Hill of Korazim (The Mount of Beatitudes) to give us the way we should live as Christians. Pope St John Paul II observes that the Ten commandments may seem harsh (Do not...), but actually they are not; they point to the Law of Love However, Jesus uses a different language, Blessed are you! and ends with a note of Righteousness as a reward. Jesus in this way calls us to the life of righteousness.
The Beatitudes are conditions of entering the Kingdom of God and the standard of Christian life in which we are all called to live. They are very contradictory to the world living. How can one find happiness in poverty, persecution, mourning, sadness and being hated? Understanding the Beatitudes in a world sense is not logical, they are spiritual attitudes necessary for those who would enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The world invites us to the contradiction of these Beatitudes: instead of poverty if Spirit, it invites us to seek happiness in material things and popularity, instead of being merciful, it invites us to foster revenge and resentment and unforgiveness, instead of being sorry and shameful of sin, it invites us to rationalize sin, and there are other many contradictions.
That's why Pope John Paul II further invites us to know our calling which is to live the Beatitudes so that we are not taken by the world. During a sermon on the Beatitudes on the Mount of Beatitudes in 2000, He warned young people of the need to understand why the message of the beatitudes is very important, saying, “You are aware of another voice within you and all around you, a contradictory voice. It is a voice which says, “Blessed are the proud and violent, those who prosper at any cost, who are unscrupulous, pitiless, devious, who make war not peace, and persecute those who stand in their way...they are the one who win. Happy are they” says the evil voice.
Brethren, we need to be aware of this voice which is contradicting the Beatitudes for it is the major threat of Christian life. Our call is to live up to the teachings of Christ and this demands to leave back our boats and nets which is never easy. To be Christian we have to transcend this world and know that Jesus will transform our weakness to strength. We are therefore invited to do our best in living the Beatitudes daily.
Brethren, the choice is ours, to follow Jesus' voice deep within us which says Blessed are You or to follow the evil voice which invites daily and strongly to follow the worldly pleasures. Today take time to reflect on each and every Beatitude, let them speak to you, find out which one is hard for you to live and pray for the aid of the Holy Spirit. Resolve today to live the Beatitudes as you hear an inner voice telling you: Blessed are You!
Let us Pray.
Lord, may your grace help me to respond to difficult moments, sadness or frustrations for your sake by calling in mind the first words of your Sermon on the Mount and reminding me that I am Blessed if I live for You. Amen
Be blessed
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