The 2014 calendar is doing us a favor. This year, as we move into the second half of Ordinary Time, the Gospel reading for the coming weeks will be that of St. Matthew. Today’s reading starts us off with the Sermon on the Mount.
I have been asked sometimes whether the Beatitudes are Jesus’ commandments. I suspect that this notion is born from the fact that the Sermon on the Mount is very much concerned with the Covenant Law of Sinai. The so-called “Ten” commandments come up for discussion in Jesus’ discourse.
However, the Beatitudes are not commandments. They are wisdom statements. The technical term for them is “macarisms,” a word from Greek which identifies the “blessed” or “happy” part of each beatitude. This list consists of eight such wisdom statements. However, if we pay close attention to the Gospel, we will find that there are so many more macarisms sprinkled throughout the Gospel and the other books of the Christian Scriptures as well.
Much of the Jewish Scriptures is based upon the “theology of reciprocity.” If I am good, good things will be done for me. I am evil, bad things will be visited upon my head. In modern parlance, we might sum it up by saying “What goes around comes around.” However, we all know that this simply isn’t the case. Good people suffer tragedies every day. Good people contract and suffer with debilitating diseases. Good people are the victims of senseless violence. Bad things do happen to good people. The best example of that is found in Jesus himself. The Just One was made to suffer the most ignominious kind of death imagineable.
The Beatitudes, be they the eight we find at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, or any one of many others, are simply a way of speaking to the reality of our sinful world. While the world ignores the poor, God does not. While those who are beset by sorrow may seem to be cursed by God, just the opposite is true. Those who are the victims of injustice may be humiliated in the eyes of society, but they can place their hope in God who will lift them up from their desperate circumstances.
There are those who refer to this as “pie in the sky” theology. It is their contention that It is in our own best interests to pursue the “good life,” to “be all that we can be,” to “go for the gusto.” These people see no value or merit in embracing the cross. Yet our faith tells us differently. Our faith informs us that God is mindful of the poor and will indeed reward them when the Reign of God is fully manifested. Jesus’ Resurrection is the sure sign that those who suffer for the sake of righteousness will be raised to new life. This is the faith we profess, and it is the reasoning behind the CUSA motto: “We suffer for a purpose.”
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator