February 13, 2022

My dear family of God,

 We celebrate the sixth Sunday in ordinary time Year C and our Gospel reading is the Lukan version of Jesus’ famous sermon on the mount. Luke’s account of Jesus’ sermon and the beatitudes differs from Matthew’s. Most of us know the Beatitudes in the form found in Matthew’s gospel, in which we have eight Beatitudes about what it means to be truly happy. Luke’s account has four Beatitudes instead of eight. Another thing we notice is that in Matthew’s gospel the Beatitudes are formulated in the third person. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Whereas in Luke’s account, it is in the second person, and they are shorter. “Blessed are you poor...blessed are you that hunger...blessed are you that weep...and blessed are you who are persecuted.” 

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1717 gives a beautiful reflection on the beatitudes when it says: “The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray His charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of His Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ’s disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.”

From the above quote, we notice that the beatitudes depict the face of Jesus Christ. They give us a profile of Christ. As an itinerant preacher He lived a life of radical poverty. Scripture says the son of man had nowhere to lay His head. He wept when His friend Lazarus died, He carried the sorrows and the sufferings of humanity on Himself when He was persecuted and ended up on the cross. So, the beatitudes give us an insight into the life of Jesus. 

The beatitudes also express the vocation of the faithful. The Catechism says It is our vocation to be like Jesus in His Passion and His Resurrection. To be like Jesus in His passion, we should expect to suffer as well. We also see a paradoxical promise in the beatitudes. “Happy are you who mourn.” That doesn’t make sense. How can Jesus say that I am happy if I mourn? Well, He says you “will be comforted.” They are paradoxes because it’s through the cross that we receive eternal reward. 

 If we are hungry now, we will one day be satisfied. These paradoxes are what should “sustain our hope in the midst of tribulation.” The Beatitudes should give us hope that on the other side of the cross is the Resurrection. And if we have any doubts about this, let us look at the lives of the saints. They lived a life of radical poverty and were persecuted for their faith. In short, the Beatitudes show us the face of Christ; they also show us the face of the saints and so remind us of our true vocation: a call to be like Jesus.

Have a grace-filled week. Shalom!

Fr. James Ahenkora