1 February: 4th Sunday, YR A: Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12a
If I make sense reality by reducing it to “winners” and “losers,” I probably prefer not to hear today’s Gospel. If I listen to Jesus words from my insecurities, I may fear that I’m being asked to become a door mat. Is there only suffering and loss of control in these Beatitudes?
Perhaps Jesus is calling me to listen from my strengths. And we all have strengths, though we are too often driven by our fears and insecurities. How much time do I waste concealing my fears from others and my strengths from myself?
Isn’t it insecure people who dismiss others as “losers” and set up the standards to make themselves “winners”? How much is my control over circumstances and people delusory—and a misery to others? If I learned to suffer consciously, wouldn’t I grow and mature into an integrated person? Were I to face my limitations, were I to work with them, might I not discover my real strengths?
I’d certainly discover the heart of Jesus.
Look how many of the Beatitudes presume humility!
The word humility is related to humus, the ground. Humus is that rich fertile soil, pretending to be nothing but itself. Humility isn’t putting myself down but being honest, without pretense, without hiding my limitations, embracing who I am. It is being close to the ground, not in the sense of groveling, but of being grounded. And that is the heart of Jesus.
Six chapters after today’s Gospel Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. In those intervening six chapters, Jesus has been confronted by opposition, controversy and rejection—and yet he hasn’t changed his tune.
Doesn’t that tell me something important?