Just as nothing on earth can give us the happiness that every man seeks, if we are united to God nothing can rob us of it

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. January 30th, 2011

Today in our Holy Gospel we hear the teaching of the Beatitudes from our Blessed Lord. The Beatitudes are the very conditions Jesus lays down for entering the Kingdom of heaven. The Beatitudes take the negatives commands of the Ten Commandments-“Thou shall nots,” and they elevate and present these demands of Jesus on his followers in a positive way, “Blessed are they who do these things.” For the fullness of love of God consist not merely avoiding things, like sin but in doing things, in backing up our words of love with deeds of love.

The Beatitudes are a promise of salvation that extends, not to just to particular kinds of persons, such as the poor or rich, but to everyone whose religious dispositions of heart and moral conduct meet these great demands of Jesus. In other words, salvation is promised to all of those who are poor in spirit, who are meek, who mourn, who hunger and thirst after righteousness, are merciful, pure in heart, are peacemakers and those who suffer in their search for holiness. And so these differing demands of the Beatitudes cover everyone, no matter what their position in life might be, every one who wants to be a true disciple of Christ and inherit His promise of Salvation, which is union with God forever.

Last week I spent the weekend with the youth in Washington D.C. at the March for Life; An event that I wish you could all experience. This event and others like it, remind us how our love for Jesus must move us to protect and defend and witness publicly to the dignity of human life from conception until natural death. And beg out Lord in the Holy Eucharist for the graces of conversion of our country and our world. Only when more Catholics do these acts of love will we defeat the culture of death, and turn it into a culture of life, a culture at peace, where we are all truly blessed.

Perhaps, we can better understand the Beatitudes if we compare them to the corresponding attitudes currently found within the culture of death, which is sadly so prevalent in our world today.

1) Where Christ advocates poverty-being poor in spirit, the culture of death in the world despises the poor, not just the physically poor but also especially the spiritually poor; and instead it canonizes those who are rich and famous, movie stars, politicians and sports figures, no matter how they live their lives.

2) Where Christ praises gentleness always seeking the good of others by serving instead of being served, the world belittles meekness and extols those who succeed by using or removing anyone, even through murder, that stands in the way; using people as means to get what they want; Non-Servium! I will not serve.

3) Blessed are those who mourn:--Where Christ encourages mourning and sorrow for our sin and penance as a way to atone for sin in order to show God we are sorry.-- the world instead revels in pleasure, comfort and the noise of empty laughter. The world here refuses to see the suffering in this world as a consequence of sin and refuses to repent of its crimes, seeking forgiveness and the grace to amend one’s life.

4). Where Christ promises true Joy only to those who seek justice and peace by seeking holiness, that is those who accept the truth and strive to conform their lives to it, the world and it’s culture of death offers satisfaction in the enjoyment and pleasure of sin and so living one’s life in accordance to lies.

5) Where Christ bids us forgive and show mercy to those who have offended us, to forgive just has the Heavenly Father does to our offenses when we ask for forgiveness; the world for it’s part will not let go of the past, it seeks vengeance, and its law courts are filled with demands for retribution.

6) Where Christ blesses those who are pure of heart and promises that they alone shall see God, the world scoffs at chastity, makes a mockery of purity and makes a god of sexually immorality.

7) Where Christ tells the peaceful that they shall be rewarded, the world teaches just the opposite in constant rebellion, disobedience, violence and massive preparation for war.

8). Where Christ teaches the incredible doctrine of accepting persecution and resignation to God’s Holy Will. The world dreads nothing more than criticism, rejection and loss of human respect, which means acceptance by society and one’s peers is the moral norm without any concern for what God thinks.
In all of this we come to understand that striving with the help of God’s grace to live the Beatitudes is the only way to sanctity, happiness and life. The Beatitudes are Jesus’ promise that there will be no obstacle to happiness and joy for those who truly seek to follow Him, not just in sweet words but most especially in deeds. He says to us, even if men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, instead of sorrow, rejoice and be glad, your reward will be great in heaven.

Just as nothing on earth can give us the happiness that every man seeks, if we are united to God nothing can rob us of it. Our happiness and our fulfillment come from God alone, the God who became man to share in our in our existence, to share in both the happy and sad moments of our life. One saint put it this way, “Oh you who feel the weight of the cross bear more heavily on you! You who are poor and forsaken, you who mourn, who are persecuted for the cause of justice, you who pass silently by, who suffer pain unknown to others, take heart---You are the best loved in God’s kingdom, the kingdom of hope, of goodness and of life. You are brothers of the suffering Christ, and together with him, if you wish, you can save the world.”

When in our search for happiness we men attempt to follow other ways, other than those willed by God—other than those marked out by the master, we instead find only loneliness and sadness. In other words, apart from God and His ways, there is no lasting happiness, but only loneness and death, the source of our current culture of death. Contrastingly, those who trust in God and humbly pray to Him especially during times of despair and anguish move His divine heart to compassion—God then accompanies them in every instant of their lives.

Even in times of great distress, natural disasters and wars, the person that turns to God’s ways and walks humbly in His paths of righteousness, discovers the loving face of God before him. Before God’s continence this man joyfully discover that God never abandons those who love Him, but guarantees that, notwithstanding trials and tribulations, in the end good always triumphs over evil, life over death; in other words all things work out for the best, for those who love God.

Holy Mary, Mother of the beatitudes, at the end of our life, we will be judged on our love, pray for us so that we may be blessed in the eyes of your Son and receive the reward of eternal life. Help us in faith to see the source of our eternal happiness and so our eternal beatitude is truly present in the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. You told us at Fatima that by coming on bended knee before this God hidden in the little with host, and adoring and loving Him there we could bring peace upon the earth. So help us dear Lady, to live your Message of Fatima, which is the message of the Gospel, all the days of our life, and so turn our culture of death into a culture of life by praying for the conversion of poor sinners everywhere, those in our own homes and in our own families, most especially that sinner who looks at us each morning in the mirror. Amen.