Homily for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time-January 29, 2023

Like all the sacred sites in the Holy Land and especially around the Sea of Galilee, the Church of the Beatitudes is beautiful and peaceful. When I visited the site several years ago, I was impressed by the simplicity of the place. The building is small, built not to hold a crowd but a limited group. The church’ shape is octagonal (eight sides) in honor of the eight beatitudes which are written in glass in the eight windows located in the upper side of the walls.

The Beatitudes are the eight blessings given by the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. Beatitude means supreme blessedness. The Beatitudes describe the supreme blessedness of those who have certain qualities or experiences characteristic to those belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven.   

The Beatitudes are important to us Christians because they are the highest level of morality the Lord invites his followers to have. The qualities and experiences peculiar to those belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven are what we Christians need to aim at in life.

Anyone in the Old Testament who wanted to pursue happiness was told to keep God’s commandments. Any follower of the Lord who wants to pursue happiness in this life and in the life to come is told to keep the Beatitudes. Believing this is difficult because we find a contradiction: how do those who mourn or those who are persecuted for the sake of justice remain happy? Still, the Lord’s words have always been validated.

They were first validated in his own person. The happiest person who ever lived is the one we see crucified in churches everywhere. The Saints, those who believed in his words throughout history, have been the happiest people on earth, second only to our Lord.  

Being poor in spirit is not the same as being small in spirit. The Lord himself and the saints were poor in spirit and have big spirits. Recent saints such as pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa are great examples of those who were poor in spirit and yet had big spirits.

Finally, I would like to offer some advice on ways to become blessed practicing the Beatitudes. First, I would say that the qualities and experiences characteristic to those belonging to the kingdom of Heaven are qualities and experiences belonging to God himself. God is humility, righteousness, mercy, and peace! We are simply to see God, to see our Lord and learn to be like him. In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord gives us the challenge: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”. The first way to become blessed is to ask Him who is blessedness himself to grant us the grace.

Another way to become blessed is to reflect on the Beatitudes, learn them by heart preferably, make them the subject of constant meditation. And take concrete steps in our daily lives to practice one or two of the beatitudes. Practice makes perfect. For example, we can work on our anger and intentionally embrace peace and forgiveness until they become part of our way of life. Many people mistakenly work hard pursuing happiness in material things. We know that real happiness is found somewhere else. We need to work hard on the qualities and experiences that gives us true happiness.

Let us humbly ask our Lord to grant us his grace to learn where true happiness is found and work hard to pursue it.