Reflection for 27th Jan 2017
Sunday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Sunday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Blue Print of Catholic Life Style
![Picture](/uploads/2/6/3/2/26321805/praytoendabortion_7_orig.png)
Note : Since we are still on the Nine Days for Life ( January 21 - 29, 2017) these pictures will be there, just to request our prayers.
Last Sunday we discussed that we have to live up to the values of the kingdom. Most of us trained to live up to Ten Commandments. Are we not? There is nothing wrong with that. In the society where Jesus grew up, a good person was understood as one who kept the Law perfectly. Remember the rich man who said he kept the Commandments since he was young. But what happened when he was asked to care about others? Didn’t he fail? Sometimes we can keep the commandments without doing anything. What I really mean is with few interactions. Surely we can be with fewer faults. Does is that why we are here for? This was surely a failure in love for the neighbour. And that way we could not become a good disciple of Jesus.Today we are going to address that.
So what are we missing? We have to always remember we were not born as Catholics, but we become as Catholics so we have to adapt to the new life style and Beatitudes it that blue print. The Beatitudes must be understood in the context of the Kingdom. The Kingdom, as we said on a previous Sunday, is not a place. It is that relationship that exists between God and those who have totally accepted him as the Lord and guide of their lives and who share God’s vision (will of God) of what life is all about.So, in the Kingdom it is not the rich, the successful and the powerful that are really happy and fortunate but the meek and lowly. Clearly that is not the conventional way of thinking for many in our world. That is why we need spiritual conversion to enter the kingdom we need.
This is confirmed in today’s second reading.
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
Now we will have a look at just one beatitude otherwise we have to read for a while. We will select “Blessed are the poor in spirit... “
When we read this some will ask is Jesus still out of his mind? It might seem strange to link poverty and happiness. How can we consider poverty a blessing? Let us try to understand what it means to be “poor in spirit”. When the Son of God became man, he chose the path of poverty and self-emptying. As Saint Paul said in his letter to the Philippians: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness”.Jesus is God who strips himself of his glory. Here we see God’s choice to be poor: he was rich and yet he became poor in order to enrich us through his poverty. This is the mystery we contemplate in the crib when we see the Son of God lying in a manger, and later on the cross, where his self-emptying reaches its culmination. It is “God’s Poor” we are talking about. It suggests lowliness, a sense of one’s limitations and existential poverty.
Saint Francis of Assisi understood perfectly the secret of the Beatitude of the poor in spirit. Indeed, when Jesus spoke to him through the leper and from the crucifix, he recognized it perfectly. Now we might think: What can we do, specifically, to make poverty in spirit a way of life, a real part of our own lives?
There are some thoughts from Pope Francis. (Just a summary)
First of all, try to be free with regard to material things. The Lord calls us to a Gospel lifestyle marked by a refusal of the culture of consumerism. This means being concerned with the essentials and learning to do without all those unneeded extras.
Second, if we are to live by this Beatitude, all of us need to experience a conversion in the way we see the poor. We have to care for them and be sensitive to their spiritual and material needs.
Third, not but not least the poor are not just people to whom we can give something. They have much to offer us and to teach us. In a very real way, the poor are our teachers. They show us that people’s value is not measured by their possessions or how much money they have in the bank. A poor person, a person lacking material possessions, always maintains his or her dignity. The poor can teach us much about humility and trust in God.
If we can do at least some of the above we can place smile on one’s face. It turn it will place a smile on our face too. This means we will be happy. That is the ultimate result of any beatitude.
Each Beatitude begins with the word “Blessed”.The meaning of these words is a combination of happiness and good fortune. So we could translate either with “Happy are those…” or “Fortunate are those…”.If these brings “happiness” and “good fortune” isn’t worth to change our life style?
As we always say “Choice is ours”.
Last Sunday we discussed that we have to live up to the values of the kingdom. Most of us trained to live up to Ten Commandments. Are we not? There is nothing wrong with that. In the society where Jesus grew up, a good person was understood as one who kept the Law perfectly. Remember the rich man who said he kept the Commandments since he was young. But what happened when he was asked to care about others? Didn’t he fail? Sometimes we can keep the commandments without doing anything. What I really mean is with few interactions. Surely we can be with fewer faults. Does is that why we are here for? This was surely a failure in love for the neighbour. And that way we could not become a good disciple of Jesus.Today we are going to address that.
So what are we missing? We have to always remember we were not born as Catholics, but we become as Catholics so we have to adapt to the new life style and Beatitudes it that blue print. The Beatitudes must be understood in the context of the Kingdom. The Kingdom, as we said on a previous Sunday, is not a place. It is that relationship that exists between God and those who have totally accepted him as the Lord and guide of their lives and who share God’s vision (will of God) of what life is all about.So, in the Kingdom it is not the rich, the successful and the powerful that are really happy and fortunate but the meek and lowly. Clearly that is not the conventional way of thinking for many in our world. That is why we need spiritual conversion to enter the kingdom we need.
This is confirmed in today’s second reading.
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
Now we will have a look at just one beatitude otherwise we have to read for a while. We will select “Blessed are the poor in spirit... “
When we read this some will ask is Jesus still out of his mind? It might seem strange to link poverty and happiness. How can we consider poverty a blessing? Let us try to understand what it means to be “poor in spirit”. When the Son of God became man, he chose the path of poverty and self-emptying. As Saint Paul said in his letter to the Philippians: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness”.Jesus is God who strips himself of his glory. Here we see God’s choice to be poor: he was rich and yet he became poor in order to enrich us through his poverty. This is the mystery we contemplate in the crib when we see the Son of God lying in a manger, and later on the cross, where his self-emptying reaches its culmination. It is “God’s Poor” we are talking about. It suggests lowliness, a sense of one’s limitations and existential poverty.
Saint Francis of Assisi understood perfectly the secret of the Beatitude of the poor in spirit. Indeed, when Jesus spoke to him through the leper and from the crucifix, he recognized it perfectly. Now we might think: What can we do, specifically, to make poverty in spirit a way of life, a real part of our own lives?
There are some thoughts from Pope Francis. (Just a summary)
First of all, try to be free with regard to material things. The Lord calls us to a Gospel lifestyle marked by a refusal of the culture of consumerism. This means being concerned with the essentials and learning to do without all those unneeded extras.
Second, if we are to live by this Beatitude, all of us need to experience a conversion in the way we see the poor. We have to care for them and be sensitive to their spiritual and material needs.
Third, not but not least the poor are not just people to whom we can give something. They have much to offer us and to teach us. In a very real way, the poor are our teachers. They show us that people’s value is not measured by their possessions or how much money they have in the bank. A poor person, a person lacking material possessions, always maintains his or her dignity. The poor can teach us much about humility and trust in God.
If we can do at least some of the above we can place smile on one’s face. It turn it will place a smile on our face too. This means we will be happy. That is the ultimate result of any beatitude.
Each Beatitude begins with the word “Blessed”.The meaning of these words is a combination of happiness and good fortune. So we could translate either with “Happy are those…” or “Fortunate are those…”.If these brings “happiness” and “good fortune” isn’t worth to change our life style?
As we always say “Choice is ours”.
Prayer : Come Lord Jesus, Come and set us Free.