Gospel: Matthew 5: 1-12
With the ever-present fascination with the ten commandments one would think they are the sine qua non of becoming a saint. And yet in no place does Jesus ever use them in such a sense. Instead, he proposes to us eight essential qualities of being a saint here on earth: poverty of spirit, sorrowing, lowliness, hungering for justice, mercy, peacemaking, long-suffering, being persecuted. That so few Christians can even name these eight beatitudes is a conviction against us.
Yet Jesus not only proposes these values as essential, but he also lived them and showed us how to embody them in our lives. For these are qualities of a faith that lives to serve others and not merely avoid sin in the world; it is by serving others that we overcome sin in our lives, for to serve others is to destroy pride and self-interest which is the root of all sin.
What if, instead of erecting monuments to the ten commandments we erected monuments to the eight beatitudes? Better yet, what if we actually embodies and lived these eight essential values as individuals and communities of faith? That the Church has this Gospel for this feast day is a powerful message to the Christian community of where our emphasis in the Christian life should be.
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