Rejoice and be glad

 ‘…Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you....’ (Matt 5:12)

Matthew 5:1-2 (Year A: 4^th Sunday after Epiphany Sunday 29^th January 2017)

Religion sometimes gets a bad name for allegedly spreading gloom, fear and a spirit of killjoy. In fact, many nowadays juxtapose the terms ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ as if they were entirely different concepts and as if ‘religion’=bad while ‘spirituality’=good. We can all fall into this way of thinking as the world around us shapes our conversations and thinking no matter how adept we think we may be at resisting the pressures of group thinking and group post-thinking to misuse a hyphenated prefix .  How often one hears the expression ‘I’m not religious but I am spiritual’.  Sometimes it is said by persons who affect humility since being ‘religious’ is deemed to be a somewhat old-fashioned, possibly reactionary or haughty state of being.

However, the word ‘religion’ has its roots in the Latin word religare meaning ‘to bind together’. Now if the essence of religion is to be in a relationship of I / thou so that there is a binding together then what is ‘spirituality’? ‘Spirituality’ is also about relationship. According to Wikipedia: ‘German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (a famous atheist) regarded self-transcendence, asceticism and the recognition of one's connection to all as a key to ethical living’. Key to a modern (or dare I say postmodern) approach to ‘spirituality’ is the search for inner happiness or, to use a somewhat religious expression, blessing.

In the Gospel of St Matthew Jesus is reported as declaring a charter for happy and blessed living.  As with so many other sayings of Jesus, the ‘beatitudes’ can become a routine and unremarkable set of over-familiar words inscribed on some Church stain glass window or read out on the fourth Sunday after Epiphany in the year of Matthew.  We might listen again this Sunday.

Line by line

‘When Jesus saw the crowds’ (v1) indicates that Jesus saw beyond the normal and the superficial. He saw into the human heart and the deepest needs of ordinary people. This is why he ‘went up the mountain’ (v. 1) in a very prophetic way as the great figures of the Old Testament did (e.g. Moses). There, on a mountain side he ‘began to speak’ to people about the things of life and the things of God as both are interwoven. This is what he ‘taught them’:

(1) ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ (v. 3).  The poor have a special place in the heart of God throughout the scriptures. ‘Poverty’ is, however, a blessing in another sense.  It would be easy to confuse matters by suggesting that the poor – those without resources or income – should be happy with their lot because the kingdom of heaven will be theirs at the end of their miserable life. Not so. To be poor because of oppression, denial, neglect or theft is not a blessing.  Rather, those who empty themselves of an attachment to power, to material wealth and to spiritual goods are blessed because these attachments block their way to the garden of peace and contentedness.

(2) ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’. Some see in this verse a reference to the ‘tears of compunction’ that arise when we recognise our sins and the full impact of these on others as well as ourselves.  It is only right that we should mourn thus (but it is good to mourn in the healing knowledge of God’s love and forgiveness. An ‘Anam-chara’ might help if we are lucky enough to find one in a million). However, many are those afflicted by poverty, ill-health and oppression for reasons other than ‘tears of compunction’. The Gospel, which is Good News, holds out a hope and a pledge that these will be comforted – if not now later (Matthew draws much on Isaiah including, in this case, chapter 61 where a previous blog touched on this in People with a Mission).  Saying that those going through various agonies and sufferings will be comforted ‘later’ is all too easy for those who are comforted and comfortable.  What about the now?  None of us can change the world on our own. None of us remove suffering and oppression entirely from this world and this life. But, opportunities do arise every day and in every way for us to recognise suffering in ourselves and in others. Through recognition of suffering we can become more compassionate towards others and towards ourselves (indeed the two most go together of necessity).  In the capacity to embrace suffering in this way we are led to a realisation of an enormous gentleness that accompanies kindness for:

(3) ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’ (v. 5).  Being meek and gentle does not imply submission or docility in the face of oppression or injustice.  The really gentle know how to stand up and fight but to do with the utter respect for the other even when subject to what is patently unfair treatment and abuse. In this way, the gentle inherit a place of strength and of blessing knowing that they have followed the path of justice and mercy which makes them stronger than their enemies. Even in the most desperate of circumstances the gentle are victorious because they stand in a place of moral strength and thus inherit what is truly precious and valuable and besides which social honour, power, privilege and money do not compare.  For them what matters is to do the right thing as Micah 6:8 urges us (‘He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God’).  It does not matter what others think or not or what the ‘world’ and all of its trappings of power and prejudice regards as right:

(4) ‘‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’ (v. 6). To yearn and strive for what is right – no matter what the cost – is the greatest prize.  Many a person who has had to ‘walk the plank’ not out of choice but out of compulsion. Blessed are those who have had ‘walk the plank’ because, in their hearts, they knew what was right and what was, therefore, essential for them to do. Having been shown mercy by God hidden in their hearts they learned the hard lesson of mercy themselves for:

(5) ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.’ (v. 7)

A sense of overwhelming compassion overwhelms us in the depths of such anguish and leads – if we are open to this gift – to a purity of intention and vision for:

(6) ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’ (v. 8). Religious language using the word ‘purity’ is typically associated with one dimension of purity. A singular, focussed, and compassionate glance of the heart sees beyond the image or the outward impression to the person in whom God resides. What we do to others – especially those in most need – is done to God in our brother Jesus.  Such purity is the source of peace in ourselves and a channel of peace for others for:

(7) ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’ (v. 9)

We bring peace to others when we are open to the gift of peace within us. When we make our peace with God – our past sins our anxieties about the future and our current preoccupations dissolve in the peace of the Now. But not everyone is open to the gift of peace and some will refuse it on all accounts. Then, we are reminded that:

(8) ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’   To face bullying, threats, put-downs and various forms of controlling behaviour is not uncommon in the school yard. However, it may also be found in the workplace, in the market square and even in our own very own families under one guise or another. To be falsely accused and to be represented as bad to others is a source of great suffering in our world. We must stand in solidarity with all those undergoing persecution whether for their faith, the colour of the skin, their social class, their sexual orientation or for simply who they are. We can be a source of blessing and a cause of joy for others by living peace, embracing purity of heart and gentleness of compassion.

Ultimately, the Beatitudes or ‘Blessings’ are for every Christian disciple and not just for those with some special ministry or calling. We are, each and all, called to be poor in spirit, contrite, gentle, hungry for justice, merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers and faithful in persecution.  Once again the prophet Micah puts it thus:

‘to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God’

To have a heart of compassion, humility and fairness is to change our world. This can spill over into the world of others.  This is the way to a social revolution based on love.