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Spirituality of the Readings
4th Sunday of Ordinary Time
January 29, 2023
John Foley, SJ

The Good Life

Jesus took special notice of the “disadvantaged” people, as our culture likes to call them. On Sunday we will hear him explain that the most blest people are the poor [in spirit], the ones who grieve, the ones who are meek, the ones hungry and thirsty for fairness [“righteousness”], the merciful, and the peacemakers.

It is easier to see why the peacemakers and the merciful and the ones hungering for fairness deserve blessedness. These are people we already admire. But the poor? And those who grieve? Oh, and I forgot about the ones whom people insult and persecute and utter every kind of evil falsely against because of Jesus.

Ouch.

Most of us would have compiled just the opposite list. Blest are you if you are rich. Blest are you if never have to grieve over losing someone you love. Blest are you if you are admired and free of enemies and spoken well of at all times. Don’t these sound much more like the good life we want for ourselves and our friends?

Yes, in a way. But isn’t there a danger in these wonderful sounding states of life. Riches and honor can be lures that lead away from love. If I am rich I am tempted to let that be my identity, external though it is. If I am highly admired I might well be enticed to believe that I actually am what people say about me. Either of these can lead to pride, which in this case means paying attention only to myself and what pleases me.

If this happens, and if it leads to the bad kind of pride, still a quiet voice inside us will cry, “I am your real self and you have covered me over. You are smothering me. Help!”

God loves each of us in this “real self.” It is the part of us that God knows best and loves most. God calls us to be what we really are, persons who are loved as we are, and who love in return. What we own, how honored we feel, how swollen up with pride we are—these are undependable. They get in the way, sometimes tragically. God’s Spirit dwells deeper within us, and if we learn to live from that inner spot we will find we are living lives of peace and fruitfulness.

That is why the beatitudes make deep sense. If we do learn to live from the home within us, we will find God’s love there. And we will find also love of others, comfortably dwelling with it. This will be true even if poverty and insults are our external condition.

It takes a while to learn, sometimes a great while. Watch Jesus if you want to know what it is like.

________

 * Gerard Manley Hopkins, Patience, Hard Thing


Father Foley can be reached at:
Fr. John Foley, SJ

Fr. John Foley, SJ is a composer and scholar at Saint Louis University.
Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org