_{Holy Spirit Catholic Church}

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_{Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 3, 2008}

          It is only natural to want to be happy, but happiness is elusive.  It slips from our hands like a wet bar of soap in the shower.  We all try to be happy, but we do not always agree on what happiness is.  It is like having different tastes in music and food.  We even differ on whether we should spend our money now on what we think will make us happy or whether we would be happier saving for a "rainy day" in the future.

          Whatever people may think about happiness, Jesus stands alone in his teaching about what happiness is and how and when we can achieve it.  We have all heard his teaching but perhaps we have failed to grasp the unique character of what Jesus proclaims.

          We call his teaching the Beatitudes, from the Latin word beatus which simply means "happy."  We notice first that the Beatitudes are not commandments nor are they even advice.  They are declarations.  The only thing which Jesus today tells us to do is "Rejoice and be glad."  Other than that he is concerned with indicating in what happiness consists.  He states directly that people are happy who are poor, sorrowful, lowly, and hungry.  Equally he insists that they are happy who show mercy, who are peacemakers, and who suffer persecution.  It is not really a list of things we would choose for ourselves.  If we had received poverty, sorrow, and hunger as Christmas gifts a month ago, we would have thought that Santa Claus had become Scrooge indeed.

          But Jesus is no Scrooge even though he says, "Bah, Humbug!" to what a lot of people think constitutes happiness.  The key to Jesus' teaching is found in the Sixth Beatitude which tells us, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God."

          Who are the "clean of heart?"  The clean of heart are people who, like the saints, center their entire lives on God. In their poverty they realize that real riches are found only in God.  In their sorrow they discover true joy is experienced only in God.  In their lowliness they understand that only God can lift up a person.  In their hunger and thirst they value the Eucharist because the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ will lead us to the great banquet in heaven.  They show mercy, not vengeance; they work for peace, and not hatred, because they know that God is the source of all mercy and peace.  They are even willing to be persecuted because they feel privileged to suffer and even to die as a witness to the Truth!

          Because the clean of heart are centered on God they come to the realization that Jesus practiced what he preached.  Jesus is the poor man who endured the sorrow of his passion and who became as lowly as a criminal on the cross.  They see that Jesus underwent hunger and thirst in the desert to prepare for his mission, and that he transformed his emptiness into a yearning to fill us with his life and his love.  Jesus showed mercy to the sinners, and he offered everyone the gift of his peace.

          Although not one of the Beatitudes is a commandment, we do well to tell ourselves, "Become like Jesus.  Become clean-hearted.  Center your whole life on God."  That would be good advice to give ourselves.  In following it we will be able to fulfill the one thing which today Jesus tells us to do:  "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven."