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The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe, Week 4-A, 29 January 2017
Zephaniah 2:3;3:12-13//1Corinthians 1:26-31//Matthew 5:1-12
After narrating to us last Sunday the start of the ministry of Jesus Christ in Galilee when He called His first disciples, St. Matthew today tells us the Lord’s inaugural preaching called the Sermon on the Mount comprising three chapters (5-7). It is very significant for St. Matthew in presenting Jesus going up the mountain like Moses in the Old Testament giving the Ten Commandments: When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are …” (Mt.5:1-3)
On the surface, the nine Beatitudes may refer to the qualities of anyone wishing to follow Jesus as a disciple. But as we go through each Beatitude, we also discover on deeper reflections that it is in fact a portrait of Jesus Christ Himself Whom we must all follow and be like! For St. Matthew, this scene is more than the image of Moses as lawgiver in the Old Testament for Jesus Himself is God symbolized by the mountain and secondly, He is Himself the Law Whom we must follow. Most of all, Jesus is the truly Blessed One for He is the Christ, the “poor in spirit” non pareil. He is the one with a “pure heart” Who had come to bring peace among people and the Father that later, He would call everyone to “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest… learn from me for I am meek and humble of the heart.” (Mt.11:28,29) But of the nine Beatitudes where Jesus is veiled as reference point, it is with the last two where we find the Lord explicitly revealed: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.” (Mt.5:10-11)
Aside from the personal pronoun “me” found in the last Beatitude, we can also see that indeed these Beatitudes refer to Jesus Himself because of the word “righteousness” and the phrase “kingdom of heaven.” Righteousness in the Bible is holiness expressed in fidelity to the Torah or the Law like St. Joseph described as a “righteous man.” Righteousness is also living by the word of God, following His holy path by avoiding sin and evil. Remember last Simbang Gabi the elder people described also as righteous like Zechariah and Elizabeth, and Simeon and Anna who were both in the Temple when Mary and Joseph presented the child Jesus. Therefore, righteousness is being faithful in God and to God alone. And Jesus Christ is the perfect picture of righteousness who offered Himself on the Cross for our salvation in fidelity to the Father. He had shown in many instances resplendent with the gems of His Beatitudes how He chose to tread the path of the Father than the path of the world that led to persecution and death on the Cross. And there on the Cross, Jesus also proved indeed that He is the kingdom of heaven when He promised paradise to the repentant thief who expressed faith in Him with the words, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Lk.23: 42) Placing these two Beatitudes at the end of His initial Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus Christ from the very start had always made it clear with all His disciples in all time that to follow Him means also to die on the Cross. Being a Christian, a blessed one is always to go against the path of the world that seeks what is easy, what is popular, and what is most liberating as an individual that do without limits and parameters or standards. In the Beatitudes we find Jesus Christ as the reference, goal and end of life that is fulfilling and meaningful.
Times have indeed changed wherein we have tried to live with so much emphasis on our individuality and freedom, forgetting God and others that only led to more disappointments, sadness and emptiness among many of us. Aside from absolutism, conformity is a favorite attitude, making it always as an argument or excuse in doing everything. Blessed are you when you are persecuted when you make a stand for fidelity in marriage, the unity of the family and the sanctity of sex because Jesus Christ is in you. You are blessed as you can truly see the meaning and sacredness of life as well as the dignity of every person even if everybody would say it is old-fashioned or that everybody is doing it after all. Blessed are you when you are insulted and falsely accused of every evil in the name of Jesus whether in social media or in your office or neighborhood, even at home! Your accusers might be blinded or simply refuse to see the whole picture of himself/herself and life in general. In these times of so much noise when pictures are blurred to suit each one’s belief and point of view, it is so difficult and even senseless to fight head on for it can only lead to more pains and divisions among us. Let us find the mystery of Jesus Christ in His Beatitudes and continue to be in communion with Him even if the world calls us to conform with what is fashionable, with what is “in” that have only brought more gloom and darkness, even anger among those who pretend to be modern and liberal. The Prophet Zephaniah has a very timely advise for us in the Church now being persecuted, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have observed his law; seek justice, seek humility; perhaps you may be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.” (Zeph.2:3) Indeed, the world is partly right in calling us foolish for being faithful to God despite our sins and limitations as St. Paul said, “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, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.” (1Cor.1: 27-29) Be blessed and be a blessing to others too this blessed week!
Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Parokya ni San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista
Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan
