{"id":1815,"date":"2017-01-28T10:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T15:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stpeterstoronto.ca\/main\/?p=1815"},"modified":"2017-01-24T16:54:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T21:54:18","slug":"if-you-wish-to-be-blessed-cling-to-the-lord-at-all-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpeterstoronto.ca\/main\/2017\/01\/28\/if-you-wish-to-be-blessed-cling-to-the-lord-at-all-times\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Wish To Be Blessed, Cling To The Lord At All Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blessed\"<\/a>After His teaching of the Great Christian prayer, the Our Father, the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount which we hear in today\u2019s Gospel are probably among Jesus\u2019s most famous and important teachings. Perhaps the only other teaching of similar importance would be the Great Commandment that Christ has given, that we must love the Lord our God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves. These three teachings are intimately connected as the fundamental teachings for the followers of Jesus.<\/p>\n

The Beatitudes use repeatedly the word \u201cblessed.\u201d To be \u201cblessed\u201d means to live in the presence of the Lord and to enjoy His grace in our lives. When something is blessed, we ask that it may be put aside or placed in God\u2019s presence. When a thing or place is blessed, we ask that God set it aside and watch over it. When a person is blessed, we ask that God send His Spirit upon them and watch over them. One of the most powerful examples of what it means to be blessed is what we experience when we come into the Lord\u2019s presence at the celebration of every Mass. Just before we come to receive the Eucharist, when the Lord is present among us in the Blessed Sacrament, we all kneel down and proclaim that we are blessed because we stand in the presence of Christ. The beautiful proclamation: \u201cBehold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb,\u201d spells out clearly that all who are in Christ\u2019s presence are to be called blessed. As we come for communion, we are blessed to be in His presence. The saints are also blessed because they are in Heaven in the Lord\u2019s presence for all eternity. This is why in the Eucharistic Prayers the saints are called blessed. The most famous example the Church has of one who is blessed is Mary. We acknowledge this as we pray the \u201cHail Mary\u201d and say, \u201cThe Lord is with you, blessed are you among all women.\u201d Because the Lord is with Mary, she is blessed.<\/p>\n

Mary is in fact called the first and perfect Christian because she lived her entire life in God\u2019s presence as the example of the blessed life. Mary\u2019s life shows us how we are to live the Beatitudes. While I always like to find a movie or contemporary story as an example about how to tell the Gospel story each week, this week as I was preparing the homily, I could think of no example more powerful than the life of Mary. Mary\u2019s entire life was a \u201cyes\u201d to God\u2019s will and an openness to being in God\u2019s presence. In her poverty of spirit, she said yes to the unfathomable task that God was entrusting to her in asking her to be the mother of God. With meekness and purity of heart she raised the Christ child and was always obedient to God\u2019s will for her. Despite the possibility that Joseph would reject her on learning of her pregnancy, Mary never feared to follow the Lord in all of His ways. Mary is also an example of one who mourns the loss of her Son, confident that God will raise Him up again through the resurrection. She remains with the Apostles in the days following Christ\u2019s death and strengthens their faith that through her conviction they might be able to preach the Good News of the Resurrection with confidence. From her life, we see that Mary was blessed because she clung to the Lord at all times.<\/p>\n

In fact, if I were to try and summarize the main lesson of the Beatitudes, I would paraphrase it this way: \u201cIf you wish to be Blessed, cling to the Lord at all times.\u201d The first of the Beatitudes calls Christians to a poverty in spirit that acknowledges we cannot control all things and that ultimately God is in charge and we are pilgrims on this earth. The Christian life calls for a certain amount of detachment, since everything but God\u2019s love is passing. If we cling too strongly to the things of this life, we will resent God who eventually will call us and everything else back to himself. The passing nature of life is expressed in the Beatitude, \u201cblessed are those who mourn.\u201d Not resenting God when we must let go of others, those who trust in God will have restored to them all those they have lost in the resurrection. The meekness that the beatitudes invite us to is simply a recognition that God is ultimately in charge of the universe and our lives and there is no way of fighting this fact of life. At the same time, because God is in charge of the universe, each Christian is to search to build the Kingdom up according to the Gospel and God\u2019s plan. In the name of justice and righteousness, the Christian is to take a stand against evil, injustice and all that assaults the dignity of the human person.<\/p>\n

The Beatitudes go on to tell us that those who show mercy, will have mercy shown them. This is a beautiful reminder that if we hold a grudge or refuse to forgive, we ourselves cannot know God\u2019s forgiveness or know His peace. It is only those who are pure of heart that can, like Mary, dwell in Christ\u2019s presence today. When our hearts are full of resentment and grudges, there is no room for the Lord to dwell there. It is impossible to see God if we cling to images and things that cloud our ability to perceive Him through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives today. Remaining faithful to God in the midst of a world that does not often wish to hear about Him or acknowledge His presence calls the Christian often to be persecuted for righteousness sake. This involves a willingness to be more concerned about God\u2019s opinion of us than that of our neighbour and the world\u2019s approval. In fact, the true Christian will find himself or herself mocked by the world, as were the early Christians and those who dared to say that Jesus had risen from the dead. \u201cBlessed are you when people revile you and persecute you on my account and utter all kinds of evil against you,\u201d reminds us of the fate of the early Christians and Christ Himself. The Christian is never called to be silent in the face of political correctness and to fail to speak of the Gospel, even when it will lead to their being made fun of and ostracized. The Christian who wishes to be blessed must cling to Christ and not worry of the consequences. This is a radical invitation, but one that assures that we will always be in Christ\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

The Beatitudes are not easy to live. They call for a kind of constant dedication to God and a willingness to make Him the centre of our lives. The kind of life which the Beatitudes call all of us to is that radical acceptance of God\u2019s will in our lives that was lived by Jesus, Mary and all of the great saints in our Christian tradition. Because it is such a difficult way of life, Jesus has actually taught us a prayer that we are to say everyday seeking the assistance of the Father to live this way. In the Our Father, whether we recognize it or not, Jesus has taught us the way in which we are to pray to live the beatitudes. The petitions of the Our Father call us to pray in a way that seeks God\u2019s assistance that we might live each day the Beatitudes. We can see this call by connecting each petition of the Our Father with that Beatitude which that petition seeks God\u2019s assistance to live. Many of these relationships between the Our Father and the Beatitudes can be discovered in the commentary on the Our Father that is found in the fourth section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church\u2014the section on prayer. The Catechism presents a beautiful commentary on the Our Father.<\/p>\n