HOMILY WEEK 10 01 – Year I
The Beatitudes – Our Way of Being
(2 Cor 1:1-7; Ps 34; Mt 5:1-12)
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Do you know your “Way of Being”?
The liturgy today invites us to live the Beatitudes always, in both pleasant and painful times.
A core teaching of the Returning To Spirit Process is the importance of discovering and naming our “Way of Being.” One participant in the training at Morley, AB, was having a hard time identifying hers, so Mark Pizandawatc, our instructor, offered the suggestion “Drama Queen” causing her to almost hit the roof. The rest of the class, however, burst out laughing because he had nailed it – that was who she was – a drama queen.
I myself was struggling to identify my Way of Being (I was in training at that time before being named to the episcopacy) until my first celebration of the Eucharist as bishop in Île-à-la Crosse when the pastor at that time, Fr. John Zunti, introduced me to the congregation with the words, “We Oblates call him Mr. Fix-It.” I was shocked at first, but then quickly realized that he also had nailed it – that was truly my Way of Being – the way I was doing so much of my ministry in the north – trying to fix people and even whole communities. It was no wonder as a young priest I had experienced so much frustration. My Way of Being was not helpful at all.
A Way of Being has a lot to do with our attitudes. An attitude to me now is my habitual way of thinking, feeling and acting in this world, and it can be either positive or negative, helping us in life, or hindering us as we live out each day. What is important is that we can finally discover our Way of Being, often needing the help of others along the way, so that we can grow with it or make changes to it.
We are so fortunate that Jesus gave us eight Ways of Being – eight Beatitudes that are all positive and real blessings if we can only integrate them into our lives and ministry. Two of them are striking – being “poor in spirit” and being “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” – because they are an opening to experiencing the kingdom of God right here and now in this life – “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
In Matthew, the last Beatitude is strongly emphasized by being mentioned twice – so much so that it almost becomes a ninth Beatitude. So suffering for the sake of the kingdom is a most sure entrance to the kingdom.
There is a catch, however. That suffering has to be redemptive. It is redemptive when it is connected to the suffering of Jesus. How to do that is a key question. The answer is when we are able to accept some inconvenience and suffering in our lives without bitterness or resentment, as Jesus did, then our suffering is connected to his and builds up the reign of God here on earth.
That is something our world does not understand, as in its lack of faith, it does not see any meaning or purpose in suffering or inconvenience at all. As an Ottawa psychologist put it in a Maclean’s magazine article, “We used to think the enemy was death. Now we know that it is suffering.” The end result of this kind of thinking is abortion on the one hand, because children are now seen as an inconvenience (in saying this, I do not want to judge anyone who may have terminated a pregnancy, as there are many reasons why one would do that – pressure, panic, force, etc). And there is medical assistance in dying on the other hand (because the elderly might suffer). And in between, an epidemic of addiction, as people try to medicate their pain.
Our task as followers of Jesus, who freely accepted to suffer on the cross to show us the depth of the Father’s love, is to allow our suffering to be an optimal blessing to all who know us, by the joyful and peaceful way that we can accept it, so that blood and water (eternal life) is flowing out of our side as we lay in our coffins.
St Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, is so grounded in God’s love for him and his faith in Jesus Christ as Risen Lord who gave his life for us, that he can teach them to accept both consolation and desolation in their lives, as he did in his. It all has profound and mystical meaning and purpose – God turns everything to the good for those who love him. As St. Francis put it in his last words to his friars, we have no reason to regret anything in our lives, painful or pleasant.
The Eucharist makes present the love of Christ shown us by his suffering on the Cross, and above all by the way he accepted that suffering without bitterness or resentment – only forgiveness for those who were crucifying him.
May our celebration, and our entering into this Paschal Mystery of Love, empower us to make the Beatitudes our Way of Being and the way that we habitually think, feel and act in this world, building up the reign of God as we do so.
