BLESSED ATTITUDES

BLESSED ATTITUDES – 4^th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

            Not everyone’s major goal in life is seeking the Lord, or justice, humility or keeping the counsels, commandments and ways of the Lord. Not everyone really wants to be poor in spirit. Not everyone is sorrowing over sin, hungering and thirsting for holiness. Not everyone wants to show mercy, be single hearted or a peace maker. Not many want to be persecuted for holiness sake, and be glad and rejoice over being persecuted and insulted for their faith in Christ. Not everyone wants to be among those the world considers unwise, lowborn, despised, weak, and counting for nothing. Yet we are told in the Scriptures  that these are the attitudes, conditions, and experiences of those most blessed by the Lord, and who are going to inherit the kingdom of God. They have and live the blessed attitudes or beatitudes.

            Unless someone starts out or develops some inner dispositions and attitudes, they are not going to move in the direction of seeking the Lord, and keeping the commandments. In the law of the Kingdom, which covers three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus starts by teaching about eight basic spiritual qualities and dispositions which make a person spiritually blessed. They are blessed attitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

            Someone who is poor in spirit realizes they are incomplete without God in their life. They sense their need for God. They already have the kingdom. The poor in spirit long for the Lord. The rich in spirit by contrast don’t sense a need for God. They are filled up and don’t think they need God. They may even look on the poor in spirit who need God as weak, stupid, and may even make fun of them, ridicule and speak bad about them. It’s the first condition for seeking the Lord. When someone says “I can’t live without the Lord, I am destitute in my spirit without the Lord, I have to be with the Lord, my life has no meaning, security, or worth apart from the Lord”, that person is being poor in spirit.

            We already know that none can gain the kingdom of heaven on their own. Paul presents that as one of the reasons God specifically favors the lowborn in this world to work through, so that it becomes clear God gives life through Christ. “It is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us, the wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption…” The poor in spirit recognize their total need for the Lord and their total dependence on the Lord. They don’t place trust in themselves for salvation and eternal life.

            “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” The person who senses their need, and the need of others, for the Lord begins to sorrow in their spirit for all the signs of evil, rejections of God, sin, and especially their own. The person who does not have this gift of sorrowing does not have a sense of sin, or of a realization of what sin does to one’s relationship to God. A person lacking this quality of spiritual sorrowing may laugh at those who acknowledge sin, or struggle against evils in their own lives, and the lives of others. A person lacking this gift of spiritual sorrowing will not go through the stages of repentance, conversion of life, confession of sins, and prayer for him or herself and others. The person with the spiritual gift of sorrowing knows something of the holiness of God and therefore the evil of sin.

            Sin can only be fully recognized by someone who knows its opposite. If you hurt when you hear God’s name used in vain, or when you see someone being hurt spiritually, you have that quality. Many sorrow over physical injuries. Fewer people sorrow over spiritual and moral injuries. A sense of sin is the beginning of love of God. The cross reminds us of the high price of sin. The attitude, gift, blessing of sorrowing leads one to a hunger and thirst for holiness. Such a one seeks to not only keep the law, the commandments of God, and teachings of faith, but seek the Lord.

            Live the beatitudes as a way of seeking the Lord. You will be blessed in life. “Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven.”

Reflection from Divine Mercy #1545

“There are no indifferent moments in my life, since every moment of my life is filled with prayer, suffering and work.”