4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 29th January 2017)
Faith Seeking Truth and Purity – (Matthew 5:1-12)
“How happy are the poor in Spirit; theirs is the Kingdom of God, Happy are the pure in heart; they shall see God.” Jacinta Marto, one of the visionaries in Fatima, before she died in 1920 quoted our Lady; “More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason”, in which she said referred to sins against chastity and purity. Two things I want to reflect upon today are firstly; increasingly a greater and greater emphasis is placed on our emotions, on how a certain thing makes us feel. Secondly; because many peoples “rule of life” becomes more on how a thing makes them feel, I would suggest this leads to increasing sexual activity outside of the marriage bond. Also, if we act first because of our emotions, we can see how this has degraded respect for the human person.
In the Gospel we are hearing one of the greatest sermons ever given, where Jesus says; “Happy or Blessed are the poor in Spirit”. In other words He is saying; you should be pleased if you do not experience any consolation in prayer, if prayer is empty and difficult for you. If you are not so concerned about your feelings then you are happy or blessed. Then is the greater grace available to you, because your prayer now becomes an act of sacrificial love, or the higher act of love. Secondly; when we choose to see the real dignity of the whole person, we allow Christ to better show us His reflection in the human person He created. That’s why we are told; “Happy or Blessed are the pure in heart.” The truth is; when we look at a person with a pure heart, we see the real beauty in which they have been created, we see that they are made in the image and likeness of God their Creator, we don’t see them just as an object for use.
The Beatitudes offer us something completely different to what the world offers, because they show the best way, which is what God wants for us. We need to hear again God calling us to seek out His will first, to seek out a better way to follow Him more closely, to be willing to sacrifice our desire in order to please His desires. To us you could say the Beatitudes are a way to a real lasting happiness, not just offering us the passing pleasures of this world, rather showing us the way to the inner peace we all desire. On 30th of January 2011, Pope Benedict XVI said; “The Beatitudes are a new programme of life, to free oneself from the false values of the world and to open oneself to the true goods, present and future”. Therefore, let us try not just to follow our emotions, rather help us to seek out the pure heart to better see the face of Christ in others. Also, we are freed from the fear of the real warning Jacinta gave from Our Lady of Fatima.
Fr. Seán Crowley