A new Moses. A new Kingdom. A new path of and to Joy.
4th Sunday in Ordinary time (A)
Jesus went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them.
When we think of the word of God coming to God’s people on a mountain, we think of Moses, don’t we? And rightly so. These Beatitudes in Matthew 5 begin the Sermon on the Mount, often described as the Christian equivalent to the ten commandments. The Law given to Moses on the mountain is a beautiful gift, but these Beatitudes are about a deeper obedience, and a greater reward. The fourth commandment to honor father and mother comes with a promise, but each and every one of these Beatitudes comes with an even greater promise.
Jesus did not teach this in the synagogue, nor in a crowd – but in a quiet place with his disciples. He taught with humility. And this is like Moses too, isn’t it? In the book of Numbers, it is recorded that “the man Moses was very humble, more than anyone else on earth.” Jesus invites us to take his yoke and learn from him, for he is meek. Although humble, this is a formal teaching from our master. As was the tradition, the master sits, and the disciples stand to listen. Will we listen?
It is more, of course. St. Rabanus, one of the great Biblical scholars of all time, and a source of wisdom for even the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, points out that “mystically, this sitting down of Christ is His incarnation; had He not taken flesh on Him, mankind could not have come unto Him.” Moses went up the mountain to meet God. In Christ, God comes and sits down to teach us. The new Moses is greater than the old. He brings a greater law. He leaves a more royal throne. He is more meek. He offers a more potent remedy for our sin.
We see, too, that Jesus is a new king like David. He speaks of a kingdom, of course, and the Beatitudes demand that the reader familiar with The Psalms of David recognize the pattern that beginning in the very first Psalm:
Blessed is the man who does not walk
Ps 1:1
in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in company with scoffers.
Rather, the law of the LORD is his joy;
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Blessed is the man… blessed are those… In these Beatitudes, we have a new law, even more generous and sweet than the law of Moses. As the psalmist says, blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, but find joy in the law of the Lord, and meditate upon it.
Blessed. The Greek is makarios… lucky, happy, fortunate, prospered. It suggests both internal joy and prosperity. It means exactly what we think it means. As Bishop Baron pointed out back when he was Father Baron, it might as well be expressed as “Joyful are the poor in spirit…” and so on. Joy. This is what God wants for us. Just as in the commandments given to Moses, there are plenty of things that we should do, and not do, but God’s desire is that obedience to God’s law brings us joy.
It is hard to imagine that somehow being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, desperately hungry for justice, etc. are the path to joy. And yet, we cannot use linguistic gymnastics to avoid the reality that these things we think are undesirable are, in fact, the path to joy that Christ presents. As St Ambrose (de Officiis, i, 16) teaches: “in the eye of Heaven blessedness begins… where misery begins in human estimation.”
Nor can we or should we think that the promises are entirely in heaven. John Bergsma points out that “all the Beatitudes have an eschatological meaning, that is, they promise us definitive salvation not in this world, but in the next. But the spirit of the Beatitudes does give us, in this life, peace in the midst of tribulation. The Beatitudes imply a completely new approach, quite at odds with the usual way man evaluates things…” So, these promises are most perfectly fulfilled in heaven, but they are also experienced today, in the kingdom of heaven. Here, we will find eternal joy, and also joy even in the middle of the suffering and sorrow we experience in this world.
I think it is no coincidence that this Gospel is read on the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time in cycle A of the Lectionary and is also the reading for All Saints Day. The Beatitudes describe the path to sainthood. My son, Samuel was recently listening to the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, and reminded me of what he says there, in imitation of the great St Catherine of Sienna, who is paraphrased as saying “it is heaven all the way to heaven, and hell all the way to hell.” C.S. Lewis puts it thus:
…ye cannot in your present state understand eternity…That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say “Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences”: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why…the Blessed will say “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.” And both will speak truly.”
These Beatitudes may be reasonably described as building upon one another, or serving as rungs on a ladder. In recognizing our poverty of spirit and dependence upon God, we mourn, but are then comforted, etc. all the way to those Saints joyful for insult and persecution, and even death. So, let’s briefly consider the bottom rung of this ladder to sainthood.
Blessed are the poor in spirit…
The Greek for poor in spirit is those who beg – the destitute, not the working poor. And this is who we are. We fear and tremble at God’s commandments, because we are incapable. We cannot love as we should, and without love, we are rubbish destined to be burned.
Pride is the first and the root of sin, so of course our recognition of our littleness before God, our understanding that we are poor in spirit, is the first rung. All vices, and especially pride, cast us down to hell; but all virtues, and especially humility, conduct us to Heaven.
The Catechism teaches that humility is the virtue by which a Christian acknowledges that God is the author of all good. Humility avoids inordinate ambition or pride, and provides the foundation for turning to God in prayer (2559). Voluntary humility can be described as “poverty of spirit” (2546).
Jesus, the new Moses, and the new king, has laid out for us a path to joy that is full of joy. He offers us happiness even in the midst of our suffering and sorrow. The first and most essential step is to present our empty hands to God. And, ultimately, this is the end, too, isn’t it? As Saint Therese of Lisieux put it, “In the evening of life I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I am not asking you, Lord, to count my works.”
Do the things. Please. But, we should not despair at our inability to live up to these Beatitudes, nor should we boast if we somehow succeed in living up to them, unless it is to boast in the goodness of God.
Saint John Chrysostom puts it thus:
“Have you sinned? Come to Church. Tell God, ‘I have sinned.’… ‘Be the first one to tell of your transgressions, so you may be justified.’ Admit the sin to annul it. This requires neither labor nor a circuit of words, nor monetary expenditure, nor anything else… Say one word, think carefully about the sin and say, ‘I have sinned.’”
And…
“Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God’s mercy and [God’s] love… Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.”
This is poverty of spirit – this is humility – this is the path to sainthood and eternal joy – to recognize the truth: we are sinners, and God is merciful. We come with empty hands, holding on to nothing, and offering nothing that was not first given to us, and he offers us joy today and for all eternity.
