4th Sunday Ordinary Time (A)/ The Beatitudes
  Zeph. 2:3; 3:12-13/Ps 146/1 Cor. 1:26-31/Mt. 5:1-12
  Introduction
 

         Before the players go to the field to win a game, their coach will speak to them to uplift their morale. He has to energize the spirits of his team so that they can face all the pressures and difficulties in the game with great stability and professionalism. Same is true with Christ and his apostles. In today’s Gospel Jesus told his disciples to be strong and confident amidst the trials and struggles in their mission. And he who stays faithful until the end will surely be the one who will be called “blessed.”

  
  Background
 
  1. Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount is also called: “The ordination address to the Twelve.” Just as a young priest is finishing his seminary formation and has his task set out before him, he receives strong encouragement from his bishop to face all the challenges and difficulties in his forthcoming ministry. So Jesus called his Twelve on the Mount and taught them the Beatitude; a “talk” that will surely change their lives and will make them faithful until the end

  2. Both in the First and Second Reading we can draw one common theme: “God chose the lowly to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.” Zephaniah sees the poor and powerless, which have no resources of their own must depend wholly upon God.

  3. God’s “preferential option for the poor” is also attested by Jesus in the Beatitudes. St. Luke’s concept of “material poverty” becomes “poverty in spirit,” in St Matthew’s gospel. A change in spiritual posture before God. Their hunger and thirst is not for bread or for water but “for righteousness.”
  
  Reflection:  
 
  1. Physical poverty can easily be solved by financial strategy and hard work, but not with “spiritual poverty.” When you feel so down and alone and you don’t know why. It is really very hard to coup up with it. When you open your wallet and find no money in it, you can call your mom or call a bank to give you a credit and you will have it. But when you open your heart and your soul and there is a deep emptiness in it, it’s very hard to fill it up. Spiritual vacuum is far harder to satisfy than physical poverty. Only God who is so rich in mercy and love can satisfy our deepest hunger and fill it with enormous grace, far more than you ask or imagine. As St. Teresa de Jesus would put it, “Solo Dios Basta” (Only God suffices).

  2. We all face different kinds of fears. Not only businessmen but even ordinary household mothers worry about “recession” and a higher cost of living. But in today’s Gospel we are given by God a great assurance that no matter what happen to us, he who stays faithful until the end will be blessed.

  3. Priest gives blessing by invoking the Sign of the Cross. Without the cross there will be no blessings. Without suffering there is no success. As we enter the season of Lent and we ready ourselves to walk with Christ towards the Calvary. Let’s remind ourselves that without sacrifice and discipline there will be no holiness. Without fasting and abstinence, there will be no blessedness.

  4. Winning a game it is not a question who scores first, but he who has the advantage of the score at the end of the game. He who stays on the ground until the end and overcome all the pressures and struggles of the whole game will be blessed with the crown of victory. The same is true with our lives. Winning in real life, is not a matter of who smiles at the beginning but rather he who can make it until the end. He who remains faithful to God amidst all the difficulties in life will surely be blessed. As saints would put it, “He, who can sustain the pains of the thorns, will surely wear the “Glorious Crown.”
  
  Conclusion  
            Winning a game it is not a question who scores first, but he who has the advantage of the score at the end of the game. He who stays on the ground until the end and overcome all the pressures and struggles of the whole game will be blessed with the crown of victory. The same is true with our lives. Winning in real life, is not a matter of who smiles at the beginning but rather he who can make it until the end. He who remains faithful to God amidst all the difficulties in life will surely be blessed. As saints would put it, “He, who can sustain the pains of the thorns, will surely wear the “Glorious Crown.”